Source : Free On-Line Dictionary of Computing

languages of choice
     
        {C} and {Lisp}.  Nearly every hacker knows one of these, and
        most good ones are fluent in both.  Smalltalk and Prolog are
        also popular in small but influential communities.
     
        There is also a rapidly dwindling category of older hackers
        with Fortran, or even assembler, as their language of choice.
        They often prefer to be known as {Real Programmer}s, and other
        hackers consider them a bit odd (see "{The Story of Mel}").
        Assembler is generally no longer considered interesting or
        appropriate for anything but {HLL} implementation, {glue}, and
        a few time-critical and hardware-specific uses in systems
        programs.  Fortran occupies a shrinking niche in scientific
        programming.
     
        Most hackers tend to frown on languages like {Pascal} and
        {Ada}, which don't give them the near-total freedom considered
        necessary for hacking (see {bondage-and-discipline language}),
        and to regard everything even remotely connected with {COBOL}
        or other traditional {card walloper} languages as a total and
        unmitigated {loss}.
     
        [{Jargon File}]