Why do we need new programming languages? There are vast majority of those suited to every fancy. Many projects have been already developed in one of the most popular programming languages and a switch to the other one will require total code rewriting. So why do we need stay trendy and learn new languages? Let’s consider what makes it necessary:
• New technologies emerge constantly, thus, we need new languages to appear.
• The volume of data grows and it is necessary to have a tool for its effective processing.
• We are in a constant search for more efficient and bug-free way of coding to save hardware resources and time for coding/debugging.
• They allow to use new opportunities to take advantage of the competition.
These three points determine what we consider “promising” means, when programming languages are mentioned. In this article we will examine the top programming languages for 2017.
What Is the Most Used Programming Language?
If you wonder which programming language to choose for your project, first of all you should determine its needs, whether you need an ordinary commercial solution or something more single-purposed. Do not forget, that every option is a tradeoff, which determines special tools, libraries and coders you need to put a project across. Overwhelmingly, for a commercial project it is more than enough to choose one of the traditional battle-tested giants, such as Java, C# and Javascript. They are the most in-demand languages now and it is hard to imagine them give way to any other language in the nearest future. They do not hit the buffers; on the contrary, their functionality extends, providing more and more useful improvements and fastening them securely at the top of the programming industry. For a developer, skills in any of them mean their employment is nearly guaranteed.
Read also: How to Choose a Mobile Development Platform?
As for the statistics about what is the most used programming language, TIOBE Index for March 2017 claims Java to be ever-popular and the most used in the world. Other sources tell us, this title belongs rightfully to Javascript. Taking into account, that C# alone can replace both of them easily, providing more functionality and outstanding universality, it is quite surprising the charts did not place it on the top position. Although, the projects written in any of these three languages are so manifold that it makes no sense to compare these languages with each other. They have successfully managed to adapt to the changes in the industry, so choose them boldly. Their use is more than spread; one can find program code written in them on most of the devices we use every day, and not only on a desktop or Android. It is very unlikely their population will diminish in the coming years.
The Most In-Demand Languages Now
As a particular technology shoots ahead, appropriate coders become like gold dust. The popularity of programming languages depends on a demand of technologies, in which they are most applied. It is the way of how the necessity to have more efficient and simple language for the use in iOS mobile development gave rise to Swift.
Swift
This month Swift enters the TIOBE index top 10 for the first time. For many years Objective-C was the only native mobile development language for all Apple products. Being a rather confusing language, especially for newbies, Objective-C significantly inhibited the development of Apple’s ecosystem. About 3 years ago Apple announced Swift would replace its “ancient” Objective-C. Though the adaptation took some time, today Swift strengthens its positions.
Nevertheless, it is important to realize, that no matter how high it flies now, each programming language is dependent on the breadth of its application. Since Swift is mainly intended to write applications for Apple’s products, it is possible that he reached its maximum it won’t rise much further. Though, experts do not agree with it.
Now we will talk about more narrowly focused languages, which capabilities open new opportunities to businesses and science.
Read also: Epic Battle: Objective-C vs Swift
R
R was developed by statisticians and scientists for the sake of facilitating their work. It implements most of the standard functions used for data analysis, and with the help of freely distributed libraries it is possible to add many additional useful algorithms to it. R gives data processing and analysis specialists almost everything needed to conduct research. It acts as a standard-bearer in the modern world, obsessed with using statistics to detect patterns in Big Data.
Python
Despite the fact that some consider Python as the best language for teaching programming, it is not as simple as one might think. Among its advantages are high performance, many free-of-charge courses, well-developed community, and rich libraries. Python is a language that can often be found in the latest scientific developments. All this become possible due to the SciPy Stack, a collection of open source software for scientific computing in Python. More bullets about its scientific appliance:
• Data visualization
• Mathematics of computations
• Symbolic computing
• Accelerating code
• Machine learning
Such a range of appliance shows its great capabilities better than any words. All this does not claim it to be only scientific language. It can successfully be used in commercial projects as well, though, it is not so popular.
GoLang
To conduct the search by its huge server farms, Google Inc. developed a new programming language. For that purpose they decided to create something simple, collecting good ideas from other languages. That is how Go (or GoLang) was born. In Go, there are no complex abstractions or sophisticated metaprogramming; it has only basic possibilities expressed by simple syntax.
Functional programming languages; Scala, Haskell, Clojure
Functional programming helps to create code that simplifies and facilitates the elimination of the most common bugs. It states that each function must have a well-defined input and output, without any additional variables. There are many good functional languages, and one of the most popular is Scala. It was created for execution in a JVM, so everything written in Scala can be executed where Java runs. Scala is not the only functional language with a large number of users, for instance, Haskell, its major competitor, is already used in large projects, such as Facebook. Other very promising language is Clojure, which promotes the principle of homoiconicity in coding (in which code is treated like data).
The Newsmakers, Able to Force Everybody Talking About
These are the hotest coding languages. You might have never heard anything about these, though they pick up steam by leaps and bounds. Their cutting edge concepts and coding methods may soon dictate coding standards.
Rust
Rust is a system programming language that combines the effectiveness of C and memory control with functionality, such as strong static typing. It provides developers with tools for the safe work with memory and concurrency code, focuses on “zero-cost abstractions”, which simplify programming and do not require additional runtime. People working with Rust often say they want to continue to code on it, and use the newest principles proposed in it. No wonder it grows in popularity.
Elixir
Elixir is a functional general purpose designed programming language that improves performance, scalability and operational reliability. It presents us a wide range of the most advanced features:
• Immutable data structures
• Supervisors
• Pattern matching
• Hot code replacement
• Effective resource management
• Concurrency based on actors and the absence of shared data
Regardless of how will advance the popularity of the language itself, the new functions given by it will enrich the programming world for sure.
ELM
Elm is much more adjunct to Javascript than its opponent. It is a functional usability-oriented language, which is compiled into a high-performance Javascript code. It became famous by its major advantages over Javascript:
• No runtime exceptions ever
• Useful error messages
• Semantic versioning
• Other powerful tools
Imagine, what future opens before this language, taking into account all the majesty of Javascript and being the resolution of its main crying-out problems.
Summary
The world of programming is so rich and extensive, that it is impossible to guess what language will be on top tomorrow. But still, it is possible to examine the advancements they arise and whether they cover basic the needs of your project.