I think (and am not alone) that indentation based languages are easier for beginners to learn. The fact that indentation (whether significant to syntax or not)

I think (and am not alone) that indentation based languages are easier for beginners to learn. The fact that indentation (whether significant to syntax or not)helps readability is something I hope I need not demonstrate since indenting is near universal in languages that use explicit delimiters. So beginners learning a language with delimiters need to learn both delimiters and indentation, and then learn that while the latter helps them more, it's actually just the former that is required. For beginners, mental load is death by a thousand cuts, so it may make more of a difference then an experienced programmer thinks. [Edit] My first reaction was just the benefits for beginners of indentation e syntax. I personally have a subjective feeling of advantages for non beginners to delimiter based syntax (I use common lisp regularly), but I have fairly low confidence in that, while I'm pretty sure of the advantages to beginners for indentation.