LISP as an XML Replacement

This discussion deserves much more attention. Particularly on my part.

The abstract version: you think LISP is a pain? Actually, XML is a lot *more* painful, and we use it when we *should* use LISP, because people are terrified of LISP.

Prof. Salter at my alma mater, Oberlin College, made a big deal about Scheme. Nobody much appreciated it at the time, but I took his pet class, Programming Languages, my senior year, and when it came time to write some compilers in a hurry, it was amazing how after staring at the screen long enough, enlightenment came and the code would just write itself. It was enough to make me a believer.

Tragically, LISP is not Scheme, but if I can get that experience when trying to deal with actual real-life problems (like the ones XML seeks to solve) I'd be willing to learn.