C. I’ve been programming for over 30 years and it’s the only language to survive. Imagine if I was asked this question 30 years ago and picked perl or Pascal, I’d be screwed today.

Rust:

• It covers all bases, from embedded to backend to webdev to gamedev.
• I could create libraries with it, which can be called from other languages.
• It’s good.

Likely either C or C++, both languages have been around for a long time and both are still used in huge projects

Scala. Expressive, concise, can scale from simple to sophisticated. Sufficiently powerful - has metaprogramming, advanced types. Runs on a world-class runtime and takes advantage of a huge, mature package ecosystem that isn’t going anywhere.

Rust, hands down.

I would be torn between Python and Rust.

The case for Python is that I’m already very experienced in it (nearly 20 years), there’s a good job market out there for it, and the ecosystem is one of the best in existence. It’s like a comfortable well made jacket, maybe a tad worn in some areas but very functional. And it’s not standing still, with a community that’s committed to constant improvement.

Rust is more fun. I like the way it’s been put together. It can also be used in more areas. There are some niches (wasm, low level, kernel) where Python just doesn’t work. It has been able to benefit from the years of mistakes from Python and other languages on things like how it handles Unicode strings. I don’t know it as well as Python, but I barely get a chance to work with it so that could change quickly in time.

Rust, easily.

I’d probably pick something esoteric and then just stop programming, tbh. I enjoy being a polyglot programmer, and learning many languages and learning from many ecosystems is incredibly interesting to me, far more than hyper-specializing in a single language would be.

V.

Unison. If it were to gain mainstream adoption, it would change the world. It’s a crazy futuristic idea and no one else seems to even remotely be approaching the same thing.

Rust.

Lua.

Don’t call the ambulance, it’s too late for me

C, because it can run everywhere and I won’t be limited on the things I can make

Lisp, the language that has them all.

PHP or C++, I love both of them for different reasons. Tough one deciding between the two.