I think it'd be nice if C# had integrated unit tests like D has.
You might find the Cobra language interesting. It's a .Net language that tries to incorporate the best features of many other modern languages.
Nah, cobra is just a fad and it doesn't have the community support and legacy of diamondback, which is basically just as fast and potent.
Cobra is bite-only language, only useful for quick get and coils. Trust me, you will thank me later.
Ok I was trying to be funny, but you can actually learn cobra here : http://cobra-language.com/
You could keep both Python and .NET :
https://github.com/pythonnet/pythonnet
You will have access to .NET ecosystem from Python code. And if you want a more compatible .NET language with Python syntax then you can try cobra : http://cobra-language.com
Thank you for your feedback. To answer your questions: 1. Enumerations are like C enums. Since Words! works by converting to Cobra, the best resource for learning about enumerations in Words! right now is the Cobra website: http://cobra-language.com/trac/cobra/wiki/Enum 2. Patterns in Words! are the equivalent of .NET regular expressions. Besides making them look different (in an attempt to make them easier to read), I did not add much functionality. I did add a few things that make certain tasks easier. For example, I added the "not" group which fails the match if it contains certain text. I know .NET has both negative lookahead and negative lookbehind, but you can run into problems for example if you are trying to find a match that spans the whole line, but does not contains a certain series of text. I didn't explain that very well here, so please look at my example here (under the heading "Groups"): http://words-language.sourceforge.net/learn/patterns.html. 3. Again, I'm a fairly new programmer, and pulling this off would be difficult for me. You made your main point when you said semantics, not syntax, is what makes a new programming language worthwhile. The only difference between Words! and Cobra is syntax. Syntax is the only thing I was dissatisfied with when it comes to Cobra. I do think syntax is important, though. For example, look at Python. Of course, there are many things Python does differently besides syntax, but if you asked Python users why they like Python, "clean syntax" would be at the top of the list for many of them. I understand Words! doesn't set itself apart to the same extent other programming languages do. I understand why people would think Words! is pointless. Even if Words! doesn't prove to be useful to anyone, I'm glad I had the opportunity to work on it. I still have much to learn, but I have learned a lot from that project alone. Thank you again for your feedback.
I just read some of the code examples in the how-to section and it is indeed very similar to python. Most of the differences to python really seem to be elegant improvements not that far from the original "spirit" of python...