lists in which a prefix operator is followed by its arguments. Scheme programs thus consist of sequences of nested lists. Lists are also the main data structure in Scheme, leading to a close equivalence between source code and data formats (homoiconicity). Scheme programs can easily create and evaluate pieces of Scheme code dynamically. The reliance on lists as data structures is shared by all Lisp dialects. Scheme inherits a rich set of list-processing primitives such as cons, car and cdr from its Lisp progenitors. Scheme uses strictly but dynamically typed variables and supports first class procedures. Thus, procedures can be assigned as values to variables or passed as arguments to procedures. This section concentrates mainly on innovative features of the language, including those features that distinguish Scheme from other Lisps. Unless stated otherwise, descriptions of features relate to the R5RS standard. In examples provided in this section, the notation "===> result" is used to indicate the result of evaluating the expression on the immediately preceding line. This is the same convention used in R5RS. Minimalism Scheme is a very simple language, much easier to implement than many other languages of comparable expressive power. This ease is attributable to the use of lambda calculus to derive much of the syntax of the language from more primitive forms. For instance of the 23 s-expression-based syntactic constructs defined in the R5RS Scheme standard, 14 are classed as derived or library forms, which can be written as macros involving more fundamental forms, principally lambda. As R5RS (§3.1) says: "The most fundamental of the variable binding constructs is the lambda expression, because all other variable binding constructs can be explained in terms of lambda expressions." Fundamental forms: define, lambda, quote, if, define-syntax, let-syntax, letrec-syntax, syntax-rules, set! Derived forms: do, let, let*, letrec, cond, case, and, or, begin, named let, delay, unquote, unquote-splicing, quasiquote Example: a macro to implement let as an expression using lambda to perform the variable bindings. (define-syntax let (syntax-rules () ((let ((var expr) ...) body ...) ((lambda (var ...) body ...) expr ...)))) Thus using let as defined above a Scheme implementation would rewrite "(let ((a 1)(b 2)) (+ b a))" as "((lambda (a b) (+ b a)) 1 2)", which reduces implementation's task to that of coding procedure instantiations. In 1998, Sussman and Steele remarked that the minimalism of Scheme was not a conscious design goal, but rather the unintended outcome