Extinction Event

It's kind of sad to watch Scheme, Python, and Perl self-destruct (and a pleasure to watch C++ go), but that doesn't mean we can't look forward to the future. What will take their place? Whose pet language will achieve widespread prominence? Perhaps Lisp will shake off the AI winter, or programmers will realize the value Haskell's Abstract Bullshite has. Or could it be something new?

>>8
In what way are they self-destructing?
Scheme is fragmenting. Apparently now one standard isn't enough, so they're going to have one that wants to be CL. This can't end well. Python 3.0 versus 2.6 (or whatever it is) is a fiasco. Perl 6 is DNFing as we speak. C++ is just gradually losing ground to languages that are actually appropriate to the domains it was used in, with Sepplesox as a desperate grasp at relevance.

There's quite a few actively developed implementations, there's many libraries and a decent userbase. Lispers don't really care for their language to become mainstream (same could be said about Haskell), but they'll gladly write code for themselves and publish nice libraries.
It's not mainstream like Perl was. And I think most Lispers, though they may babble about secret weapons, would love to see a shelf full of Lisp books in the store and library, and to have their pick of Lisp jobs. Maybe Haskellers too, although it seems currently to be a more popular academic vehicle than Lisp, so they might be perfectly happy just doing research with it.