Nova:I agree.
But my bet is on Windows Scripting Host and JAVA, for two reasons...
1) Windows Scripting Host will be the logon processor of tomorrow. Microsoft is already starting to iron-out the security related issues.
2) JAVA is the "language of the Internet", and if one knows JAVA, one can build a logon script just as easily as a WEB page or stand-alone client-server application.
One can also easily step back into native C/C++ programming with minimal re-training.
And it's seems that JAVA is the only common thread that's out there right now.
Perl is nice, but it lacks the object oriented paradigm. I believe that this is absolutely vital. Even Operating Systems are object oriented now. It's NOT a fad ! It's here for good and any scripting language that doesn't keep up is destined for the circular bin !
Shawn.