We actually have partaken in long, long debates about the syntax, and the current syntax is one that everyone seemed to be OK with, modulo a few compromises here and there.
Usually people who say Rust looks like line noise are concerned about `@` and `~`. These are there for a reason: they're the Rust versions of the smart pointers `shared_ptr` and `unique_ptr` in C++. Unlike in C++, you have to use them: there is no other way to allocate memory. So `shared_ptr` and `unique_ptr` would be all over the codebase in Rust code if we didn't abbreviate them, and making them one character was the easiest way to do that.
I actually think that one of the reasons few people write exception-safe code in C++ is that `shared_ptr` and `unique_ptr` (especially if you don't use `using namespace std;`) are so long that `new` and `delete` end up being more convenient…
Usually people who say Rust looks like line noise are concerned about `@` and `~`. These are there for a reason: they're the Rust versions of the smart pointers `shared_ptr` and `unique_ptr` in C++. Unlike in C++, you have to use them: there is no other way to allocate memory. So `shared_ptr` and `unique_ptr` would be all over the codebase in Rust code if we didn't abbreviate them, and making them one character was the easiest way to do that.
I actually think that one of the reasons few people write exception-safe code in C++ is that `shared_ptr` and `unique_ptr` (especially if you don't use `using namespace std;`) are so long that `new` and `delete` end up being more convenient…