For anyone interested in using Julia for numerical optimization/mathematical programming, see http://juliaopt.org/.
We have pure-Julia implementations of standard unconstrained methods [1] as well as a domain-specific modeling language [2] for (integer) linear programming with links to open-source and commercial solvers. Julia's performance and advanced language features such as metaprogramming really make it a great language for optimization [3].
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1FlHt245YxPXFwOHmxLYW...