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by isostatic 2512 days ago
> What was your first programming language

QBasic, then Visual Basic for real programs.

Look across a bunch of common languages - Java, Perl, Python, Javascript, PHP, and of course C/C++/C#/ObjC, braces + semicolons. Even Bash and Go have braces.
2 comments
lifthrasiir 2512 days ago
> Python

    >>> from __future__ import braces
      File "<stdin>", line 1
    SyntaxError: not a chance
Back to the topic, while I don't think its ranking doesn't generally reflect the actual popularity, the TIOBE index [1] is a good definition of "common enough" languages. So let's see... oh! There are 5--7 programming languages out of top 20 that do not generally use both braces and semicolons! (Python [not-so-strictly-necessary semicolon only], Visual Basic .NET, SQL [semicolon only], Assembly language, MATLAB, Visual Basic and Delphi/Object Pascal [semicolon only]). I also happen to know less popular but well-known programming languages that do not use both braces and semicolons at all (ML, FORTRAN, Lua, Forth and of course all lisps). So please allow me to reword your claim: why should braces and semicolons be normal?

[1] https://www.tiobe.com/tiobe-index/

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kevin_thibedeau 2512 days ago
Pascal, Forth, Postscript, Lisp.

There is no "normal" syntax. There is more to languages than those inspired by C.

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