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A New Programming Language Expands on Google's Go (infoworld.com)
"One sure sign your language is successful: When people build other languages that transpile into it." An anonymous Slashdot reader quotes a report from InfoWorld:
The Have project uses Go's toolchain, but sports a different syntax and makes key additions to the language... Previously, a language named Oden worked with Go's toolchain to add features that Go didn't support. Now Polish developer Marcin Wrochniak has introduced Have, a language that transpiles to and expands on Go.
In the blog post that introduces the project to Go developers, Wrochniak describes Have as a hobby project, with the goal of becoming a "companion" to Go that addresses some of its common "landmines"... Go uses curly braces in the manner of C/C++, while Have uses block indents, like Python... The way that variable declaration, structs, and interfaces work have all been modified in Have to be more consistent with each other and to avoid internal inconsistencies that Wrochniak feels are a common source of bugs.
In the blog post that introduces the project to Go developers, Wrochniak describes Have as a hobby project, with the goal of becoming a "companion" to Go that addresses some of its common "landmines"... Go uses curly braces in the manner of C/C++, while Have uses block indents, like Python... The way that variable declaration, structs, and interfaces work have all been modified in Have to be more consistent with each other and to avoid internal inconsistencies that Wrochniak feels are a common source of bugs.
We need at least five new programming languages per year because C++ simply doesn't do the job. C++ doesn't even have a code of conduct! How am I supposed to know what to do if somebody takes offence at my code?
I'm glad to hear they got rid of the curly braces and copied Python. It's a truly excellent idea to have indentation determine program flow. I think this could be extended further and have program flow dictated by the font you use in your editor. Arial instead of if statements, Comic Sans instead of for loops, etc.
Anyway, I'm really happy to see programming languages going the same way as user interface designs, with people desperate to throw away what works and replace it with something inferior because they believe they're innovative and creative. Maybe we could do the same with cars next; I've always thought steering wheels where a stupid idea and you could steer far more easily with a system of cogs and pulleys.
"Curly" braces to denote blocks of code and semi colons to denote end of statement are the marks of a sane language.
Anything else just asks for subtle bugs.
40 years programming experience has taught me this but if you want to find this out for yourself carry on :)
Indentation is the strongest indicator of block structure to the people reading and writing the code, but the toolchain uses a *different* set of indicators (the braces and semicolons). Any person who is looking at code - especially just quickly scanning code - is going to rely on the indentation to denote blocks first, and then to a lesser degree things like curly braces - the spacing and positioning are simply stronger visual cues.
In most languages, this is what can lead to a few types of subtle bugs, e.g.
if (x y);
doSomething();
Python's stance is that the humans and the tools should use the same block identifiers. Sure there are other ways to solve the problem (like make the tools look for likely errors and warn the user), but Python chose the route of just getting people and tools on the same page - it's not a bad solution.
Personally, I've used Python for many years now, in everything from tiny startups to Fortune 500 companies, for everything from small tools to enormous, distributed systems. Like any language, it has its strengths and its weaknesses, but the indentation is not an issue in practice, but is instead an asset. All of the potential or theoretical problems that people complain about with indentation-based blocks are overblown and simply doesn't occur in practice - at least no more than any other type of problem (I can't even remember the last time we had a bug due to it - probably not in this decade).
If that's not your cup of tea, that's fine. I just find it interesting that (a) it does not actually cause problems in practice and (b) when I hop over to a language like C++ I find that curly braces are just noise and feel wholly unnecessary - just extra stuff to help the tools along, and not there for my benefit as a developer.