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+`alv`'s syntax is very similar to Lisp. Expressions take the form of
+parenthesized lists like `(head a b c...)`, where the first element of the list
+(`head`) is the name of an operator or function, which defines what the
+expression as a whole will do, while the other elements are parameters whose
+meaning depends on the `head`. Let's start with a simple operator, [print][]:
+[print][] is used simply to print messages to the copilot console.
+
+## expressions
+Elements of an expression have to be separated by whitespace, but any type of
+and amount of whitespace is valid: feel free to use spaces, tabs, and newlines
+to format code to your liking. The following are all equal and valid examples:
+
+    (print "hello world")
+
+    (+ 1
+       2
+       3)
+
+    (print
+    	"hello world")
+
+      ( print "hello world" )
+
+It is however recommended to follow the [clojure style guide][clojure-style] as
+much as it does apply to alv. All further examples in this guide will respect
+this guideline, so you might just pick it up simply by following this guide.
+
+## comments
+To annotate your code, you can use comments. In `alv`, comments begin with
+`#(` and end on a matching `)`. This way you can comment out a complete
+expression simply by adding a `#` character in front.
+
+    #(this is a comment)
+
+    #(this is a long,
+      multi-line comment,
+      (and it also has nested parentheses).
+      It ends after this sentence.)
+
+You can put comments anywhere in your program where whitespace is allowed and
+it will simply be ignored by `alv`.
+
+[clojure-style]: https://github.com/bbatsov/clojure-style-guide