John Montgomery's revelation that the most commonly used languages of non-professional programmers are HTML, JavaScript, and C++ is worth reflecting on.

First, let's just state the obvious: HTML without JavaScript isn't a programming language, and few people are using Rhino or what-have-you to explore JavaScript as a standalone language, so …

Eric Gunnerson, discussing "Why so many languages?" makes the key point that "Compactness and simplicity have big benefits as well in programming languages."

Once upon a time, I made a good living teaching Java. Sometimes I taught it to C and C++ developers, sometimes I taught it to COBOL developers …