A few points of order: 1. My first high-level language was Common Lisp (clisp). >My point is that in certain scenarios where you need performance but aren't w

A few points of order: 1. My first high-level language was Common Lisp (clisp). >My point is that in certain scenarios where you need performance but aren't willing to pay the C++ grief, you can get away with better languages without significantly sacrificing. 2. And? I expressly said that when you need to be able to squeeze every last ounce and have total control over the behavior of the program and that's when this discussion became relevant. Close only counts in hand grenades and horseshoes. I'm talking about systems work.