questionable syntax choices

I dove into learning about XQuery this weekend.  While I like what I see, I
think some questionable syntax choices have been made.  Here are three of
them.

1) Why is a semi-colon required at the end of a user-defined function
defintion?  It's clear that the end has been reached when '}' is
encountered.  I don't see how requiring a terminationg ';' makes parsing any
easier.  This is a known gotcha in C++.  I hate to see XQuery borrow a
syntax feature that is already a known issue.

2) Smilies are an odd choice for comment delimiters.  Why choose something
that isn't used by any other common programming languages?

3) Why use ':=' in let clauses instead of simply '='?  You know an
assignment is coming because of the presence of the keyword 'let'.  I don't
see how '=' could be confused for meaning something other than assignment.


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