Thinking about it more in detail, functions require the parentheses to show where the call ends. I obviously could count the number of expected parameters as function is defined, but that leaves room for error, and a creepy syntax,
ie: sum 2, multiply 2, 2, 2
for which function is the last parameter for?
You are right about the function names, I am not forced to use the camel form which I do not love, it could be serial_write or even serial write