Perl

I'm sure you take my word for it.

You guys are sooo gay. Java and C++ are nearly identical. If you want to talk about significantly different languages then Perl is a good start, then scheme, sml, haskell, prolog, ruby, etc... Even javascript has functional aspects.

To the OP:

When it come to work in a company, you must use what they allow you to use.

For your own production, the fact is that:

THE BEST LANGUAGE IS THE ONE YOU ARE BETTER AT.

X is for quiche eaters.

Replace X with one following the rule named #must_match_a_programming_language_name#

Heretic!

I started learning C++ about a year before Java. I found Java programming much more productive, but used C++ because Java wasn't yet a formidable game language. Things have certainly changed now, but the game industry is quite predictably slow to catch on. It doesn't matter that Java is a memory hog. The fact that the JVM eats a big chunk of the heap at startup isn't a problem, because it is just doing what most big games do anyway.

For me, distribution is the overriding factor in language choice. If I want to make a game that can be quickly downloaded, I'm probably not going to be too comfortable with requiring the JRE be installed. But if I'm distributing on CD or some other physical format, then I can just include the latest JRE and have the installer install it if needed. In the former case (Internet distribution) I would most likely prototype in Java and perform a native conversion once the game is finished.

Coding is generally much easier in Java, thanks to garbage collection and its huge set of libraries. Java is quite fast, with only exception being Swing (which is slow due to implementing its own window manager). Java programs are portable with minimal fuss.
Java programs tend to be slower than C++ programs, because of all the work being done in the background...but I do not find the performance issue critical for most applications.

If you need the absolute fastest speed possible, go with C++. But be prepared to be mentally tortured by an endless stream of uncontrolled crashes, memory corruption, wild pointers, etc. But, in the end, if you make it, your app will be fast!

I had no end of troubles when I was learning C, with Win95. Oh how I hate win95.

I usually prefer to program in HTML.

I haven't. I find it kind of fun to control my own memory allocation

I'm sure there are lots of non-programmers who have never had those sort of problems with C.
For me, C is favourite language. I'm a bit fan of the pointers, and I feel like C really puts me in control of the computer. I like the philosophy that "the programmer knows what they are doing", and so the language should just do what you tell it to do.
Once upon a time I did have a bit of a nightmarish memory bug in one of my games; but never again since then. I know how to avoid those problems now, and I know what the symptoms are as well.

I like variables much better than HTML.

Yeah, that was supposed to be a joke. I was hoping it sounded ridiculous enough that it was obvious... guess no.

As do I, although I'm sure you could rig something up in HTML that's somewhat variableish.

[edit]
Oh, and I actually prefer C++... just so people can take me seriously again.

That's not neccesarily true, you see. For example you can make two memory errors in a line, or, with a loop, you can have one memory error over, and over again, which is basically more than just one error. Also, you could have a line that doesn't deal with memory, therefore, it could end up looking like this:

{"name":"589614","src":"\/\/djungxnpq2nug.cloudfront.net\/image\/cache\/b\/9\/b9d33ab751bc75688c3afdd96c6c2803.jpg","w":400,"h":400,"tn":"\/\/djungxnpq2nug.cloudfront.net\/image\/cache\/b\/9\/b9d33ab751bc75688c3afdd96c6c2803"}

Instead of this:

{"name":"589613","src":"\/\/djungxnpq2nug.cloudfront.net\/image\/cache\/2\/d\/2d685d0416531eb3d6454af382d3ed68.jpg","w":400,"h":400,"tn":"\/\/djungxnpq2nug.cloudfront.net\/image\/cache\/2\/d\/2d685d0416531eb3d6454af382d3ed68"}

That makes sense