> Thats right, in a language where everything looks like it's yelling at you, you have to find a little tiny period to find where execution resumes.
In old non-proportional fonts on old CRT screens with low resolution, "." was a pretty noticable glyph. Typewriters tend to have rather noticable periods, too.
I know that refers to an even earlier period but... it is funny how in telegrams (real telegrams, not the chat application) the period was replaced by the STOP word because it could be often misprinted, because it was really tiny and a printing artifact could be read as a period.
So I think what you said it's true: conventions are indeed children of their times.
In old non-proportional fonts on old CRT screens with low resolution, "." was a pretty noticable glyph. Typewriters tend to have rather noticable periods, too.
That convention truly was a child of its time.