Hacker News Reader

Actually, syntax IS important because a language has to be able to be read by both a human AND a computer, nowadays.

One of the things that using ":" does is it makes what is "type" and what is "name" unambiguous to both human and computer.

This is, famously, one of the failings of C/C++. Determining what is a type and what is a name is excruciatingly difficult.

View on HN

Sure, but there's no arguing to be done there. Is the grammar context free? Ideally, can it be parsed with small constant lookahead? Yes? Cool, no further discussion needed.

I'd be more open to this kind of discussion if there was an ounce of actual research behind what makes syntax more/less readable. As it is, it's just a bunch of people arguing endlessly about their very specific preferences. Just pick something sensible and move on.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com