Toit and Ruby are both inspired by Smalltalk, and there are certainly similarities in the syntax but we felt that starting 20 years later we could do a lot better than Ruby syntax.

In particular, Python basically won the significant-indentation argument. Since all programs are formatted with correct indentation the punctuation is redundant clutter. So for a new language it just feels right to go with indentation instead of curlies.

We also wanted to be free to add type annotations and other enhancements, so it was never going to be compatible with Ruby anyway. And we didn't want to raise expectations of Ruby-compatibility that would immediately be dashed.

That idea is taken. Twice.

https://mruby.org/

https://microruby.com/