> Syntax does have its bikeshedders, but semantics are what make people move or stay.
There are at least two big exceptions to this rule:
- 1. Lisps - some people (some of them really smart btw), just can't stand lispy syntax (I'd say that it's most likely because they got the math/physics notations so deeply engrained in their minds that they can't tolerate breaking apart from "thinking in it")
- 2. operator overloading heavy syntaxes - when writing any kind of sciency code, you'll always have a camp of people that will want to use 50 2-letter operators instead of functions everywhere, and camp of people that will just want "zero tolerance for operator overloading". they'd both have their reasons, and there will be no way to "make peace" -- in a multi syntax setting you'd just have one syntax that will show the `plus` function/method used and another one that would render it as the `+` operator
There are at least two big exceptions to this rule:
- 1. Lisps - some people (some of them really smart btw), just can't stand lispy syntax (I'd say that it's most likely because they got the math/physics notations so deeply engrained in their minds that they can't tolerate breaking apart from "thinking in it")
- 2. operator overloading heavy syntaxes - when writing any kind of sciency code, you'll always have a camp of people that will want to use 50 2-letter operators instead of functions everywhere, and camp of people that will just want "zero tolerance for operator overloading". they'd both have their reasons, and there will be no way to "make peace" -- in a multi syntax setting you'd just have one syntax that will show the `plus` function/method used and another one that would render it as the `+` operator