Although C++0x is quite an improvement to C++ (type inference, anonymous functions, and so on), I have to say that Scala seems even better. The thing is that Scala only runs on the JVM, although it seems like it can also run on top of C#.
Ideally, I would like a language as nice as Scala, but running "on top of" C++ -- using the standard libraries, easily linking against C/C++ object files, the whole deal. I do a lot of numerical programming built of top of well established C/C++ libraries (fast and reliable), and that is not something I can walk away from.
Is anyone of aware of such a language?
Update:
The features I am looking for are:
Seamless integration with C/C++ libraries, just like Scala can access Java libraries without the need for bindings to be generated/maintained
A strong type system, with a well designed type inference system that keeps me from having to write verbose and redundant type annotations
Functional and OO features built into the language, with the support of its own libraries instead of only relying on the standard C/C++ libraries.
It seems like a lot of the clang/LLVM work being done right now may facilitate work along these lines, but it would be nice to find that something like this is already being worked on.