[orlandu63]

I'd rather have the ability to choose between and freely mix significant whitespace and significant semi-colons within a single source file.

[lmm]

No you wouldn't. See Javascript for all the pain that causes. Language syntax needs to be dictatorial so that the language is consistent for reading (which is more important than writing).

[joeyespo]

JavaScript's problem isn't that you can choose whether or not to use semicolons, it's that they're automatically put in for you if you omit them.

http://lucumr.pocoo.org/2011/2/6/automatic-semicolon-inserti...

Technically, Python is a much better example of optional semicolons since you can use them and they're not required. Of course, the real reason they exist is for compound statements.

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/8236380/why-is-semicolon-...