[RI_Swamp_Yankee]

This is absolutely true. Worse, those brackets each define a different modal state. Even more worse, some languages ran out of brackets for all the purposes they wanted brackets for, so they invented their own - is there anything less thought-out than the double underscores in python? No, there is not.

In general, the reliance of syntax on random punctuation instead of meaningful symbols (a'la APL) or clear, human-parsable text is maddening - LISP and its derivatives do it far less than other modern languages, but still too much for my taste.

I'd also prefer clearly spelled-out syntax in this age of autocomplete rather than a jumble of weird abbreviations while I'm wishing for unicorns, and languages with code editors that do a good job of visually representing the flow of code rather than rely on punctuation, white-space or some unholy combination.

Programming seems kinda primitive compared to other aspects of computer-enabled content creation at times.