CSC/ECE 517 Fall 2009/wiki2 6 hl
Hybrid Programming Languages
Hybrid Programming Languages are multi-paradigm languages that not only support basic Object Oriented features but other features of different programming paradigms. Multi-paradigm languages have been around for a while (LISP 1958, C++ 1983) but recently there has been a push to develop true Multi-paradigm languages that bridge the OO/Functional Programming gap; the push has been spurred on by the advent of the multi-core CPU. Programmers can no longer expect single threaded performance to drastically improve with each new CPU release.
Languages such as Scala, Fan, F#(OCaml) and Reia try to address this problem in similar and unique ways.
Scala
Scala or "Scalable Language" was developed by Martin Odersky of EPFL to be a both Object Oriented and Functional language at the same time. Contrary to popular belief the "Scalable" means scalable with the programmer and their skills, ie OO programmers can move to Functional programming and Functional programmers can move to OO approaches. Scala shouldn't be considered a "pure" functional language [LINK TO SCALA BLOG], it can be thought of as an pure "OO" language since every value is an object and every function is a value [LINK TO SCALA INTRO PAGE]. It is a statically typed language that is compiled into bytecode that is compatible with the Java VM with comparable speeds to Java.
Fan
Fan supports an Objected Oriented and Functional Programming paradigms. Fan and Scala are often compared and contrasted since they both run on the Java VM. Fan isn't just tied to the JVM though it also supports the .NET CLR (Common Language Run-time) and Javascript. Fan is a "loosely" typed language : method/function responses are statically typed but inner scoped variables are allowed to be dynamically typed. Its an interesting approach since a methods type contract should always be adhered to but with a method statically typing can reduce programming efficiency.
Reia
Reia is an Object Orient
F#/OCaml
F# is the officially supported Functional Programming language for .NET with Objected Oriented features. Its a variant of the popular OCaml functional/object oriented language that was developed in 1996. OCaml itself is a variant the CAML language that added Objects, hence the name of Objective-Caml or OCaml.