The primary argument against node.js (and perhaps ruby) AFAIC is that many users will not already have it installed. Python/Perl/Bash you can count on all user

The primary argument against node.js (and perhaps ruby) AFAIC is that many users will not already have it installed. Python/Perl/Bash you can count on all users having. C is a fine choice, but of course requires more packaging to be user friendly. I've used zsh as my interactive shell for years, but I always still write bash scripts instead of zsh scripts. You can count on bash scripts running just about anywhere.