If someone would combine the syntax of Ruby (it's fun to read and write) with the performance and static binaries of Go, I think it would be very popular.

I would like to enjoy writing Go as much as I enjoy writing Ruby. But Ruby apps are slow and hard to deploy. Combining their strengths would be great IMHO.

I believe this is what Crystal [0] is trying to achieve. Though I’ve hardly used Ruby or Crystal, so can’t say how well it’s fairing on that goal.

[0] https://github.com/crystal-lang/crystal