I agree that the lack of ':' preceding a symbol is the most awkward part. Especially since it only works in object literals. It means that the expression { :te

I agree that the lack of ':' preceding a symbol is the most awkward part. Especially since it only works in object literals. It means that the expression { :test => 1 } == { test: 1 } is true, but the expression { :test => 1 } == { test : 1 } results in a syntax error. In other words test: is almost like a preprocessor directive for :test => which is a strange expansion to have by default in a language.