Researcher question – what's the point of semicolons and curly braces?

[Observer via Digitalmars-d]

On Tuesday, 3 May 2016 at 18:37:54 UTC, Chris wrote:
> On Tuesday, 3 May 2016 at 03:48:09 UTC, Joe Duarte wrote:
>> Hi all,
>>
>> I'm a social scientist and I'm preparing some studies on the 
>> effects of programming language syntax on learning, motivation 
>> to pursue programming, as well as any disproportionate effects 
>> that PL syntax has on the appeal of programming to women (more 
>> on the latter in a separate post).
>>
>
> Yes, please elaborate on this. I have to say I don't like the 
> sound of this paragraph. Why would women be repelled by curly 
> braces and semicolons? I know from my own experience that 
> Python doesn't do the trick either. If a woman doesn't want to 
> program, she just doesn't want to, even if it's in Python. It's 
> the term "programming" that makes them (i.e. those who are not 
> interested) run away. "Write a script" sounds nicer, but even 
> then ... if they don't have to they won't even touch it with 
> thongs.

I have to say, not to be too negative, but this researcher's 
proposed
investigations sound to me like the efforts of an anthropologist
trying to reconstruct a whole culture from ancient Sumerian 
pottery
shards.  What they'll come up with is nothing like living inside
the culture to begin with.  There's a rich history of technical
papers on language critiques; if you really want to understand how
and why languages evolved to their present forms, and why present
constructions were seen to be significant advances over their
predecessors, that's the place to start.  Without such an effort,
the words "apophenia" and "pareidolia" come to mind.  m-w.com has
some really nice, concise definitions for you.  Wikipedia has more
extensive discussions.