I'd like to see optional static typing, perhaps of the ML kind.
Although lack of type declarations is useful during prototyping, I like
to use type declarations even then to have the compiler make sure that
I am being consistent. Maybe declarations should take the form of
general assertions so they may be used throughout code for more general
consistency checks.
Also, I would like to see an optional alternate block structuring
syntax that doesnt rely on indenting and line termination. Russell has
this, I believe. There are problems with portability of source code
between editors with different tabsize defaults. Also, it inhibits
automatic code generation since indenting must be accounted for.
Related to this, I like Lisp's representation of functions with Lisp
data structures, so you can look at them, and modify them. Whatever
this representation is for Python, one should be able to enter a function
using constructors for the same data structures (e.g. (def, func, (args) ...)).
Dan LaLiberte
National Center for Supercomputing Applications
liberte@ncsa.uiuc.edu
(Join the League for Programming Freedom: league@prep.ai.mit.edu)