In Clojure, and I assume other lisps as well, you can use the < operator in the same fashion. By merit of prefix notation it's also unambiguous regarding precedence.
user=> (< 1 2 3)
true user=> (< 1 2 3)
trueI have programmed python for about 20 years, and I still do stupid mistakes. I grooked all the r6rs scheme syntax in 20 minutes, except for (do ...) which somehow never sticks. It is also rarely used.
I have tried to evangelize scheme enough to know some people just don't like it, but for me it instantly clicked.
The problem I think is that not= returns true as long as any elements are non-equal, which means it is not analogous to +. I can't speak for clojure, but this is in line with all equality predicates in scheme, negated or not. A predicate that checked if any neighbours are not equal would in true scheme spirit probably be called not-any-neighbour-equal? :)
Parentheses take precedence.
The first symbol is the operator (add, subtract, sum, multiply, etc.).
Everything else is operated on from left to right.
(+ 2 5 7)
2+5+7
It's also not a Clojure thing. It applies to all Lisps or related like Scheme.