I don't like the reduction of brackets, one thing I like in php is the readability of the symbols: if(){ }else{ } I know when things start and stop, with the conditionals presented there are no indication of start/stop except possibly indentation... lack of closure symbols is one of the reasons I am not comfortable with python as much, I gain comfort in being able to visibly close my sections, and I think for learning a language it makes it way more readable/understandable too.