meet your new god PL/I

We live in a world where C and C++ are the only game in town as far as compile to platform languages. Java, C# and even scripting languages like Python and Ruby are all garbage collected VM languages that only provide a bandaid to all of C and C++'s problems. There is a solution, PL/I, a very full featured systems, scientific and enterprise language that handles all the issues that C and C++ leave the programmer to work out on his own. Read this comparison between C and PL/I and you'll see its a very serious systems programming language what was and still is ahead of its time:
http://www.uni-muenster.de/ZIV.EberhardSturm/PL1andC.html

(PL/I is pronounced pee-el-one, not pee-el-eye, it stands for "Programming Language One")

We actually use PL/I where I work on our dinosaur IBM mainframe. I was offered the chance to learn it, but I figured I'd better stick to Java if I want to have a chance in the job market.