I don't find that to be a convincing argument, because it suggests we should write "foo applied to bar" instead of "foo(bar)" in your code. It's just notation,

I don't find that to be a convincing argument, because it suggests we should write "foo applied to bar" instead of "foo(bar)" in your code. It's just notation, just because it's new, doesn't mean it's bad. There's maybe an argument to be made about there being _too much_ notation to learn, but notation makes sense for fundamental concepts (which loops clearly are). Notation is important. It condenses thought and refines the concepts, making them more visible. In fact, some valid mathematical theory came about from figuring out proper notation and then playing around with it, sometimes in non-rigorous (albeit intuitive ways). e.g. consider how physicists wildly move dx and dy around in differential equations (much to mathematicians' dismay) Ancient greek geometry textbooks were written in long form: "the square of the hypotenuse side is equal to the sum of squares of the other two sides". We can all agree that the "a^2+b^=c^2" notation is better.