The Wolfram Language ( ) is a general
multi-paradigm programming language
Programming paradigms are a way to classify programming languages based on their features. Languages can be classified into multiple paradigms.
Some paradigms are concerned mainly with implications for the execution model of the language, suc ...
developed by
Wolfram Research
Wolfram Research, Inc. ( ) is an American multinational company that creates computational technology. Wolfram's flagship product is the technical computing program Wolfram Mathematica, first released on June 23, 1988. Other products include Wo ...
. It emphasizes
symbolic computation
In mathematics and computer science, computer algebra, also called symbolic computation or algebraic computation, is a scientific area that refers to the study and development of algorithms and software for manipulating mathematical expressions ...
,
functional programming
In computer science, functional programming is a programming paradigm where programs are constructed by Function application, applying and Function composition (computer science), composing Function (computer science), functions. It is a declar ...
, and
rule-based programming
Logic programming is a programming paradigm which is largely based on formal logic. Any program written in a logic programming language is a set of sentences in logical form, expressing facts and rules about some problem domain. Major logic prog ...
and can employ arbitrary
structures
A structure is an arrangement and organization of interrelated elements in a material object or system, or the object or system so organized. Material structures include man-made objects such as buildings and machines and natural objects such as ...
and data.
It is the programming language of the mathematical symbolic computation program
Mathematica
Wolfram Mathematica is a software system with built-in libraries for several areas of technical computing that allow machine learning, statistics, symbolic computation, data manipulation, network analysis, time series analysis, NLP, optimizat ...
.
History
The Wolfram Language was a part of the initial version of Mathematica in 1988.
Symbolic aspects of the engine make it a computer algebra system. The language can perform integration, differentiation,
matrix
Matrix most commonly refers to:
* ''The Matrix'' (franchise), an American media franchise
** ''The Matrix'', a 1999 science-fiction action film
** "The Matrix", a fictional setting, a virtual reality environment, within ''The Matrix'' (franchis ...
manipulations, and solve
differential equation
In mathematics, a differential equation is an equation that relates one or more unknown functions and their derivatives. In applications, the functions generally represent physical quantities, the derivatives represent their rates of change, an ...
s using a set of rules. Also, the initial version introduced the notebook model and the ability to embed sound and images, according to
Theodore Gray
Theodore W. "Theo" Gray is a co-founder of Wolfram Research, science author, and co-founder of app developer Touch Press.
Education
Theodore Gray was educated at the University of Illinois Laboratory High School. He would later graduate wit ...
's patent.
Wolfram also added features for more complex tasks, such as 3D modeling.
A name was finally adopted for the language in 2013, as Wolfram Research decided to make a version of the language engine free for
Raspberry Pi
Raspberry Pi () is a series of small single-board computers (SBCs) developed in the United Kingdom by the Raspberry Pi Foundation in association with Broadcom. The Raspberry Pi project originally leaned towards the promotion of teaching basic ...
users, and they needed to come up with a name for it. It was included in the recommended software bundle that the
Raspberry Pi Foundation
The Raspberry Pi Foundation is a British charity and company founded in 2009 to promote the study of basic computer science in schools, and is responsible for developing the Raspberry Pi single-board computers.
Foundation
The Raspberry Pi Found ...
provides for beginners, which caused some controversy due to the Wolfram language's