I have seen many people around complaining about verbosity in programming languages. I find that, within some bounds, the more verbose a programming language is, the better it is to understand. I think that verbosity also reinforces writing clearer APIs for that particular language.

The only disadvantage I can think of is that it makes you type more, but I mean, most people use IDEs which do all the work for you.

So, What are the possible downsides to a verbose programming language?

The goal is quick comprehension

"Verbose" means "uses too many words". The question is what "too many" is.

Good code should be easy to comprehend at a glance. This is easier if most of the characters directly serve the purpose of the code.

Signal vs Noise

If a language is verbose, more of your code is noise. Compare Java's "Hello World":

class HelloWorldApp {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        System.out.println("Hello World!");
    }
}


... with Ruby's:

print "Hello World!"


Noise wastes mental energy.

Cryptic vs Clear

On the other hand, excessive terseness in a language also costs mental energy. Compare these two examples from Common Lisp:

(car '(1 2 3))   # 3 characters whose meaning must be memorized
# vs
(first '(1 2 3)) # 5 characters whose meaning is obvious

