Wolfram Language

The Wolfram Language, which is the programming language of Mathematica and of the Wolfram Programming Cloud, is a general multi-paradigm programming language developed by Wolfram Research. It was designed to be as general as possible and emphasizes symbolic computation, functional programming, and rule-based programming. It can employ arbitrary structures and data.

The language is very large, touching on numerous domains, often specialized. For example, it includes built-in functions for generating and running Turing machines, creating graphics and audio, analyzing 3D models, matrix manipulations, and solving differential equations. It also has a large amount of documentation.

It is bundled with the system software installed on every Raspberry Pi. Intel Edison, introduced at CES 2014, also integrates the language. The language will also be integrated in the Unity game engine.

Naming

Despite existing in some form for more than 25 years, the name of the language was not officially announced until June 2013. Before this it was internally referred to by several names, such as "M" and "Wolfram Language". Many other possible names were considered, such as "Lingua" and "Express", while it is often called "Mathematica", after its main implementation.

External links

• Documentation for the Wolfram Language
• An Elementary Introduction to the Wolfram Language
• The Wolfram Programming Cloud
• WolframLanguage.org: a guide to community resources about Wolfram Language
• A list of open-source implementations of the Wolfram language

• Stephen Wolfram Aims to Democratize His Software by Steve Lohr, The New York Times, December 14, 2015