I was engaging in a little hyperbole. Dijkstra has some compelling monographs on the value of choosing good syntax, it's true. You understood my meaning though as referring to the standard substandard discussion of the subject.

Yeah Dijkstra, Hoare, Knuth, Lamport, and friends are basically my heroes. Algol 60 is fine work. It has a very readable syntax. It's easy to see why it's even now used for scholarly publication. Hadn't heard of Milner though, any suggested reading?