languages of choice

languages of choice n.  {C}, {LISP}, and {Perl}.
   Nearly every hacker knows one of C or Lisp, and most good ones are
   fluent in both.  Over the last years, Perl has rapidly been gaining
   favor, especially as a tool for systems-administration utilities
   and rapid prototyping.  Smalltalk and Prolog are also popular in
   small but influential communities.

   There is also a rapidly dwindling category of older hackers with
   FORTRAN, or even assembler, as their language of choice.  They
   often prefer to be known as {Real Programmer}s, and other
   hackers consider them a bit odd (see "{The Story of Mel,
   a Real Programmer}" in Appendix A).  Assembler is generally
   no longer considered interesting or appropriate for anything but
   {HLL} implementation, {glue}, and a few time-critical and
   hardware-specific uses in systems programs.  FORTRAN occupies a
   shrinking niche in scientific programming.

   Most hackers tend to frown on languages like {{Pascal}} and
   {{Ada}}, which don't give them the near-total freedom considered
   necessary for hacking (see {bondage-and-discipline language}),
   and to regard everything even remotely connected with {COBOL} or
   other traditional {card walloper} languages as a total and
   unmitigated {loss}.