Programming Language	Object Oriented	Strict Typing	Exception Handling	Garbage Collection	Smart Block Syntax
C	no	no	no	no	no
C++	mixed	no	yes	no	no
C# (C sharp, .NET)	?	?	yes	?	?
Pascal	no	yes	no	no	no
Object Pascal	yes	?	?	?	no
Objective C	yes	no (dynamic)	mixed	no	no
Java	yes	yes	yes	yes	no
Perl	mixed (>5/6)	mixed (>6)	yes (>5)	yes (scripted)	no
PHP	mixed (>4/5)	no	mixed (>5)	yes (scripted)	mixed (<3)
Python	mixed	no (dynamic)	yes	yes (scripted)	yes

Numbers represent the major version number for which a feature is available.

Object Oriented mixed means that you often see applications with mixed imperative and object code. This is often the case for languages in which exception handling was added later.
Strict Typing Strict typing means that you explictly need to typecast variables from one type into the other, rather then that is done automatically for you by the compiler. Note that strict typing is only possible for static typed languages (in which the type checking is done at compile time), but not for dynamically typed language, such as Objective-C and SmallTalk (in which type checking is done during runtime).
Exception handling mixed means that while you can make try{} constructs yourself, most built-in function instead still return a mixed type (for example, a positive integer on success and the boolean false or "-1" on failure) or require you to call a seperate error function, instead of throwing an exception itself. This is often the case for languages in which exception handling was added later.
Garbage Collection Automatic garbage collection; unused variables are automatically free()'d, so there are no memory leaks. This is important, because in most programmers are not up to handling memory management.
Smart Block Syntax Most applications use curly brackets { } to group statements, forming a block. However, this has the inherent problem that it is often a fight between style fanatics to either save space and write it on the same line as the condition, or style fanatics to write it on a seperate line, aligning the opening and closing brackets. There are better alternatives for curly brackets (most language designers feel that curly brackets where a terribly idea in the first place). Bellow are some alternatives.