The Scala Language
Reading the article Matching Objects with Patterns (via Lambda the Ultimate), I was reminded of the Scala Programming language. It mixes up OO and functional ideas in a way I seem to remember approving of in the past. Perhaps most interestingly, it runs on the Java VM. I think there might even be a .NET version.
It’s not quite the “bordering on total language decomposition” language I think I’m looking for, but it does look like it could be worth spending some time on.
The pattern matching paper is quite interesting as well — and shows some of the declarative power of a decent functional language. I’ve found myself over recent years wishing that I could just put a “yacc for objects” into my projects. I never really thought about it much, but that paper seems to indicate that it’s not such a bad idea :) I should probably spend more time fiddling around with functional languages…