Somehow I wonder... almost all Languages which have been established as stable and useful Languages (C, C++, Perl) are considered "ZOMG THEY ARE DEAD!!!!!1111". I wonder whether thats just because there is more of a hype around languages like Haskell, Ocaml, Ruby, Java or Python.

IMO a language is not dead while there are still programmers that use it. Smalltalk, for example, still has a small but active community, and as long as there is such a community, the language won't just "die".

All this "this language dies" and "that language dies" sounds like big marketing foo and zealots fearing that their "favorite" tool is going not to be "cool" anymore. Languages, like natural languages, are changing IMO, and if one language is not up to the job, there will be another one. Currently there is no alternative to Perl (5), and there won't be one for the next 5-7 years. And it will be still around in 20 years.

I don't personally consider COBOL to be a living language, even though there are plenty of people still using it. My definition is that if the main argument in its favor is keeping legacy applications going, it's a dead language.

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"There is no shame in being self-taught, only in not trying to learn in the first place." -- Atrus, Myst: The Book of D'ni.

Pretty much agree, but IMO, s/dead/moribund/

The question to ask, is what language are the 'new' languages that are meant to be replacing C written in?

Only once a replacement becomes self-hosting and bootstrapable, does it begin to become a viable alternative to C.

If it ever becomes the language of choice for the authors of new languages, then we might have a contender.

The only language I've seen that I think could replace C, is The D Language.

Your reasoning about D stands, but you should also consider that "languages that could replace C" also includes Java and the common dynamic languages, for a lot of programs that shouldn't have been written in C in the first place.

/J

Point taken, but I was thinking of "languages that could replace C" in the sense of those that could replace what C can do, rather than what people do with C.

For example, be the language of choice used to implement "Java and the common dynamic languages". I've a funny feeling that Java is written in C++, but the point holds.

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Examine what is said, not who speaks -- Silence betokens consent -- Love the truth but pardon error.

"Science is about questioning the status quo. Questioning authority".

In the absence of evidence, opinion is indistinguishable from prejudice.

"Too many [] have been sedated by an oppressive environment of political correctness and risk aversion."

Java can't replace C

when they start writing fast kernels in Java, that will be the day I switch. Honestly, I think the real reason they don't have better C memory mangement, is because the college professors either don't know how to teach it, or the students are rushed thru, and they don't allow enough time to teach it. Everyone wants "canned memory management", and "point-and-click" GUI designers. I think the Universities consider you a success if you can do Excel Spreadsheets, and put a database on the Net. Anything more is considered PHd level. :-)

Actually I thought Perl makes a pretty good percentage showing, considering it's OpenSource, freely supported, and not backed by a major corporation.

Keep in mind that the US is presumably in recession. (Though frankly, I haven't seen any particular drop in the Dynamic Languages Barometer. Good news for us hackers, I guess.)

Wrt TIOBE, I think this pretty much says all that needs saying.

Tho I suppose by properly torturing the statistics, one can state that a language's popularity is inversely proportional to the number of available jobs for the language (assuming we ignore languages that start with "Java").