Lambda the Ultimate

Eclipse Xtend. Other than the standard syntactic sugar, it includes multiple dispatch and extension methods.

Nothing particularly interesting, unfortunately. The other two "better Java" languages seem superior: Kotlin from JetBrains and Ceylon from RedHat.

However, it does look like it was built with Xtext, which is pretty cool.

There's a talk by Prof Black about the origins of OO and Simula, and it make the point / the claim that it is easier to come up with objects/classes that are successfully malleable than it is to do so with functions; see pages 26 and 27 of the slides.

Parameterized functions instead of Inheritance? When you parameterize a function, you have to plan ahead and make parameters out of every part that could possibly change. functional programmers call this “abstraction”
Two problems: 1. Life is uncertain; 2. Most people think better about the concrete than the abstract.

The value of Inheritance When you inherit from a class or an object, you still have to plan ahead and make methods out of every part that could possibly change. o-o programmers call this “writing short methods” Two benefits: 1. You don’t have to get it right; 2. The short methods are concretions, not abstractions.

Given the problems of OO (in all its various guises), i've of late been leaning way more towards the FP side, so this was slightly interesting to read. :-)