A recent article on CNN described the problem that phone makers
are facing.
(http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/biztech....ap/index.html)
Most people are rejecting the new "supercharged"
cell phones because they just do not want to learn the
incredible complex menus and stuff that you need to use them.
The new phones are just too complicated to use.
The same thing is happening with programming languages too.
Extremey complicated languages like C++ are loosing ground to more
simpler languages. People get tired of trying to learn a
monster language where learning the language gets in the way
of the basic needs of the user. You use a language to do something,
and when you have to learn too much stuff or the learning curve
is too steep, a simpler language wins.
This means for C, that C (contrary to what many people think)
has a good opportunity to attract new users. Being a much
simpler language it is the language of choice when you want something
that works without a lot of effort.
This could explain why the download rate of the lcc-win32 compiler
that offers only C stays since several years high. In this month
we have a mean download rate of around 300-400 per day at one of
our sites, probably more at the main downloading site.