Maya 8.5 with Python
Maya 8.5, now with Python!
I don't think I'm going out on a limb to state that one of the requirements of a platform is to be scriptable. I've never understood why platform creators (which is really what Maya is, a platform for doing 3D graphics) have felt the need to create their own scripting languages. There are a number of choices for embeddable languages: Python, Perl, and Tcl. I've always felt that Python was the number one choice. It has been embeddable since version 1.0 came out in early 1994.
Now I don't know how long MEL has been around, but it may predate the release of Python and I totally get not re-engineering something that's working, but I'm really jazzed about being able to use Python do do my scripting. It's awesome that Autodesk has done this work. If this is the type of thing we'll see coming out of Autodesk, I'll be really pleased.
Having built a reasonable sized system (RigBuilder which has around 15K of MEL code with the main driver being around 2K and another 12K-13K of rig modules), I know I needed better data structures than MEL provided several times. Using parallel arrays as an advanced data structure just doesn't cut it.
Now I just have to get my hands on it. Too bad the PLE is based on 7.0.