> Why is it bad to have semicolons in programs then?
It's not bad to have them, it's bad to require them when they aren't necessary. It's bad to make their absence be a fatal syntax error when they aren't necessary. (Some times they are necessary, but that's the exception in contemporary languages.)
Also, I know I'm the one who brought them up, but semicolons are just one small example of a much bigger and more widespread problem. It's a mistake to fixate on semicolons.
It's not bad to have them, it's bad to require them when they aren't necessary. It's bad to make their absence be a fatal syntax error when they aren't necessary. (Some times they are necessary, but that's the exception in contemporary languages.)
Also, I know I'm the one who brought them up, but semicolons are just one small example of a much bigger and more widespread problem. It's a mistake to fixate on semicolons.