Comment by def-

Two of my old posts may answer that question:

- http://hookrace.net/blog/what-is-special-about-nim/

- http://hookrace.net/blog/what-makes-nim-practical/

Summary by benhoyt: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8822918

  * Run regular code at compile time
  * Extend the language (AST templates and macros);
    this can be used to add a form of list comprehensions to the language!
  * Add your own optimizations to the compiler!
  * Bind (easily) to your favorite C functions and libraries
  * Control when and for how long the garbage collector runs
  * Type safe sets and arrays of enums; this was cool:
    "Internally the set works as an efficient bitvector."
  * Unified Call Syntax, so mystr.len() is equivalent to len(mystr)
  * Good performance -- not placing too much emphasis on this,
    but it's faster than C++ in his benchmark
  * Compile to JavaScript