[mg74]

No need for braces. Just add "end" for marking block ending to match the already block starting keyword ":".

[pansa2]

A while ago, when thinking about syntax design for a new language, I considered this combination (`:` and `end`, as opposed to `do` and `end` as used by Lua etc).

Are there any languages that use it, or is Python unique in using `:` to begin a block?

[dbrueck]

Nim uses it too.

IIRC, Python's predecessor (ABC) didn't have the trailing colon but they did some experiments and found it increased readability.