Comment by brucifer
OP here, I just went with indentation-based syntax because I prefer indentation over curly braces aesthetically. I've got no problem with people who prefer curly braces and I find C very enjoyable to work with. However, when I started the language, I wasn't starting with a C parser and modifying from there, I was writing the parser from scratch, so I opted to go with the syntax I enjoy most. I'd like to think that Tomo's syntax is easy enough to pick up, especially for anyone who has used Python before.
I actually agree with you that syntax is not one of the things that makes C hard. C's syntax is mostly very easy to work with (apart from a small number of edge cases). The actually challenging parts of working in C are things like manual memory management, doing good error handling, the lack of proper namespaces or modules, a sometimes-footgunny standard library, and so on. I wanted Tomo to improve on the usability and safety of those areas, while keeping the parts of C that I really love: a simple type system, pointers as a language concept, fast parallel compilation (one source file -> one object file), and a programming model that feels closer to what the silicon is doing than most languages.
Thanks for dealing in good faith and picking a reasonable interpretation of my comment instead of going "debate mode" and making a straw man.
Just to clarify, I definitely wasn't saying "everything should be written in C" or even merely asking the question "why not just use C for game programming?". I don't even think requiring core utilities shipped with an OS, like sed and awk interpreters to be written in C is necessary, and I'm sure I'll be excommunicated for that elsewhere.
I was just making a more general comment about making a language look familiar in terms of basic grammar to minimize the time spent in the initial phase of the learning curve.
I completely understand wanting to go with some code that "looks like" python. More people know how to use Python than C, which is really only for embedded programmers and systems programmers.
Really, this is a nice game scripting language you have here. All the good languages were made by their author for their author.