BOO: First impressions

I keep seeing mention of this obscure .NET language called BOO and I had to check it out.  I haven't delved into it very deep yet, but I like what I'm seeing.  Of course, I'll actually need to write some code with it in order to really get a feel for it.  Regardless, I wanted to touch on a few things that spoke to me with the syntax.

  • It has a python feel to it.  Years ago in college we did some code in Python.  I really like how python gets rid of the braces and instead uses indention as it's scope identification.  That style of coding forces a certain aesthetic which I like.
  • Built-in literals.  Seriously, if I have to type "Regex something=new Regex(@"^\d{10}");" one more damn time, I'm going to scream.  Why can't the c# spec support "/^\d{10}/" just like other languages.  Oh yes, the shorter syntax for arrays, lists, and hashes are nice too.
  • String Formatting.  It's like a mini template system.  "Hello, my name is ${MyName}" looks so much nicer than String.Format("Hello, my name is {0}",MyName).
  • Syntactic Macros and Attributes.  I'm not sure what to make of this, but it looks insanely powerful.  Anything that means I can write less code sounds great to me! 

Once I have an opportunity to write some code with this, I'll report back my findings.  I like code brevity, and I am encouraged by this find.

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