[davismwfl]

C and C++ are in many ways increasing not decreasing. C and C++ both have significant offerings in many areas, and you can find both in almost all industries.

I am guessing by the way you worded your question that you are being at least slightly dismissive of the embedded market. Many people are, but almost everything you touch has a microprocessor that likely is running some C and/or C++ code on it now.

Every cable box usually is C/C++, every DVR, home theater receivers, microwaves, conventional ovens, garage door controllers, hell even that stupid sink faucet you touch to turn on/off is likely running some C code. It is everywhere because it is the one language that is the most transportable and powerful across domains that carries the least amount of baggage with it.

C++ is less likely to be found on the tiny to small chips running things, but you see it more and more where chips can support it. Not to mention, every time you use your cell phone you are using dozens of components, most all written in C/C++ and not all are embedded systems.

[purplerabbit]

I thought Forth was easier to transport / had less baggage? Or am I wrong?

[davismwfl]

I am not an expert in regards to FORTH so I'd have to let someone with more experience say. FORTH from what I know has been around since at least the Z80 days. But honestly, I do not know if it carries more or less baggage, nor whether it is really more portable.

All the embedded work I have done has mostly been C with a little more C++ in the recent years, outside of some machine level stuff for highly specialized devices. So just from that, at least in my experience C is the more common, portable and easily worked with language.