The only real programming language is punching cards and praying. Everything else is safety net for the weaklings.<p>Real programming language is anything with which you could convince, beg, scare, extort, and abuse a computer system to do what you want it to do - you will be surprised how much more well behaved some dev kits and prototyping boards are when you have 2kg hammer in the room.<p>And there are the real real programming languages that make your chest hair and beard grow to a point where Stallman comes to you, taps you on the shoulder and says - "Dude you need to learn a few thing about grooming". They are usually assembly languages.