On Thursday, March 3, 2011 8:35:17 AM UTC-8, Ed Huntress wrote:

My son is an economics researcher for a think tank, and he uses statistics
programs -- SAS, SPSS, and SDATA -- all day long. ...he'd like to know something
that may be useful in his work (he had a math minor, and he's now going for
a Masters in applied mathematics).

Quick programs, bigger than a little scripting, would favor Python and maybe
APL (Aplus is an available free variant). If the programs start to get big,
an IDE (integrated development environment) and a C or variant (C++) program
language are suitable. If his applied math program is any good, it'll cover
this decision, though; there'll be requirements.

Java and VB are owner-controlled, which scares me. I've done years of
work and then had the underlying language changed or withdrawn.