Interesting, especially in comparison with SNOBOL. Although I am always wary of claims like a typical program in Refal is on average two or three times shorter and more readable than a Lisp analog. That might be true of programs written in Refal because it suits the domain, but I would be surprised to the core if general-purpose Lisp programs could be rewritten in Refal and become 2-3 times shorter and become more readable.