[gmantastic]

Making a language that good programmers would freely choose to use is a great design goal.

In my first paid job I wrote loads of Cobol, even though I was already proficient in more expressive languages. I can't think of any scenario where I would freely choose to use it.

Today I sometimes write SAS code. This can be so painful I solve the problem in Python first, at home, in my own time, then port the solution to SAS. Python (and its ecosystem) is so nice to use, and productive, I'd rather use it and not get paid, than get paid to use something else.

Any language that passes that test is doing pretty well.

[ErrantX]

Sure :) I was picking old languages to match pg's choices a little.

But if we're talking today, I think Python is the Cadillac :)