You probably know that, but there is smartparens mode which does similar magic to non-lisp languages: https://github.com/Fuco1/smartparens
It turns out I've been using smartparens without realizing--just opened a file and checked the active modes to find out.
The keys I've learned are (using evil):
- [Visual mode] S -> surround by a pair
- [Visual mode] d <char> -> delete pair of <char>
- [Visual mode] c <c1> <c2> -> replace pair of <c1> with pair of <c2>
Those along with C-M-k to kill a sexp and % to go to the other end of a pair have been all I need for my work (the vast majority C/C++ and Python).
One thing I keep putting off is figuring out a way to jump to the opening/closing quotes. For those I still have to go medieval if there's any nesting.