[simonblack]

I think he means that Java is not a small language, rather than it doesn't take up much space in RAM.

Personally, I still think that C is a very good compromise between size (both of the language and of its RAM usage) and it's level of abstraction.

The size of a language can be judged by the size of a definitive text on learning the language. Compare how small the K&R book "The C Programming Language" is [230 pages] compared with (say) the O'Reilly book "Learning Python" [1200 pages].

[sushsjsuauahab]

I respect this argument but I'm curious as to how the smallness of a language would be beneficial to a developer, if the goal is to be able to rapidly build applications which are still quite performant.

C, when run on the same exact machine as Java, is only a few x faster in the best case scenario to my understanding. And as complexity of the application grows, there is a chance that you don't manage your memory properly, something which a garbage collected language usually does well enough.

Couple in the rich libraries for both languages, I think I would still choose java unless I was writing an embedded system.