Unlike most other language designers today, Rust's designer was more concerned about getting the concepts right than the syntax. So the syntax came late in the

Unlike most other language designers today, Rust's designer was more concerned about getting the concepts right than the syntax. So the syntax came late in the process, and as far as I know they did get inspiration from various sources. Possibly that is what bugs you. I don't think there is a single document about syntax choices. It's evolved a lot in the past three years.