Thinking about doing Advent of Code in my own tiny language mu this year.

mu is:

• Dynamically typed
• Lexically scoped with closures
• Has a Go-like curly-brace syntax
• Built around lists, maps, and first-class functions

Key syntax:

• Functions use fn and braces:

fn add(a, b) {
    return a + b
}

• Variables use := for declaration and = for assignment:

x := 10
x = x + 1

• Control flow includes if / else and while:

if x > 5 {
    println("big")
} else {
    println("small")
}

while x < 10 {
    x = x + 1
}

• Lists and maps:

nums := [1, 2, 3]
nums[1] = 42

ages := {"alice": 30, "bob": 25}
ages["bob"] = ages["bob"] + 1

Supported types:

• int
• bool
• string
• list
• map
• fn
• nil

mu feels like a tiny little Go-ish, Python-ish language — curious to see how far I can get with it for Advent of Code this year. 🎄

One of the nicest things about Go is the language itself, comparing Go to other popular languages in terms of the complexity to learn to be proficient in:

• Go: 25 keywords (Stack Overflow); CSP-style concurrency (goroutines & channels)
• Python 2: 30 keywords (TutorialsPoint); GIL-bound threads & multiprocessing (Wikipedia)
• Python 3: 35 keywords (Initial Commit); GIL-bound threads, asyncio & multiprocessing (Wikipedia, DEV Community)
• Java: 50 keywords (Stack Overflow); threads + java.util.concurrent (Wikipedia)
• C++: 82 keywords (Stack Overflow); std::thread, atomics & futures (en.cppreference.com)
• JavaScript: 38 keywords (Stack Overflow); single-threaded event loop & async/await, Web Workers (Wikipedia)
• Ruby: 42 keywords (Stack Overflow); GIL-bound threads (MRI), fibers & processes (Wikipedia)

@bender Here's a short-list:

• Simple, minimal syntax—master the core in hours, not months.
• CSP-style concurrency (goroutines & channels)—safe, scalable parallelism.
• Blazing-fast compiler & single-binary deploys—zero runtime dependencies.
• Rich stdlib & built-in tooling (gofmt, go test, modules).
• No heavy frameworks or hidden magic—unlike Java/C++/Python overhead.

Wrote some serious Python for the first time in like 10 years 😱 I feel so dirty 🤣

I have finished 1-9 on Python. If anyone is interested, I could share the code, or in Reddit many people have shared theirs.

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