LISPy things you can do in 64K bytes of core (2019)

Previously...

LISPy things you can do in 64K bytes of core (2019) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44490099 - July 2025 (4 comments)

This is somewhat confusing as there is a fairly well known toy Lisp interpreter called Lispy written by Peter Norvig

https://www.norvig.com/lispy.html

> Note that programs were usually typed on as few lines as possible, because they had to be punched to punched cards or typed in at a teletype which echoed its input on paper.

I suspect this is the real reason behind "cram all the closing parentheses together on the same line" rule.

The only rationale I've seen online is in Taylor Campbell's style guide:

> Absolutely do not place closing brackets on their own lines.

> ...

> Rationale: The parentheses grow lonely if their closing brackets are all kept separated and segregated.

Yeah, right.

Anybody know anything about how this rule came to be?