The very
concept of a
language of choice is puzzling. All decent programmers know that
all programming languages suck.
Lisp is too hard to
compile;
Haskell has its bits as a
bondage-and-discipline language;
C combines the
expressiveness of
assembler with its
ease-of-use; ways one more than in
Forth backwards is;
Perl is neat, only
only Perl can parse Perl, and only
Damien Conway can add new syntax after the fact (which is a
Good Thing, as Perl syntax is hideously contorted and un
orthogonal); and as for
C++, look no further than
the C++ programming language freakshow.
So what makes all of them languages of choice?
Just one simple fact. The alternatives are much worse.