I want to break up with Python, too. The one-size-fits-all philosophy that runs through the language from end to end leaves me feeling like I'm typing with three fingers. Sometimes its Right Way really is okay or even right, but sometimes I'd really, really, rather use something else. I worry about a generation of programmers for whom this is the first, main, and possibly only thing they've learned. I worry about them being brain damaged.<p>But where would I go? I clicked through hoping to find a good suggestion, and found none.<p>Python has become the lingua franca of programming, in many contexts, in many fields. You don't have a choice. You have to be able to read it, if you want to read what people are doing. You have to be able to write it, if you want people to read your stuff. It's where the libraries are. It's where stuff is happening. For better or for worse, Python <i>won</i>.<p>Even if I don't care about any of that, I really don't know where to go.<p>I really loved perl. I loved the powerful expression and conciseness. I miss it. But perl 5 is old, and it shows -- a lot of good ideas have come along in the last couple decades, and a lot of things that seemed like good ideas at the time really haven't worked out. A decade or so ago, I was excited about perl 6, but it doesn't seem to have worked out.<p>I don't like python. But I don't know what to replace it with. Javascript and Ruby seem like the serious options to me, and it's hard to take the one seriously, and the other is so niche that that itself feels like a serious drawback. I want a general purpose scripting language that can do small scripts well (Messes allowed! Shortcuts encouraged! Power in a small space!) and grow to large projects well (Thoughtful object system! Good package management! Good support for alternative paradigms!)<p>I just can't figure out what that would be.