http://www.gnu.org/software/sather/
GNU Sather is an object-oriented programming language designed to be simple, efficient and safe. It aims to be appropriate for use in teaching, research, and industry.
It was originally based on Eiffel but now incorporates ideas and approaches from several languages. One way of placing it in the "space of languages" is to say that it attempts to be as efficient as C, C++, or Fortran, as elegant and safe as Eiffel or CLU, and to support higher-order functions as well as Common Lisp or Scheme.
GNU Sather is an object-oriented language with garbage collection, statically-checked strong typing, multiple inheritance, separate implementation and type inheritance, parameterized classes, dynamic dispatch, iteration abstraction, higher-order routines and iterators, exception handling, assertions, preconditions, postconditions, and class invariants. Code can be compiled into C code and can link with C object files.
Cheers, Debarshi