I don't know the innards of the compiler used by arduino but I'm wondering if there is any latitude for trapping common errors like missing semi-colons and/or simplifying the error display. Sometimes the cascade of red text resulting from a missing semi-colon is, to say the least, disheartening!
Processing seems to do this - though being Java it's a whole different beast. It will toss up a friendly msg along the lines of "Could you be missing a semi-colon?"
Also, I realize that a certain amount of the error text is helpful in finding the errors but there is a a degree of TMI as well.