[amval]

It marketed itself explicitly as a "Python superset", which could allow Python programmers to avoid learning a second language and write performant code.

I'd argue that I am not sure what kind of Python programmer is capable of learning things like comptime, borrow checking, generics but would struggle with different looking syntax. So to me this seemed like a deliberate misrepresentation of the actual challenges to generate hype and marketing.

Which fair enough, I suppose this is how things work. But it should be _fair_ to point out the obvious too.

[Certhas]

Absolutely. The public sales pitch did not match the reality. This is what I meant with the "Claim to be Ṕython to get VC money" point.

To first order, today every programmer starts out as a Python programmer. Python is _the_ teaching language now. The jump from Python to C/Cpp is pretty drastic, I don't think that it's absurd that learning Mojo concepts step by step coming from Python is simpler than learning C. Not syntactically but conceptually.

[pjmlp]

Maybe young generations have some issue learning polyglot programming, I guess.

While I agree using Mojo is much preferable to writing C or C++ native extensions, back on my day people learned to program in K&R C or C++ ARM in high school, kids around 12 years old, hardly something pretty drastic.

[ForHackernews]

I've tried learning C a couple times and given up because the curve is too steep to be worth the climb. It's not even the language itself, it's the inherited weight of half a century's worth of cruft. I can't spend weeks fighting with compiler nonsense, header files and #include. Screw it, I'll just use Go instead.

I'm learning Rust and Zig in the hope that I'll never have to write a line of C in my career.

[fwip]

I think one of the "Python superset" promises was that any particular dev wouldn't need to learn all of that at once. There could exist a ramp between Python and "fast python" that is more gradual than the old ways of dropping into C, and more seamless than importing and learning the various numpy/numba/polars libraries.

[int_19h]

FWIW generics are already a thing in pure Python as soon as you add type annotations, which is fast becoming the default (perhaps not the least because LLMs also seem to prefer it).

[fnands]

They've backed off a little from the Python superset claims and leaned more into "Python family".

> I'd argue that I am not sure what kind of Python programmer is capable of learning things like comptime, borrow checking

One who previously wrote compiled languages ;-). It's not like you forget everything you know once you touch Python.

[amval]

The second part of the sentence is very important ;)

"... but would struggle with different looking syntax"

[oxidi]

I think the point was that Python syntax is simpler than e.g. borrow checking.

Although Python has some seriously PERLesque YOLO moments, like "#"*3 == "###". This is admittedly useful, but funny nonetheless.