Hybrid for functional languages

Are there hybrid functional languages? Languages that correspond to the hybrid object-oriented programming languages of C++, Object Pascal, and Visual Basic? A quick survey of the web (if there is such a thing as a quick survey) yields a page (from stackoverflow.com) that lists the following languages: Scala, Clojure, F#, Ruby, OCaml, Common LISP, Nemerle, Smalltalk, and O'Haskell. A few other web pages list these languages as hybrids.

So yes, there are hybrid functional languages. And this is important.

The jump from the "classic" languages of C++, C#, and Java to pure functional languages (Haskell, Erlang) is a large one. We were able to move from procedural languages (C, Pascal, and BASIC) to object-oriented languages (Java, C#) by using hybrid languages as an intermediate step. (A rather expensive intermediate step, as we look back at the mountains of hard-to-maintain C++ code we have created, but it was a step.)

We humans, for the most part and in most situations, tend to do better with small steps. Small changes in our programming languages are more acceptable to us that large changes. (Hence the migration from FORTRAN II to FORTRAN IV to FORTRAN 66 and then to Fortran 77, and not a migration from FORTRAN II to Pascal.)

The hybrid object-oriented languages became popular because they were useful.

I expect that hybrid functional languages will become popular for the same reason. We will want to move to the functional languages, to reduce programming time and improve reliability. The jump to a pure functional language is large, often requiring not only a complete re-write of the application but a re-thinking of our thinking for the application. Hybrid functional languages will allow a more gentle transition to functional programming.

Exactly *which* hybrid functional languages become popular is quite hard to predict. Microsoft will push F#, or possibly extend C# with functional qualities. The Java crowd will like Scala. The Ruby enthusiasts will like... Ruby. I'm not sure what the Apple camp will adopt.

Apple, with its devotion to C, C++, and Objective-C is in an interesting position. There is no clear path to functional programming on the Apple platform. This may present a problem for Apple. (Or maybe not, as they may choose to support a functional or hybrid functional language in the future.)