As far as I understand it, I have 2 options:
1. Use braces and semicolons and ignore the layout rules.
This is one option.
Just to be sure, can I really, really forget about layout if I write fully braced and semicolonoized code?
Yes.
Besides, is there any reason why the syntax is LET { decl1; decl2; ... } IN expr when LET and IN are sufficient enough to enclose the declarations?
because you can say: let x = y z = q w = l in ... so it needs to know where the boundaries between declarations are, hence the need for semicolons. therefore, if you have embedded lets, you need braces to delimit them: let x = let y = z q = r in l in q would be ambiguous without layout/braces&semis. - Hal p.s., I'm surprised you're having difficulty with tabs; a few people have had such problems, but usually there's an easy fix in the editor. I don't really know enough about this to say one way or another thogh...