path's d attribute - why not use parenthesis?

I'm just starting to learn about SVG. Very interesting stuff! Something I've
noticed after playing with the 'path' element is the 'd' attribute gets hard
to read.

 

For example:

<path d="M150,150 l0,0 a75,75 0 1,0 150,150 z" />

 

The 'lineto' part (at least in my editor) looks like a 1 instead of a lower
case L. The 'arc' is even harder to read with the white spaces, commas, etc.
Even if that were not an issue, it still just looks like a bunch of letters
and numbers.

I know the idea is to keep the file size as small as possible but I think if
parenthesis were added (or maybe optional would be best) it wouldn't add
much to the file size and it would help readability considerably.

Example:
<path d="M(150,150) l(0,0) a(75,75 0 1,0 150,150) z" />

 

That to me is easier to read, plus coming from PHP background the M() and
l() look like a function would, which is kind of what they are anyway right?

 

Thanks for reading.

Nate