PS: if you want to program in .Net, there are MonoTouch and MonoDroid from Xamarin (Miguel & company). However, there is no desktop version, etc.

>There have been a couple of recent threads on SlashDot discussing languages:
>
>PHP: http://developers.slashdot.org/story/12/06/29/1458234/the-php-singularity - some of the related links are epic posts describing its shortcomings. Regardless, a ( frighteningly? ) large portion of the web runs on PHP.
>
>C: http://developers.slashdot.org/story/12/07/02/1657206/whats-to-love-about-c That thread includes a pithy comment:
>
>"Ca. 1980, the joke was that C was like masturbation: it might not be what you really want, but it's always available".
>
>Sounds like the same argument could be made for JavaScript, today - what other client-side options are there?
>
>>In your other thread, you noted the difference between a standard (sort of) and a development ide. There's more to it than that. Think of everything that goes into making a UI do what you want. And what will you be doing it with? JavaScript. JavaScript, according to the guy who wrote it (Brendan Eich), is a mess. And according to perhaps the most-recognized guru on JavaScript (Douglas Crockford), it took him 10 years to figure it out. Some development environment.
>>
>>>>>>However, the future is HTML 5.
>>>>
>>>>Hmm it seems to me that just a few years ago, someone said that the future was Silverlight
>>>>
>>>>It might be more precise to say "Microsoft has said that the future is HTML 5."
>>>>
>>>
>>>That one I believe. All signs are that HTML 5 is going to be huge. Keep in mind that it is an industry standard (W3C), not a Microsoft standard or product.
>>>
>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>It basically dead, but XAML lives on.
>>>>
>>>>However, the future is HTML 5.