[sgt]

In the case of embedded programming, Forth is often made for the job. C is great for embedded programming too, and you can always mix the two languages. C isn't made for scripting, and hacks like PicoC don't appeal to me since it will always remain a hack.

While not exactly a scripting language per se, Forth does have amazing interactive capabilities. It's extremely light-weight and it's easy to implement a new Forth on a new hardware architecture. Footprint issues aside, development time in Forth is usually shorter, and the ability to connect directly to a device's Forth "shell" and try out Forth words (functions), create new words, play around with hardware in real-time is invaluable.

Forth code is less readable if you don't know Forth, and occasionally Forth programmers write ugly code, but that is definitely the case for embedded C programmers too.