In the context of a language that needs to coexist with C++ codebases, it is a weird decision. However, Carbon's syntax makes technical sense, and is in line w

In the context of a language that needs to coexist with C++ codebases, it is a weird decision. However, Carbon's syntax makes technical sense, and is in line with many contemporary languages (Rust, TypeScript, Swift, Kotlin). It is easier to parse, which is important for tooling and IDEs. `fn name` is easy to grep for. `let` works well with type inference and destructuring assignment, which are becoming standard features in modern languages (although Carbon still supports C-style aggregate initializers, which is not so great).