> If you are really in a hurry and can't commit to learning the hundreds of forms in Common Lisp, Scheme is a minimalist alternative.

There are 25 special forms in Lisp, and the standard forbids the creation of more: http://www.lispworks.com/documentation/HyperSpec/Body/03_aba...

MIT Scheme has 30 special forms: https://www.gnu.org/software/mit-scheme/documentation/mit-sc...

R7RS doesn't seem to define special forms per se; it considers anything other than define-syntax, literals, variables, calls, lambda, if & set! to be derived expression types; I think quote & quasiquote probably have to be considered special forms in at least some senses.

Scheme itself is a minimalist language, but a practical Scheme must add in plenty of functionality not specified in the standard. A truly useful Scheme will thus be roughly as big as Common Lisp, or bigger — only much less of that bulk will necessarily be standardised & portable.