Walter: "I'll note here that working on stuff that I needed has
fared quite a bit better than working on stuff that I was told
others need."
This has also been my experience, that you should do what you
feel is right, what really makes you happy. Had I heeded all the
advice I've been given about how "useful" and "useless" this and
that is, I wouldn't be where I am now. Practically everything I
went for was considered "useless". I know far too many people who
did what was once considered useful (i.e. "where the money is"),
and ended up being completely unhappy. There will always be
people like the C Guru (he probably wasn't one), but never mind
them. Go where your heart says.
I would have liked to have a Java native compiler though, but
hey, now we have D.