I don't think that more modern variable declaration syntax is used because it allows for other things to be expressed syntactically (although maybe it does, lik

I don't think that more modern variable declaration syntax is used because it allows for other things to be expressed syntactically (although maybe it does, like for type inference), but I think a lot of us just think it _does_ look better. I don't mind the C and friends type variable_name = value; style, but I do like the type coming afterwards. I don't feel like there's a tradeoff, I think it's just better across the board, and I assume a lot of people are in that boat as well due to its popularity.