Sorry, I guess that it's the default assumption since most people do come from an imperative background. And you had to choose a language with significant whitespace as your first imperative language, that's just low ;) But essentially, in languages with Algol-inspired syntax the semicolon is an end-of-statement marker. In Python, this is normally (but not always) the newline character.
I hope that helps decrypt the monad explanation part of my post somewhat. I wish I could give one which better relates to your background, but of the three languages you mention, I've only had very superficial exposure to Clojure. And you've also probably heard it before, but I would recommend LYAH over RWH as the first Haskell text.
I hope that helps decrypt the monad explanation part of my post somewhat. I wish I could give one which better relates to your background, but of the three languages you mention, I've only had very superficial exposure to Clojure. And you've also probably heard it before, but I would recommend LYAH over RWH as the first Haskell text.