[tablespoon]

> I'm torn. Not about the conciseness of the language overall, but about using symbols vs. names. I do see how the symbols make things more concise, less clutter, and can even make it easier to grasp a piece of code if you are deeply familiar with them[1].

I think the "if you are deeply familiar with them" is important. Using non-standard symbols makes comprehension more binary: either you've memorized them and understand or you don't; there's no muddling through, relying on common concepts and terms to make up for incomplete memorization.

That probably also results in a much more binary user base: true-believers who dedicated a bunch of time to become proficient, and non-users who were unable or unwilling to, and not a whole lot in between.

[pault]

Are you talking about vim? I thought this article was about programming languages.