title: Future of languages with no standard and no corporate backing
body: <p>Over the years we have seen (well, I have :) a number of languages come and go. Some were more accepted, some a little less. So I was wondering, what do you think are factors which most impact whether the language survives ? And whether it will have a future for a number of years (by that I mean several decades or so) ?</p>
  
  <p>For example, fortran and C have survived the test of time. They were popular though, but they also had very good corporate backing, financing, and standard specifications (ANSI and ISO).</p>
  
  <p>Some of the modern languages I see today, although they are popular, have none of that (the current implementation is often considered standard). That is all fine for the time being, but what about 10 or 20 years later, when their authors are maybe not here anymore. I very rarely see open source languages which make the transition into corporate financing.</p>
  
  <p>If you could put with a few words, in your opinion, what would be the most important factors for the survival of a language and why ?</p>