Please consider "arc" which is introduced at http://www.paulgraham.com/arc.html. http://www.paulgraham.com is a treasure trove for anyone interested computer languages. Whether you choose arc or not having perused this site will make you final choice better. When I discovered ruby, I vetted it by noticing that matz knew lisp, smalltalk, and perl. Other language inventors started from other traditions without mastering this basic triad and in my mind mislead newbies. Without a grounding in l-s-p you are bound to reinvent the wheel. Actually my current vetting check is for l-s-p -r. I don't know what Paul thinks of ruby. Although he does not speak highly of o-o. YMMV, John