jrockway: you misunderstood my intentions. I don't code C nor Java, I was merely pointing out that it is way too early to declare C obsolete, since so much C-de

jrockway: you misunderstood my intentions. I don't code C nor Java, I was merely pointing out that it is way too early to declare C obsolete, since so much C-derived development is going on. In case you're familiar with gcj, what's the status of that project? Their page hasn't been updating lately, is it being actively maintained? It looks like the most painless way to integrate some Java code I have with Ruby... and I don't wan to bet on a dying horse :) And as a side note, regarding "Beating the Averages": there are many ways to beat the averages, and beating them ONLY by using a higher level language is like beating them with Aeron chairs: yes, some languages give you productivity boost over others, but I disagree with Paul on magnitude of that effect - in fact I'd say that availability of certain libraries beats any boost provided by language alone. And, to conclude, here's a little example from real life: a group of programmers I know were working on some nifty AI stuff for automated document processing, and they were doing it in C++, which I disliked. They just discovered a totally different market in the embedded space, which allows them to grow and make money. Thanks for their language of choice (C++), they were able to beat an average Java/Python/Lisp-powered startup that doesn't have access to that segment. Just saying... :)