Some of the issues defended here can be resolved if operator overloading weren't so prevalent. "++ is also used for iterators" Python has "next". I understand

Some of the issues defended here can be resolved if operator overloading weren't so prevalent. "++ is also used for iterators" Python has "next". I understand there's "*p++", but the semantics of ++'ing an integer or ++'ing an iterator are very different! Why should they share the same mechanism? (There's an argument that ++ on integers is iterating over N. Pedantically true) "Integer math is useful!" Floating point semantics are different, so why not use different operators for such? Caml has + for its, +. for floats. Impossible to mix different semantics together implicitly. -- I find saying "whitespace sensitivity makes auto-indentation impossible" to be a bit silly. The equivalent of auto-indentation in Python to C is auto-brace insertion! Just as impossible. There are definitely parsing difficulties with whitespace sensitive language (technocally, lexing difficulties). If you're willing to go for parenthetic function calls like in Python, it's not too hard. But go for Haskell-like function application and you're in for a treat! Would not want to have to parse Scala. I can see the argument to braces being better, though. It's such a subject of taste that if you don't want to be opinionated, going for explicit blocks is really your only choice.