We've just got an embedded project involving C + RTL? (some kind of 
FPGA/ASIC definition language), and SWIG.  I've convinced the people 
involved that C will be fine for low-level stuff, but for the 
application logic we should use a high-level language to minimize our 
effort (memory management etc).  I'm pretty sure that we'll be using 
ruby (project lead is a fan of Why's guide).  As for why we chose/are 
considering ruby - no compilation (we're both sick of that damn compile 
phase), support from SWIG interfaces, easily interface with C libraries 
etc, clean OO.

Kev