Ask HN: Best language or library for handling data streams from sensors?

I'm often in a situation where I have some sensors (e.g. temperature, camera, seismometer, GPS, CO2 concentration, force/torque sensor, spectra from instrument ...), and I want to collect that data with a bit of live processing and display. LabView seems popular for this, but I'd like something free and open source. I've built some systems like this in python and some in C++, but it feels like "reinventing the wheel" each time. I'd like something where I define inputs, define some live plots, define storage, and I'm done. Maybe ROS is the way to go?