Classic old Lisp doesn't have the problem of long words: it has mostly short words like atom, cons, car, cdr, array, ...
Then, eventually, along comes Common Lisp with symbols like multiple-value-bind and update-instance-for-redefined-class.
I made a dialect called TXR Lisp in which most of the important symbols in the standard library are deliberately quite short, to avoid this readability/writability issue.
Lisp code often avoids vertical breaks within sections in a function, because many constructs nest, and so the nesting and indentation separates them already, like:
Then, eventually, along comes Common Lisp with symbols like multiple-value-bind and update-instance-for-redefined-class.
I made a dialect called TXR Lisp in which most of the important symbols in the standard library are deliberately quite short, to avoid this readability/writability issue.
Lisp code often avoids vertical breaks within sections in a function, because many constructs nest, and so the nesting and indentation separates them already, like:
It's like point form: