Section 1.1: Mercury

Mercury is a functional programming language that is statically and strongly typed, originating from Australia in 1995. It shares similarities with Prolog and Haskell but is known for its stricter handling of side effects.

Mercury promotes itself as a highly efficient language, stating on its official website that it is intended for developing large, fast, and reliable software. The documentation highlights several of its advantages:

• Mercury is purely declarative, meaning predicates and functions do not have non-logical side effects.
• It is a strongly typed and strongly moded language.
• It features a robust determinism system and a module system.
• Supports higher-order programming, including closures, currying, and lambda expressions.
• Mercury is designed for efficiency.

While Mercury's strictness may present a learning curve, it offers significant benefits in terms of speed and accuracy, making it ideal for large-scale applications. For more information, visit the official Mercury GitHub page.

The first video explores the top programming languages to learn in 2024, discussing their relevance and applications.

Section 1.2: Squirrel

Named after a beloved animal, Squirrel is a lightweight, object-oriented scripting language designed for video game applications. It draws inspiration from several popular languages, including C, C++, Java, Python, and Lua.

The syntax resembles C but combines it with the flexibility of Python, making it user-friendly. Squirrel has been used in numerous Valve games, including Left 4 Dead 2 and Apex Legends, primarily due to its integration with VScript.

Section 1.3: Vala

Vala was created to simplify the development of GNOME applications by reducing reliance on external libraries. Its syntax, which compiles to C, is straightforward and eliminates much of the boilerplate code typical in other languages.

Vala is particularly effective for GTK application development, with the official GTK website providing an excellent example project to help newcomers. The language benefits from a supportive community and regular updates. For more information, check out the official Vala documentation and subreddit.

Section 2.1: Ballerina

Ballerina is a modern programming language designed specifically for cloud applications. Although it was introduced in 2015, its relevance has rapidly grown, as it simplifies the development and maintenance of cloud services. Unlike traditional languages, Ballerina incorporates networking components directly into the language, streamlining the process of creating applications.

An example from the official Ballerina website illustrates how easy it is to set up a simple REST API:

import ballerina/http;

listener http:Listener httpListener = new (8080);

service / on httpListener {

resource function get greeting() returns string {

return "Hello, World!";

}

resource function get greeting/[string name]() returns string {

return "Hello " + name;

}

}

As a newer language, Ballerina receives frequent updates and is poised for broader adoption. Visit the official Ballerina GitHub to get started.

The second video discusses the most controversial programming languages expected to gain traction in 2025.

Section 2.2: LilyPond

While not a traditional programming language, LilyPond is a configuration language designed for high-quality music scoring. It enables users to create aesthetically pleasing musical scores using a TeX-like syntax.

According to the official LilyPond website, the language was developed by musicians who wanted to produce beautiful sheet music, contrasting with the impersonal look of computer-generated scores. Despite its complexity, the ability to generate music scores through code is impressive, and LilyPond offers various integrations, including embedding sound clips into MediaWiki pages.

For a breakdown of the language's syntax, check out the available resources.

Thank you for reading! If you're curious about more fascinating programming languages, take a look at: 4 Strange Programming Languages You Probably Didn’t Know About.