"Contrary to the foolish notion that syntax is immaterial, people optimize the way they express themselves, and so express themselves differently with different syntaxes." - Erik Naggum
This comes today, just as I'm rediscovering some of the worst offenders of Python's syntax. For example, accessing an instance and class variable "var" are "self.var" (5 chars) & "self.__class__.var" (15 chars!), respectively in Python and "@var" (1 char) & "@@var" (2 chars) in Ruby. The alternative of referencing through the class-name is hackish too as the behavior can't be changed by the inheritor! It's enough to make me want to avoid using class variables! "".join(list) and global functions are other examples counter-intuitive syntax.
Now, I've plenty of love still for Python, I attended PyCon 2006 and am happy to see the new "with" syntax comming in Python 2.5. I just would like to se Python 3000 do better.