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AnonTechie writes:

Wired reports on some new programming languages.

People are constantly creating new programming languages, but because the software world is already saturated with so many if them, the new ones rarely get used by more than a handful of coders-especially if they're built by an ex-Symantec engineer without the backing of a big-name outfit. But Bright's new language, known as D, was much further along than the one Alexandrescu was working on, dubbed Enki, and Bright said they'd both be better off if Alexandrescu dumped Enki and rolled his ideas into D. Alexandrescu didn't much like D, but he agreed. "I think it was the beer", he now says.

The result is a programming language that just might defy the odds. Nine years after that night in Seattle, a $200-million startup has used D to build its entire online operation, and thanks to Alexandrescu, one of biggest names on the internet is now exploring the new language as well. Today, Alexandrescu is a research scientist at Facebook, where he and a team of coders are using D to refashion small parts of the company's massive operation. Bright, too, has collaborated with Facebook on this experimental software, as an outsider contractor. The tech giant isn't an official sponsor of the language-something Alexandrescu is quick to tell you- but Facebook believes in D enough to keep him working on it full-time, and the company is at least considering the possibility of using D in lieu of C++, the venerable language that drives the systems at the heart of so many leading web services.

In fact, Facebook is working to bridge this gap with not one but two languages. As it tinkers with D, the company has already revamped much of its online empire with a new language called Hack, which, in its own way, combines speed with simplicity. While using Hack to build the front-end of its service- the webpages you see when you open the service in your web browser-Facebook is experimenting with D on the back-end, the systems that serve as the engine of its social network. Certainly, D still faces a long road to success. But this new language has already come further than most.