Counterpoint: Use any language you want, as long as you keep in mind that you might have to re-write libraries that are available to you in more mainstream languages or use inferior or incomplete alternatives.

On many projects this isn't as much of a problem, but I think it's dangerous to assume that one can easily use 'any language' when developing web-based software.

If you have curiosity, many of these ideas are implemented in Arc:

Macros for generating HTML: http://arcfn.com/doc/html.html

Closures Simulate Subroutines: http://arcfn.com/doc/srv.html

I find the argument rather faulty. If you found your own company where does this "strong bias" to write software in the same language as the OS come from(just about every language out there has FFI to C so system libraries should be accessible)? If I am now writing Web software, I am now writing an application that runs on an OS that is primarily written in C so why does this "strong bias" magically disappear?

By looking at the way these users modified our built-in templates, we knew what we needed to add to them.

Big companies outsource their R&D like this too, letting startups detect problems and solve them. Then the big corp. buys that startup (or copies it), and absorbs the solution into the platform, so the platform is constantly improving. It's a great thing for users.

Continuation passing style: "Do this, then go here".

PG is a Lisp fanboy.

And before you down-vote this... well, I suppose I deserve it. Carry on.