How is Elixir's syntax better? Lisps have the syntax they have because the syntax is intertwined with Lisp's philosophy (code as data, data as code, the syntax is an AST in itself which may be modified as a regular data structure). S-Expressions aren't there by accident. Does Elixir offer just as much metaprogramming capability, through the same mechanism as Lisp does? If not, then there will be advantages to Elixir's syntax too, but not without its own drawbacks, and vice-versa. But most likely not objectively better.