> Programming the AVR-8 Arduino it's hard to miss the conclusion that "C sucks" but anything really better (say Supercharged Pascal or a Miracle Macro Assembler)

I did see an Ada compiler for the AVR recently (I'm not an Ada programmer). It seemed unpolished, and not really an advancement on C.

I think one problem with embedded work is that you either stick to the low-level, in which case you have no advantage over C, or you go for high-level, in which case you have convenience but lose flexibility.

In terms of meta programming, Val Schorre has an interesting idea with META-II. Both Alan Kay and Joe Armstrong spoke highly of it.The compiler has its own assembly language. I had this goofy idea of writing a Basic-like language that replaced the assembly. So you'd have a language that was both high-level Basic and a compiler. It would embrace the GOTO, because META-II also generates GOTOs, and GOTOs are a natural fit for CPS (Continuation Passing Style) used by many compilers.