and what is the purpose of the "terseness", today
today ??
amyhow the purpose of the the 'terseness' I guess, is not to run off the line more often than needed and to allow two thumb typers to code at a reasonable speed

I do my darndest never to have a multiline C construct.

one problem with C is that some constructs virtually do not allow commenting like this one

for (x = 0; (x != 7) || (y ==6) || (p<9); x++){

for 'clarity' you can write as follows which allow you to comment the conditions

for (x = 0; (x != 7) x++){
if (y == 6) break; //comment
if (p < 9) break; // comment

I have no doubt that a Pascal programmer that prefer C can write some incomprehensible Pascal to prove the point.

it is sad some people need a language that forces them to write a clearer code.

Erik