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  • First and foremost - Thank you for valuable insights! Particularly, I was convinced even before I asked this question that the structure I was pondering could be somehow made/simulated in Lisp itself, just had no idea how (do not know that much). The example that starts from what the pondering was - with a simulation of it - tells and teaches a lot. Commentary adds some sugar on top. I am not sure that there is anything else to add to this but I am inclined to mark this as an answer to the question. At least it is as such to me. Commented Jul 5, 2019 at 18:57
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    I would like however to leave another note. Lisp books would be much more helpful if they classify sets of s-expressions (later I learned they are called like that because they are 'symbolic' expressions). I know that there is something I can call 'standard' S-exp which is in the form (op list...) which evaluated every member of list (if present) and then do the op. But, not all S-Exps do the same. This is not stressed enough. We shall learn what they are in the concept before we learn what they do. I believe this would be helpful. IMHO. Maybe that becomes obvious by the time. Commented Jul 5, 2019 at 19:02
  • @ljgww: right, symbolic expressions. The 'standard' s-expressions are called 'function forms', where the first operator is a function name and the other elements are arguments, which are in Common Lisp evaluated left-to-right. The other forms are usually called 'macro forms' and 'special forms' (using built-in operators with special behavior). So if we look at an operator, we also need to know if it's a function, a macro (and what kind of macro) or one of the special operators. The Common Lisp standard defines it in detail. A good Lisp book should explain that, too. Important, as you say. Commented Jul 5, 2019 at 19:38
  • Taking note on proper terminology. TY @Rainer (intended as a joke not as question: why it is s-expression and not symbolic-exp? - its about same length :) ) Commented Jul 6, 2019 at 21:13