C will live forever

My good friend Olve Maudal said something the other day that caught my ear. He said C will never be replaced. I think he's right. Languages like Java and Ruby are great languages when you don't need to get near to the metal. But if you do need to get near to the metal, then C has already filled that niche so well that it's hard to see it ever being replaced. You might say that a language like C, but without C's penchant for undefined behaviour, could somehow replace C. I don't think so. The point is that the sweet spot for a language designed to be used close to the metal is a language that deliberately does not get rid of its undefined behaviour. Because that is part of it being in the sweet spot. And besides, C has been around long enough that if a language was going to replace C wouldn't it already have happened?