While Lisp is indeed an amazing language, another language of the same ilk captured my heart 15 years ago: Smalltalk.

It's actually simpler than Lisp syntactically. Smalltalk's syntax is at its most basic: <object> <message>. It's based on a message-passing paradigm. There are three varieties of messages: unary, binary, and keyword (taking a parameter).

The complete syntax of Smalltalk can be summarized on a post card!

Like Lisp, Smalltalk is dynamically-typed and VM-based. It also has first-class functions, so Smalltalk supports a variety of functional constructs.

Like Lisp, Smalltalk can be used to create DSLs. However, instead of macros, you simply use Smalltalk itself! Smalltalk is effectively its own DSL. (This addresses Aldrich Wright's comment about newcomers to a team having to learn additional DSL syntax.)

Unlike Lisp, Smalltalk comes with its own graphical IDE tailored to the essence of Smalltalk. (Smalltalk basically invented the modern graphical IDE.) Smalltalk's IDE makes it very easy to do "live programming" and is the main reason behind its phenomenal productivity (the most productive of all major programming languages, according to Capers Jones).

Unlike Lisp, Smalltalk achieved enormous popularity in the 1980s and 1990s. It was the second most popular object-oriented language after C++.

Today, Smalltalk continues to be used by thousands of enterprises around the globe, supported by three major Smalltalk vendors: Instantiations, GemTalk Systems, and Cincom.

Lisp reached its zenith in the 1970s and 1980s due to AI development, then subsequently suffered "AI winter" when Lisp's popularity plummeted.

Last year, Smalltalk celebrated its 50th anniversary to great fanfare: https://levelup.gitconnected.com/mmxxii-year-long-celebrations-for-smalltalk-bed82541b7db.

I note with some sadness that Lisp had practically no celebration on its 50th anniversary in 2008. (OOPSLA 2008 was rather lame.)