Yes there's something inherent. Namely this: the ability to drop all sorts of requirements off the table, yet still call it some kind of Lisp.

It does not need to be compiled to be a Lisp. It doesn't need arbitrary precision integers. It doesn't need hash tables. Garbage collection doesn't have to work; it can just run out of space and terminate. It can just crash on errors without a trace. It doesn't need to report the line number where a syntax error likely began. You get the picture.

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krig 3 days ago | parent [-]

I’ll remove even more and _still_ call it a lisp and there is nothing you can do to stop me.

Any memory management solution will run out of space and terminate unless there is literally infinite memory available.

But I guess hash tables is what people think about when thinking about what makes something a lisp or not.

	▲	kazinator 2 days ago \| parent [-]
		Whereas in contrast, you cannot have a race this kind of race for the bottom with most other languages; tripping over the other contestants to see who can remove the most features, yet still have Python or Java. See? There you go, mrweasel; I think we hit the nail on the head.