Syntax matters for people who are just learning a new language. When I was learning to program I thought about code in terms of the pascal statements I had to w

Syntax matters for people who are just learning a new language. When I was learning to program I thought about code in terms of the pascal statements I had to write. Now I think about more abstract ideas, about data flow and control flow. I can map those ideas to the language I am using at any given moment but that only came after many years of experience. On a different note, I have abstained from commenting on Rust's attitude toward keyword names but aside #2 just bothers me. Naming conventions matter and since Rust may possibly become used in the future it may inspire some new generation of users to learn to program. 20 years later they will start writing their own languages and think "Hey, I used 'ret' in Rust and that brings back good memories so I'll just keep using it!". Truly an embarrassing part of hacker culture.