YAMLScript as a technology has many goals. YAMLScript as a programming language is essentially a different syntax for Clojure. However, YAMLScript is certainly not an attempt to replace Clojure.

In theory YAMLScript could have been written in any language. But in reality, Clojure was the best choice for many reasons including:

1. Clojure is a Lisp and Lisps are "code as data". Since YAMLScript is YAML and YAML is data, Clojure is a natural fit.
2. GraalVM's native-image compiler and Clojure's SCI runtime make it possible to to use YAMLScript without Java or the JVM.
3. Clojure's core libraries are extensive, robust and well-documented.

Since YAMLScript code always translates to Clojure code, it's important to have a good understanding of Clojure to write good YAMLScript code.

Again, Clojure is a Lisp dialect. Lisps work entirely with parenthesized expressions containing a function followed by its arguments (S-Expressions).

For example:

(+ 1 2 3)  ; `+` is a function that adds its arguments
(str "Hello " name "!")  ; `str` is a function that concatenates its arguments
(println (str "The answer is " (+ 2 3 7) "!"))  ; Multiple nested expressions

The basic clojure syntactic forms are:

• Lists - (a b c)
• Vectors - [a b c]
• Maps - {a b, c d}
• Symbols - a, b, c
• Quoted forms - '(...), '[...], '{...}, 'abc
• Strings - "abc"
• Numbers - 123, 3.14
• Characters - \a, \b, \c
• Keywords - :a, :b, :c
• Anonymous functions - #(+ %1 %2)
• Sets - #{a b c}
• Regex - #"abc"
• Comments - ; to end of line
• Commented out forms - #_(+ a b c)

See Introduction to Clojure for more about Clojure.