it's funny how even in languages that don't use 'begin/end' markers (such as python) there are extraneous characters, such as the () pair when calling a functio

it's funny how even in languages that don't use 'begin/end' markers (such as python) there are extraneous characters, such as the () pair when calling a function (surely there are ways to do without that ?) The () when calling a function with no arguments is not extraneous -- because Ruby lets you omit that, it needs yet another function type to disambiguate when you want a reference to a method (total of 4: Methods, Procs, Lambdas, and Blocks). What is completely superfluous in the syntax is the colon preceding an expression suite -- you're already using a keyword and indenting the next line(s).