No Semicolons Needed
terts.dev
March 21, 2026
7 min read
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45/100
Summary
Roto is a new scripting language designed for ease of use and readability, eliminating the need for semicolons to terminate statements. The challenge lies in determining where a statement ends without explicit terminators.
Key Takeaways
- The author is developing a scripting language called Roto that aims to eliminate the need for semicolons to terminate statements.
- Different programming languages have various methods for determining statement endings without explicit terminators, which can lead to ambiguity in code interpretation.
- Python enforces strict indentation rules to manage statement separation, requiring that lines with continued expressions maintain consistent indentation.
- The exploration of 11 programming languages is conducted to identify effective approaches for Roto's design regarding statement termination and clarity.
Coverage & discussions
Hacker News · terts.dev
Community discussions
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Community Sentiment
Concerns
- The reliance on indentation for parsing has led to frequent errors, making debugging difficult when mismatched braces are involved.
- Ignoring languages like Haskell in comparisons limits the discussion and overlooks innovative approaches to language design.
- The article's argument for mandatory semicolons as statement separators highlights ongoing issues with language design that could have been avoided.
