Why are C, C++, and LISP so prevalent in embedded devices and robots?

Question

It seems that the software language skills most sought for embedded devices and robots are C, C++, and LISP. Why haven\'t more recent languages made inroads into these applicat

Answer 1

C and C++ are languages with very effective compilers (what leads to efficiency very important in Embedded systems with low resources).

Regarding Lisp, some misunderstanding has been spawned. Common Lisp (something what is mostly used right now - descendent of LISP 1.5) is compiled (not interpreted) and very efficient with a wide range of implementations and FFI (i.e your Common Lisp application may interoperate with C libraries) and some very nice high-level constructs. Live coding via REPL makes it even more convenient for checking out things on working robot.

Moreover there is Embeddable Common-Lisp, which allows embedding Common Lisp application in C binary – it is implementation compiled to shared library.