Why aren't colons optional?

[Grant Edwards]

In article <mailman.1011804337.3562.python-list at python.org>, Mark McEahern wrote:

>> Think about book written today and read in 200 years. If your
>> write as you speak, there are very good chances that many
>> people don't understand what you wrote.
> 
> Of course, written language changes too.  Ever try to read Beowulf?

I've been reading reproductions of the original printings of
Mark Twain's works, and I've been surprised at how much
typesetting conventions have changed in the past 100 years. If
you go back to stuff that was printed 100 years before that
(200 years ago) the language has changed a little, but the
typesetting is so different that it's hard to read.

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