Perhaps this is by design, though? Presumably the syntax doesn't look too bad to people who spend all day writing JavaScript (i.e. the target demographic for this language).
Presumably some bright spark will eventually write a Python-to-Dart compiler and then we'll all be happy :-)
The world's experience outside of HN makes me think Dart will not be at all inhibited by its Java like syntax. If it doesn't catch on, it will be for other reasons.
Me too! We already have a very readable, simple and elegant language, let's use that. Anyone know why that wouldn't have worked? (Not using the current CPython implementation but maybe the same syntax but with a different (web-only) set of libraries, that is...)
With Source Mapping in browsers, it also means you'll be able to get a .coffee line in your tracebacks too.