If you view the comma and semicolon as separators instead of terminators it works much better. It is also what they really are. A semicolon separates two claus

If you view the comma and semicolon as separators instead of terminators it works much better. It is also what they really are. A semicolon separates two clauses, either two if/case/receive clauses or two function clauses and means or. Either choose the first clause or the clause following the semicolon. An if/case/receive is terminated with an 'end' while a function is terminated with a dot. Fred Hebert, the author of Learn You Some Erlang, wrote this on syntax: http://ferd.ca/on-erlang-s-syntax.html http://ferd.ca/on-erlang-s-syntax.html