Comparison of multi-paradigm programming languages

Paradigm summaries

• Concurrent programming – have language constructs for concurrency, these may involve multi-threading, support for distributed computing, message passing, shared resources, or futures
• * Actor programming – concurrent computation with actors that make local decisions in response to the environment
• Constraint programming – relations between variables are expressed as constraints, directing allowable solutions
• Dataflow programming – forced recalculation of formulas when data values change
• Declarative programming – describes what computation should perform, without specifying detailed state changes cf. imperative programming
• Distributed programming – have support for multiple autonomous computers that communicate via computer networks
• Functional programming – uses evaluation of mathematical functions and avoids state and mutable data
• Generic programming – uses algorithms written in terms of to-be-specified-later types that are then instantiated as needed for specific types provided as parameters
• Imperative programming – explicit statements that change a program state
• Logic programming – uses explicit mathematical logic for programming
• Metaprogramming – writing programs that write or manipulate other programs as their data, or that do part of the work at compile time that would otherwise be done at runtime
• * Template metaprogramming – metaprogramming methods in which a compiler uses templates to generate temporary source code, which is merged by the compiler with the rest of the source code and then compiled
• * Reflective programming – metaprogramming methods in which a program modifies or extends itself
• Object-oriented programming – uses data structures consisting of data fields and methods together with their interactions to design programs
• * Class-based – object-oriented programming in which inheritance is achieved by defining classes of objects, versus the objects themselves
• * Prototype-based – object-oriented programming that avoids classes and implements inheritance via cloning of instances
• Pipeline programming – a simple syntax change to add syntax to nest function calls to language originally designed with none
• Rule-based programming – a network of rules of thumb that comprise a knowledge base and can be used for expert systems and problem deduction & resolution
• Visual programming – manipulating program elements graphically rather than by specifying them textually ; also termed ''diagrammatic programming''

  Language overview