It's a question of usefulness. If in your problem domain "1+2=7" is the most useful definition, then by all means do that. Why does the semicolon terminate stat

It's a question of usefulness. If in your problem domain "1+2=7" is the most useful definition, then by all means do that. Why does the semicolon terminate statements and not the universally agreed upon period? Why does the period denote member access? Why is multiplication not denoted by the universally agreed [middle dot / cross character] (strike out the one that is not universally agreed in your country). The design and semantics of a programming language ought to be in service of the programs we wish to express, and informed by our decades of experience in human ergonomics. Blind reverence to religions of yore does us no good. Mathematical notation itself has gone through centuries of development and is not universal, with papers within the same field using different notation depending on what strikes the author's fancy. To treat it as sacred and immutable is to behave most un-mathematically. Hell, you can still get into a nice hours-long argument about whether or not the set of natural numbers includes zero or not (neither side will accept defeat, even though there is clearly a right answer)!