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(emacs-lisp-intro.info)Summary

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Summary
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   Learning Lisp is like climbing a hill in which the first part is the
steepest.  You have now climbed the most difficult part; what remains
becomes easier as you progress onwards.

   In summary,

   * Lisp programs are made up of expressions, which are lists or
     single atoms.

   * Lists are made up of zero or more atoms or inner lists, separated
     by whitespace and surrounded by parentheses.  A list can be empty.

   * Atoms are multi-character symbols, like `forward-paragraph', single
     character symbols like `+', strings of characters between double
     quotation marks, or numbers.

   * A number evaluates to itself.

   * A string between double quotes also evaluates to itself.

   * When you evaluate a symbol by itself, its value is returned.

   * When you evaluate a list, the Lisp interpreter looks at the first
     symbol in the list and then at the function definition bound to
     that symbol.  Then the instructions in the function definition are
     carried out.

   * A single-quote, `'', tells the Lisp interpreter that it should
     return the following expression as written, and not evaluate it as
     it would if the quote were not there.

   * Arguments are the information passed to a function.  The arguments
     to a function are computed by evaluating the rest of the elements
     of the list of which the function is the first element.

   * A function always returns a value when it is evaluated (unless it
     gets an error); in addition, it may also carry out some action
     called a "side effect".  In many cases, a function's primary
     purpose is to create a side effect.