Advantages of each programming language

[wireties]

There are many environments (in the real world) where C and C++ is only choice, favorite or not. For example the Linux kernel and drivers are written in C. The native API for the OS on the robot (VxWorks) is in C, all the other APIs are only a wrapper. Drivers and board support packages for VxWorks are written in C only.

I would advise a student looking to be a computer scientist that Java is a viable choice. If the student is going to be an engineer (especially in embedded systems and robotics), C/C++ is a better choice. C/C++ is not going away any time soon and C++ is not so different from Java that training in Java (which many high schools provide) is not applicable.

What are Oracle and Microsoft plans for Java? Will Java diverge? Will HTML5 and/or C# kill Java? Who knows? LabView and Python are awesome environments but not (works everywhere for everything) primary tools, they are specialized 4GL tools.

Also, (in FRC) using a language your mentor knows is a primary consideration.

HTH