Programming language experts like to claim that syntax doesn’t matter, that semantics is all that counts. Don’t believe them! They’re overrotating on a common, pre-rigorous misunderstanding of language design as superficially aesthetic. The study of semantics does provide deep insights into the mechanics of languages—but the mechanism is not the mental model. Design requires engaging with the way people express their programs, and syntax is a “tool of thought”. - Stroustrup’s Rule and Layering Over Time