Syntax free language ? and other issues

[Otieno Ododa]

Most of the recent posts to the list read like excerpts from advanced compiler/language design theory books (I've never read one, but I imagine that these posts resemble them). I don't understand a lot, being relatively inexperienced, but I do have a few questions about some things.

Freeing the language from syntax
     "OK, as I've said, I would prefer a language with syntax not attached, but don't have any problems with starting with a specific syntax."

I don't know if I understand this correctly. Are you saying that the programmer would define how code would look, and define the keywords himself, perhaps mapping them to the basic keywords in 'our' language ? I can only imagine how hard it would be to learn this language, if that's the case, but I can't think of any other meaning for it. If I don't understand this correctly, I think that it's still likely that a default syntax would be required for first learning the language.

Removal of {} and ()
     "C-like {} has known problems, and () was never needed. "

I only recently ventured into more advanced C++ concepts, and I've found brackets and parentheses to be very helpful as far as determining what code is what, and what code does what. I've programmed in x86 assembly and Basic and created simple programs, and I have found brackets to be far more helpful than indentation in determining what code is in what control structure, even where there aren't very many levels of brackets. In addition, I find the keywords 'fi' and 'elif' to be painfully gross looking ;), though I have no concrete reason for thinking so.

Garbage collection

I like the use of keywords like 'new' and 'delete' to create and "uncreate" objects. I even like C\C++'s 'malloc' to allocate memory. I admit that this may be because I've only recently started using them, and I'm not sure what could be an improvement on this. I do like the fact that, in C++, I can allocate just as much memory as I need, no more, and no less. 

Again, I'm no great programmer, and I don't really have a handle on the more advanced concepts of compiler theory. Is this language going to be minimalist or is it going to have everything but the kitchen sink ? What about those who don't think the compiler should handle memory allocation (like me, for lack of knowledge, or others, who actually have good reasons for it) or at least would like to be able to manually allocate/deallocate memory for whatever reason ?

At any rate, I'm tired, and I'll probably read this later and find out I didn't make the slightest bit of sense ...

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Otieno Ododa
datahntr@aimnet.com