[lifthrasiir]

Python used an indentation-based syntax from the beginning and its syntax is particularly optimized for that. In particular, any block statement (formally, a statement followed by a "suite") would end with `:` and that's effectively the only place where a dangling `:` can happen [1], so you can easily recognize such statement from any directions.

In comparison, at least some people would find CoffeeScript and Civet to be hard to read because they solely rely on left-bearing indents. If my eye is pointing to the rightmost column and scanning to left, I wouldn't be sure about any nature of the line until the very first token and thus preceding indent is reached. This problem is not unique but can be somehow alleviated with some tweaks to the syntax. Ruby `if` for example is also prone to this issue but an explicit `end` token keeps it on track in most cases. CoffeeScript did nothing.

[1] The only other case is `lambda ...:` in parenthesized expressions. `lambda` in Python is quite exceptional in its syntax after all...