I'm surprised that the author didn't mention syntax, symbols, keywords and the like. I remember when Perl was popular in the late 90s, and I could never figure

I'm surprised that the author didn't mention syntax, symbols, keywords and the like. I remember when Perl was popular in the late 90s, and I could never figure out because it was simply too difficult and confusing for me to read. I found it much easier to understand languages that favor the use of words over symbols, and I suspect this is the case for many other people as well.