Jim Cochrane wrote:
>  ...
>  If you're not too attached to the mainstream, Eiffel could be another
>  choice - efficient (statically compiled, like C++), but higher-level
>  than C++; has GC but is better designed than Java, as far as the language
>  itself.  Designed to facilitate writing correct programs.  If this
>  interests you, do a bit of googling/research to learn about its
>  advantages and disadvantages and see if it's worth pursuing further.
>  (There are two GNU-licensed Eiffel compilers available:
>  http://eiffelzone.com/esd/studio/index.html
>  http://smarteiffel.loria.fr/
>  .)
>    
...


Eiffel USED to be a good language.  Unfortunately they started making a 
lot of the wrong changes a few years ago.  Now... well, it was a small 
language to begin with, but it's split into at least three mutually 
incomprehensible dialects.  Also they've suppressed a lot of the good 
features while trying to add compatibility with MS.NET and also while 
adding tuples.  During this process they broke many of the extant 
libraries.  If something survives from this, it might again be a decent 
language to look at in a decade (perhaps slightly less).  Unfortunately, 
while they are feuding, other languages are progressing.  I note that 
Ada 2000 didn't add garbage collection, so it's still out of the loop, 
but there are new contenders.  My favorite among the compiled languages 
is D (Digital Mars D), though I'm also giving a bit of consideration to 
Gambit Scheme with Termite.  (To be honest, the Scheme thing is probably 
on indefinite hold...but Termite sounds quite interesting for a few 
years from now when more than two processors/CPU becomes common.  
[Currently I have an SMP system with two processors, so this wouldn't 
buy me much, but how many CPU slices with my next computer have?])