[theclay]

Apples and Oranges. Open heart surgery is not most--notice I say most--programming jobs. Nor do most software bugs carry the same sorts of penalties as screw-ups in major surgery.

This is why programmers aren't sued and surgeons are.

There is a huge niche in programming languages for non-professional/semi-professional programmers without computer science degrees. This niche is currently unfilled. Basic used to do the job. Python used to, and still wants to, but it keeps moving up the ladder in complexity.

Lua looks most competitive in this regard, I think. One main data structure, fast execution, room to grow without feature creep.