I also recommend looking at Nim. It has Python-like syntax but it feels very different than Python for me when using it. Stellar language though that has been getting a lot of attention!

Thanks for the recommendations, folks. I'll take a look!

Whoa - Nim seems really cool! Thanks for mentioning it. I like that it also compiles to JS, and seems to be pretty active (latest release was just on Dec 31).

Isn't Nim, like Python, a large, complex language? Looking at the documentation, it seems to include a huge number of features.

It is a little large, yes. The creator's goal was always to create a language with a small core but a rich set of features for extending the language (metaprogramming). Nim has bloated a little and we're now trying to remove as many features as we can without annoying too many people :)

Glad to hear it. I've been skimming the documentation and definitely got the impression that it is a feature-rich language to put it politely :). In the words of Bjarne Stroustrup, it seems like there is a small core language that wants to get out. I imagine you could create a linter that catches uses of extraneous features and foster a culture of "Good nim code passes this linter"--you could create badges for repositories that show the percent of the code that adheres to the linter or something. Over time, you could deprecate and then remove these extraneous features.

This is part of what turned me away from Nim, so it's good to hear that. Can you give some examples of some features you've removed recently? I notice you're not at 1.0, so are you comfortable ignoring the 'annoying too many people' part if you think there's enough of a reason to remove something?

One thing I can think of is the likely little known {.this.} feature, that's been removed. We definitely need to do more, and yeah, it's hard :)