How would semicolons have prevented the first of those misunderstandings? -- Don't get me wrong, those are good cases to know what is going to happen. But I t

How would semicolons have prevented the first of those misunderstandings? -- Don't get me wrong, those are good cases to know what is going to happen. But I think you are making the case that semicolons provide a false security blanket, since the language can complete a line you meant to wrap, or, alas, merge 2 lines you meant to have separate. I think shell (and a few other languages) actually got it right: 1 line = 1 statement, unless there is an explicit continuation.