@jackwilliambell @glyph I think boilerplate is the price to pay for a formal language. How much boilerplate is necessary to establish the neccessary context for the interpreter/compiler is however the hallmark of good/bad design imho. Anybody complaining about too much boilerplate in java/c++ I invite you to look at VHDL (a hardware description language). This language thrives on mountains of boiletplate. (Verilog is the ugly stepchild that spawned out of "less boilerplate, more C" derangement)