It is often said of it that you can write in any of the three major styles - procedural, functional or object-oriented. If you haven't used Mathematica then you probably want to know what the language is like. It uses a Notebook metaphor complete with the familiar in out line groupings and even Shift+Enter to evaluate an expression. If you sign up for the Programming Cloud then you will feel at home if you are familiar with Mathematica. You can see it in action in the following video:

In this respect it is like Python in that many problems are already solved in the form of modules. One of the huge advantages of using Mathematica or Wolfram Language is the number of advanced function libraries that are available. The same technology can be used to apply machine learning or image processing. For example, if you want to solve a differential equation or an integral there is a function that will do the job and you can then use other functions to factor and simplify the result. The original intent was to allow the manipulation of mathematical expressions, but it also makes general symbolic computation possible. The key difference between Wolfram Language and most others is that it is a symbolic language that lets you perform complex list processing operations. The second is that the language is backed by all the function libraries that make Mathematica powerful and different. First have a free tier for Wolfram cloud that is going to let a lot of people try out the new, or should that be 'old', language and see if it can do anything for them.

While much of what is going on is a marketing exercise, there is some good news. It is only a breakthrough, however, if you haven't already encountered Mathematica, as it is mostly a port of the Mathematica scripting language to the cloud plus some additional libraries such as an API to use Wolfram Alpha. After spending a lot of time agonizing about what to call the Mathematica scripting language it was named Wolfram Language and it has been claimed as a breakthrough. The real mystery of Wolfram Language is why it took Stephen Wolfram so long to realize that it was possible to get a wider adoption of Mathematica by making the language more important than the program. but if you get hooked the bill increases quite quickly. The next step in the conversion of the Mathematica symbolic math package into a programming language has just been launched - Wolfram Programming Cloud.

Wolfram cloud tutorial