Clojure
Clojure is a robust, practical, and fast programming language with a set of useful features that together form a simple, coherent, and powerful tool. Clojure is a dynamic, general-purpose programming language, combining the approachability and interactive development of a scripting language with an efficient and robust infrastructure for multithreaded programming. Clojure is a compiled language, yet remains completely dynamic, every feature supported by Clojure is supported at runtime. Clojure provides easy access to the Java frameworks, with optional type hints and type inference, to ensure that calls to Java can avoid reflection. Clojure is a dialect of Lisp, and shares with Lisp the code-as-data philosophy and a powerful macro system. Clojure is predominantly a functional programming language and features a rich set of immutable, persistent data structures. When a mutable state is needed, Clojure offers a software transactional memory system and reactive Agent system.
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OCaml
OCaml is a general-purpose, industrial-strength programming language with an emphasis on expressiveness and safety. OCaml’s powerful type system means more bugs are caught at compile time, and large, complex codebases are easier to maintain. This makes it a good language for running critical code. At the same time, sophisticated inference makes the type system unobtrusive, creating a smooth developer experience. One is a bytecode compiler which generates small, portable executables and is very fast. The other is a native code compiler that produces more efficient machine code; its performance matches the highest standards of modern compilers. OCaml has great support for the most popular editors. VS Code is recommended for beginners, and for power users there is deep integration with Vim and Emacs. OCaml has a rich and dynamic community and best-in-class tooling.
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PureScript
PureScript is a strongly typed, purely functional programming language that compiles JavaScript. It enables developers to build robust web applications, web servers, and mobile apps using functional programming techniques. PureScript offers features such as algebraic data types, pattern matching, row polymorphism, extensible records, higher-kinded types, type classes with functional dependencies, and higher-rank polymorphism. The language emphasizes strong static typing and pure functions, ensuring code reliability and maintainability. Developers can compile PureScript code into readable JavaScript, facilitating seamless integration with existing JavaScript codebases. The ecosystem includes an extensive collection of libraries, excellent tooling, and editor support with instant rebuilds. An active community provides numerous learning resources, including the PureScript book, which offers practical projects for beginners.
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CoffeeScript
Underneath that awkward Java-esque patina, JavaScript has always had a gorgeous heart. CoffeeScript is an attempt to expose the good parts of JavaScript in a simple way. The golden rule of CoffeeScript is: “It’s just JavaScript.” The code compiles one-to-one into the equivalent JS, and there is no interpretation at runtime. You can use any existing JavaScript library seamlessly from CoffeeScript (and vice-versa). The compiled output is readable, pretty printed, and tends to run as fast or faster than the equivalent handwritten JavaScript. Most modern JavaScript features that CoffeeScript supports can run natively in Node 7.6+, meaning that Node can run CoffeeScript’s output without any further processing required. This list may be incomplete, and excludes versions of Node that support newer features behind flags; please refer to node.green for full details. You can run the tests in your browser to see what your browser supports.
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