Sadly, there hasn't been too much progress in the last 20 years -- the best are still the Lisp variants (Common Lisp, Scheme, Racket, Clojure) and the ML variants (Standard ML, OCaml, F#, Haskell).
You get ultimate flexibility and malleability with the former and elegant correctness with the latter.
I agree, don’t limit yourself to a language since sometimes there are certain ones that fit the job. I started off with Java and love it, but haven’t used it in a while since new job and project requires go.
Which all of above is the reason I like D Lang, as it is ABI compatible with C/C++. So all existing libraries and code written in C can just be used but also have the convenience of modern language design principles. Which unlike the other modern languages like Rust, Go, .Net, etc... it is not corporate owned and controlled. So being completely free and open source like C/C++, D is continuing build on top of what came before, but also bringing in modern languages safety for memory, types, as well as rtti (runtime type introspection), and being multi paradigm allowing procedural, OOP, and functional to all co-exist in the same code.
So that is why I think it is the best choice for my default language of choice.
This is just plainly not true. Mozilla is one part of Rust's governance, but is nowhere near a controlling stake. We deliberately designed it so that control by a singular organization is impossible.
Participation is not control. Mozilla cannot make decisions about Rust’s future. They can participate in the open process to make those decisions, but we operate on consensus, and they’re a small minority of the stakeholders.
I’d object to “shilling”, but I still advocate for Rust. Mozilla plays no part in my decision to do so, for better or for worse, for exactly that reason: they’re not in control of it, so I’m not sure why that’s relevant.
I lean towards the one with the best distribution model, what can reach the largest audience without unnecessary layers, since the language particulars aren't all that important except in endless bike shedding.
and that would be JS.
Unless you need to do something more interesting than a browser will allow.
I'm writing a backend in Rust right now, and its pretty nice. The ecosystem of packages was the most important factor for me (as well as the ease of spinning up a dev environment).
You get ultimate flexibility and malleability with the former and elegant correctness with the latter.