JVM languages

High-profile languages

As of 2024, according to the TIOBE index¹ of the top 100 programming languages, and PyPL,² the top JVM languages are:

• Java (#3, at one point at #1; #2 at PyPL), a statically-typed object-oriented language
• Kotlin (#21, at one point at #18; #13 at PyPL), a statically-typed language from JetBrains, the developers of IntelliJ IDEA³ and Google's preferred language for Android
• Scala (#26, at one point at #20; #22 at PyPL), a statically-typed object-oriented and functional programming language⁴
• Groovy (no longer in top 50, is one of 51–100, at one point at #15; #26 at PyPL), a dynamic programming language (also with static typing) and scripting language⁵⁶
• Clojure (no longer in top 50, is one of 51–100, at one point at #47), a dynamic, and functional dialect of the Lisp programming language⁷ (ClojureScript doesn't make TIOBE's index separately, its stats are included under Clojure, and it's an implementation targeting the web with JavaScript, not the JVM.)

Python is TIOBE's top language; Jython, its JVM implementation, doesn't make the list (of 100 languages) under that name (is syntax compatible with Python 2.7, now an outdated Python version). JavaScript (6th), PHP, R and others, also make top 20 and have JVM implementations; Ruby is ranked 18th, while JRuby, its JVM implementation is not listed separately.

JVM implementations of existing languages

New languages with JVM implementations

• Ateji PX, an extension of Java for easy parallel programming on multicore, GPU, Grid and Cloud²³
• Ballerina, a language for cloud applications with structural typing; network client objects, services, resource functions, and listeners; parallel concurrency with workers; image building; configuration management.²⁴
• BeanShell, a scripting language whose syntax is close to Java
• EPL (Event Processing Language), a domain-specific, data manipulation language for analyzing and detecting patterns in timed event streams, which extends SQL 92 with event-oriented features. It is implemented by Esper: up to version 6 EPL was mostly a language interpreted by a Java library; since version 7 it is compiled to JVM bytecode.
• Concurnas, an open source JVM language designed for building reliable, scalable, high performance concurrent, distributed and parallel systems.
• Ceylon, a Java competitor from Red Hat²⁵
• CFML, ColdFusion Markup Language, more commonly known as CFML, is a scripting language for web development that runs on the JVM, the .NET framework, and Google App Engine.²⁶
• Quark Framework (CAL), a Haskell-inspired functional language
• E-on-Java, object-oriented language for secure distributed computing
• Eta, pure, lazy, strongly typed functional language in the spirit of Haskell²⁷
• Fantom, a language built from the base to be portable across the JVM, .NET Common Language Runtime (CLR), and JavaScript²⁸²⁹
• Flix, a functional, imperative, and logic language with first-class Datalog constraints and a polymorphic effect system.
• Flow Java
• Fortress, a language designed by Sun as a successor to Fortran, mainly for parallel scientific computing. Product development was taken over by Oracle when Sun was purchased. Oracle then stopped development in 2012 according to Dr. Dobb's.
• Frege, a non-strict, pure functional language in the spirit of Haskell³⁰
• Golo, a simple, dynamic, weakly-typed language for the JVM developed at Institut national des sciences appliquées de Lyon, France, now an incubating project at the Eclipse Software Foundation.³¹³²³³
• Gosu, an extensible type-system language compiled to Java bytecode
• Haxe, a cross-platform statically typed language that targets Java and the JVM.
• Ioke, a prototype-based language somewhat reminiscent of Io, with similarities to Ruby, Lisp, and Smalltalk
• Jelly
• Join Java, a language that extends Java with join-calculus semantics
• Joy
• Manifold is a Java compiler "plugin." (I.e., instead of being a stand-alone language and compiler, it hijacks and extends javac.) Its features include Metaprogramming, Properties, Extension Methods, Operator Overloading, Templates, a Preprocessor, and more.
• Mirah, a customizable language featuring type inference and a highly Ruby-inspired syntax³⁴³⁵
• NetLogo, a multi-agent language
• Noop, a language built with testability as a major focus
• Pizza, a superset of Java with function pointers and algebraic data types
• Pnuts
• Processing, a visualization and animation language and framework based on Java with a Java-like syntax
• Prompto, a language "designed to create business applications in the cloud". It is part of the namesake platform to design business applications directly in the cloud. The Prompto language includes three "dialects": Engly, Monty, and Objy. Engly "mimics English as much as possible", Monty "tries to follow as much as possible the syntax of the Python 3 language", and Objy "tries to follow as much as possible the syntax of OOP languages such as C++, Java or C#". All three dialects seamlessly translate to one another.³⁶
• RascalMPL, a source and target language independent (parameterized) meta language
• Whiley
• X10, a language designed by IBM, featuring constrained types and a focus on concurrency and distribution³⁷
• Xtend, an object-oriented, functional, and imperative programming language built by the Eclipse foundation, featuring tight Java interoperability, with a focus on extension methods and lambdas, and rich tooling
• Yeti, an ML style functional language³⁸
• Yirgacheffe, a language that aims to simplify and extend the object oriented paradigm.³⁹
• Yoix, general purpose, non-object-oriented, interpreted dynamic language

Comparison of these languages

See also

• Computer programming portal

• Da Vinci Machine
• Java virtual machine § JVM languages
• List of CLI languages, following the CLI specification, Microsoft's response to JVM
• List of open-source programming languages

Notes

References

1. "TIOBE Index". TIOBE. Retrieved 4 November 2024. https://www.tiobe.com/tiobe-index/ ↩

2. "PYPL PopularitY of Programming Language index". pypl.github.io. Retrieved 4 November 2024. https://pypl.github.io/PYPL.html ↩

3. Urma, Raoul-Gabriel (1 July 2014). "Alternative Languages for the JVM. A look at eight features from eight JVM languages". Oracle. Retrieved 13 March 2019. https://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/java/architect-languages-2266279.html ↩

4. Wampler, Dean (15 January 2009). "Adopting New JVM Languages in the Enterprise (Updated)". objectmentor.com. Archived from the original on 22 May 2009. Retrieved 18 June 2009. https://web.archive.org/web/20090522071822/http://blog.objectmentor.com/articles/2009/01/15/adopting-new-jvm-languages-in-the-enterprise ↩

5. Urma, Raoul-Gabriel (1 July 2014). "Alternative Languages for the JVM. A look at eight features from eight JVM languages". Oracle. Retrieved 13 March 2019. https://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/java/architect-languages-2266279.html ↩

6. "Groovy Springs Back Up TIOBE's Programming Languages List". Retrieved 10 March 2021. https://www.dice.com/career-advice/groovy-springs-back-up-tiobes-programming-languages-list ↩

7. Urma, Raoul-Gabriel (1 July 2014). "Alternative Languages for the JVM. A look at eight features from eight JVM languages". Oracle. Retrieved 13 March 2019. https://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/java/architect-languages-2266279.html ↩

8. "NTT Data Enterprise COBOL Brochure" (PDF). https://mx.nttdata.com/es/-/media/assets/brochure/apps-rehosting-migrate-your-cobol-applications-factsheet.pdf ↩

9. "Visual COBOL Brochure" (PDF). Retrieved 5 April 2017. https://www.microfocus.com/media/brochure/visual_cobol_brochure.pdf ↩

10. "isCOBOL Evolve Datasheet" (PDF). Retrieved 17 May 2019. http://www.veryant.com/resources/isCOBOL-Evolve-datasheet.pdf ↩

11. Armed Bear Common Lisp http://abcl.org/ ↩

12. "New on Neo4j: The Neo4j 2.3.0 Milestone 2 Release Is Here". 12 June 2015. Retrieved 20 February 2017. https://neo4j.com/blog/new-on-neo4j-the-neo4j-2-3-0-milestone-2-release-is-here/ ↩

13. "Oracle Labs GraalVM: Programming Languages and Runtimes Overview". www.oracle.com. Retrieved 12 April 2018. http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/oracle-labs/program-languages/overview/index.html ↩

14. "graalvm/sulong". GitHub. Retrieved 12 April 2018. https://github.com/graalvm/sulong ↩

15. "Introducing Quercus, a Java based PHP". IBM. Retrieved 2 July 2015. http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/library/wa-quercus/ ↩

16. "Running PHP With Quercus in Sun Java System Web Server". Retrieved 2 July 2015. http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/quercus-php-137710.html ↩

17. "ssllab / ZipPy — Bitbucket". bitbucket.org. Retrieved 12 April 2018. https://bitbucket.org/ssllab/zippy ↩

18. "Oracle Labs GraalVM: Programming Languages and Runtimes Overview". www.oracle.com. Retrieved 12 April 2018. http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/oracle-labs/program-languages/overview/index.html ↩

19. "oracle/fastr". GitHub. Retrieved 12 April 2018. https://github.com/oracle/fastr ↩

20. "oracle/truffleruby". GitHub. Retrieved 12 April 2018. https://github.com/oracle/truffleruby/ ↩

21. "Redline Smalltalk". Archived from the original on 24 March 2021. Retrieved 2 September 2018. https://web.archive.org/web/20210324032311/http://www.redline.st/ ↩

22. [19][20][21] is a freeware IDE in beta-testing since 2009, with a partly open source [22] Jabaco framework runtime. Jabaco compiles VB 6 syntax source to Java bytecode. ↩

23. "Ateji PX: Java Parallel Programming Made Simple". Ateji. Archived from the original on 24 February 2014. Retrieved 1 March 2014. https://web.archive.org/web/20140224011700/http://www.ateji.com/px/index.html ↩

24. "Flexible, Powerful, Beautiful Integrations as Code with Ballerina". Ballerina. Retrieved 28 September 2024. https://ballerina.io/ ↩

25. Urma, Raoul-Gabriel (1 July 2014). "Alternative Languages for the JVM. A look at eight features from eight JVM languages". Oracle. Retrieved 13 March 2019. https://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/java/architect-languages-2266279.html ↩

26. CFML, a scripting language compiled to Java, used on the ColdFusion or Railo application servers /wiki/CFML ↩

27. "The Eta Programming Language". Retrieved 10 May 2017. http://eta-lang.org/ ↩

28. "Fantom Programming Language". Fantom. Retrieved 1 March 2014. http://fantom.org/ ↩

29. Urma, Raoul-Gabriel (1 July 2014). "Alternative Languages for the JVM. A look at eight features from eight JVM languages". Oracle. Retrieved 13 March 2019. https://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/java/architect-languages-2266279.html ↩

30. "Frege". Retrieved 16 March 2025. https://github.com/Frege/frege ↩

31. "Oracle.com - Golo – A Lightweight Dynamic Language for the JVM". Archived from the original on 3 July 2015. Retrieved 2 July 2015.] https://web.archive.org/web/20150703100856/https://blogs.oracle.com/java/entry/golo_a_lightweight_dynamic_language ↩

32. "Golo nominated for JAX Awards 2014". Retrieved 2 July 2015.] https://jax.de/awards2014/nominees ↩

33. "Golo entry at JAX Awards 2014". Retrieved 2 July 2015.] https://jax.de/awards2014/golo-programming-language ↩

34. "The Mirah Programming Language". GitHub. Retrieved 1 March 2014. https://github.com/mirah/mirah ↩

35. "Mirah". Retrieved 1 March 2014. http://www.mirah.org/ ↩

36. "The Prompto Platform". Retrieved 14 September 2019. http://www.prompto.org/ ↩

37. Urma, Raoul-Gabriel (1 July 2014). "Alternative Languages for the JVM. A look at eight features from eight JVM languages". Oracle. Retrieved 13 March 2019. https://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/java/architect-languages-2266279.html ↩

38. "Yeti programming language". Retrieved 5 May 2020. http://mth.github.io/yeti/ ↩

39. "Yirgacheffe". Retrieved 9 January 2020. https://yirgacheffelang.com ↩