Coffeescript for Python programmers

I just learnt Coffeescript, and as a Python programmer loved being able to write Javascript in a Python like language. Coffeescript is inspired by Python/Ruby and is very close to these languages. Writing Coffeescript and reading the compiled Javascript also improved my understanding of Javascript. Without much ado here is translation of some Python code to Coffeescript to get you started.

Defining a variable

Python
a = 10

Coffeescript
a = 10

Setting scope is done via whitespaces.

Python

if i == 10:
	foo()


Coffeescript

if i == 10
	foo()

No semicolons

List comprehensions

Python

languages = ["Python", "Coffeescript", "Java", "Ruby", "Haskell"]
languages = [lan.lower() for lan in languages]

Coffeescript

languages = ["Python", "Coffeescript", "Java", "Ruby", "Haskell"]
languages = (lan.lowerCase for lan in languages)

Get a range

Python
tillTen = range(1, 10)

CoffeScript

tillTen = [1...10]

String Interpolation

Python

language = "Python"
greet = "I love %s" % language

Coffeescript

language = "Coffescript"
greet = "I love #{language}"

Multi Line String

Python

"""
The Quick Brown
Fox, Jumps over
The lazy Dog
"""

Coffeescript

"""
The Quick Brown
Fox, Jumps over
The lazy Dog
"""

Defining a function

Python

def double(x):
	return 2 * x

Coffeescript

double = (x) ->
	2 * x

Here is a larger python script converted to Coffeescript.

You will see that they are very similar and if you know Python learning (and loving) Coffeescript won’t take you a long time. Excited? Get started here.

Resources

• CoffeeScript: Accelerated JavaScript Development: This is the book I read Coffeescript from and I highly recommend it.
• The Little book of Coffeescript
• Official Coffeescript Site
• Another take on Coffeescript for Python people

Can you believe that it has been only an year since the 1.0 release!

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