A kind of witchcraft for some, for others, a work tool or even a hobby – programming languages may not be for everyone, but certainly, we all use software developed with them. Without them, the applications you use daily would not be possible. Even more, you would not be able to operate many appliances that you do not think about in terms of the software loaded in them. So, you can observe that we cannot live without programming languages and what they give. The growing needs of society drive their improvement and the creation of new ones. The race to be called the best, most efficient, and versatile is becoming more visible. They define our future and can do more and more. Which of them will matter the most? Which is the technology of tomorrow?
Which programming language is trending now?
Although you might expect it to be some kind of ultra-modern, new language, contrary to appearances, it is not. Python wins in the rankings where developers indicate the technology they would like to learn (as in the Developer Survey from Stack Overflow). The most frequently used language is JavaScript. The thing is that it is a matter of users and business demands. JS is a base technology of many frameworks that power lots of today’s applications. There are many indications that JS will remain a leading web technology for a long time. However, you can also see a massive interest in Python, which is also not weakening, and in Java, which is used increasingly in microservices, fintech and e-commerce.
What is the latest programming language?
New programming languages are emerging very quickly these days. Many of them are developed based on popular languages that have existed for years, such as Java, Python. One of the latest technologies is Project Verona, an experimental programming language developed by Microsoft to deal with memory situations to make other programming languages safer. 2019 also saw the release of a Python-based Snek designed to run on embedded systems. Also noteworthy is Ballerina, a universal language and open-source platform designed to improve productivity for application developers that have to work with distributed cloud-native systems. Another language that can conquer mainly numerical analysis and computational sciences is Julia – a high-level, efficient, dynamic, general-purpose programming language. Of course, it can also be used to write more straightforward applications, but its potential for use in areas of complex computation and science is enormous.
Which are the best 10 programming languages for the future?
Many of the players on our list have been in the market for quite some time. However, there are also rising stars that will surely be a smash in the future and allow for developing ultra-modern software.
JavaScript
JS is undoubtedly the best known for its use on websites; it is a core web technology. However, you can also write full-fledged applications in JavaScript. It is a high-level, multi-paradigm, often just-in-time compiled programming language. It has first-class functions, curly-bracket syntax, dynamic typing, and prototype-based object orientation. All major web browsers have a dedicated JavaScript engine to execute code on the user’s device. Over 97% of websites use JS on the client side (as of June 2021). The first official release of JavaScript appeared in December 1995. It was created by Brendan Eich, who was working at Netscape at the time. Choosing a JavaScript name so similar to Java was a marketing gimmick. The language was initially called LiveScript, but as Java was the new, hugely popular language back then, Netscape decided to take advantage of it. It is valued for its versatility, compatibility with many frameworks and third-party libraries, and relative ease of learning.
Java
The popularity of Java seems to have not waned for years and is even gaining momentum. Its increasingly frequent use in future innovations, such as cloud technologies or microservices, means that it must be included in this ranking. Java is a class-based, high-level, general-purpose, object-oriented programming language. Its goal is to allow application developers to write once, run anywhere, which means that compiled Java code can run on all Java-enabled platforms without recompiling. Java is designed to have as few implementation dependencies as possible. Java applications are typically compiled into bytecode that can be run on any Java Virtual Machine (JVM). Java was released in 1995. James Gosling of Sun Microsystems originally developed it. It has been the official programming language for the Android platform (in May 2019, Google announced that the Kotlin programming language is now its preferred language). Java applications extend far beyond mobile applications. It is widely used for enterprise-scale web application development due to its stability and performance.
React Native
The React Native framework developed and published by Facebook was initially the only technology for internal use of the company. It was created to improve users’ mobile experience of this most popular social platform globally. React Native is used for developing cross-platform mobile applications. It is open-source, allows you to build Android and iOS apps with a single codebase, and it is straightforward to learn. Its initial release took place in 2015. React components surround existing native code and interact with native APIs through the declarative UI and JavaScript paradigm. This significantly speeds up the work of developers. RN works almost like the React library. The exception, however, is that React Native does not manipulate the DOM via the virtual DOM. Instead, it runs in a background process directly on the end device and communicates with the native platform via serialized data over an asynchronous and batch bridge.
Python
Here is one of the oldest languages on our list, Python. It is a high-level interpreted general-purpose programming language. It is also characterized by dynamic typing and garbage collection. The authors emphasized the readability of the code – its linguistic structures and the object-oriented approach are intended to help programmers write clear, logical code for projects of any scale. It supports many programming paradigms, has an extensive standard library, and was designed to be highly extensible. Despite its maturity, Python continues to rise in popularity. It is considered affordable for novice developers as well as easy to use and implement. It has high scaling capabilities for applications written in it and provides excellent library support. Python helps develop complex AI algorithms or optimally solve various tasks in Data Science and other modern branches of science. It can also be used to create websites. It has an active, extensive community.
C/C++
Created in the early 1970s by Dennis Ritchie, C is a high-level, imperative, structured programming language for programming operating systems and other tasks. Its extension is C ++, a general-purpose language designed by Bjarne Stroustrup. The main areas of its application are applications and operating systems. It enables data abstraction and the use of several programming paradigms: procedural, object-oriented and generic, modular and functional. It is distinguished by the high efficiency of the object code, ease of creating and using libraries, direct access to hardware resources and system functions, independence from specific hardware or system platform, and a small runtime environment. C ++ was designed to focus on system programming and embedded software with limited resources and large systems needing high performance. It is also an advantageous language for performance-critical software in the space or telecommunications sector. So it can be said that there will undoubtedly be a place for it in modern projects.
Kotlin
Considered a successor to Java, Kotlin is a statically typed, JVM-based, cross-platform, general-purpose programming language. Kotlin is designed to work fully with Java. While it mainly targets the JVM, it also compiles JavaScript or native code. In May 2019, Google announced Kotlin as the preferred programming language for Android applications. Kotlin was created to simplify Java without sacrificing its performance and capabilities. It is fully interoperable with Java code, which opens the door for companies to migrate from Java to Kotlin gradually. It has a more straightforward, clearer syntax, making it less error-prone and easier to maintain. It is one of the fastest-growing programming languages, which is thanks to being the official Android language. It is also gaining importance in the web application development sector.
Swift
Swift came out to replace Objective-C, Apple’s previous programming language. It is a universal, multi-paradigmatic, compiled language first released in 2014. It is built on the open-source LLVM compiler platform and has been included in Xcode since version 6. It uses the Objective-C runtime library on Apple platforms, which allows you to run C codes, Objective-C, C ++, and Swift in one program. Apple wanted Swift to support many core Objective-C concepts like late binding, extensible programming, and similar features, but more safely by making it easier to find bugs. Swift has features to overcome some common problems such as zero indicators dulling and provides syntactic sugar. In short – Swift supports many concepts and has many solutions to make it easier to create more secure code than with Objective-C. As the official language of Apple, it is used to build products for their platforms, such as macOS, iOS, watchOS and tvOS.
PHP
Created in 1994, PHP is a general-purpose scripting language primarily used for web development. PHP originally meant Personal Home Page, but now stands for recursive PHP initialism: Hypertext Preprocessor. PHP can be used for many development tasks beyond web products, such as graphics applications. However, its main purpose is web solutions. PHP code is usually processed on a web server by a PHP interpreter implemented as a module, daemon, or Common Gateway Interface (CGI) executable. On the webserver, interpreted and executed PHP code, which can be any data, would constitute all or part of the HTTP response. PHP includes various free and open-source libraries in its distribution. Allows developers to write extensions in C to add functionality to the PHP language. PHP extensions can be compiled statically into PHP or dynamically loaded at runtime. PHP is used in web content management systems like WordPress as well as other websites like Tumblr. According to statistics, as of March 2021, PHP was used as the server-side programming language on 79.1% of websites.
Go
Go, often referred to as Golang, is a statically compiled programming language designed by several developers at Google. A rather amusing motivation for the developers to create Go was a shared aversion to C ++. Go responds to many objections to other languages. Still, it leaves behind the best practices and features such as high efficiency, readability, usability. It is syntactically similar to C but with garbage collection, structured typing, memory safety and CSP-style concurrency. Google created Go in 2007 to improve programming productivity in the era of multi-core, networked machines and large codebases. It was announced to the public in November 2009, and version 1.0 was released in March 2012. Currently, Go is used primarily in cloud-based applications, Google products, and on-demand services.
R
R is also a language that has some years behind it. It appeared in 1993. It is a programming language and free statistical computing and graphics software environment operated by the R Foundation for Statistical Computing. It is widely used among statisticians and data explorers for statistical software development and data analysis. Recent polls show a significant increase in popularity, mainly due to its specific application. The official environment for R software is the GNU package. R is one of the most widely used programming languages for data analysis, big data, and machine learning, which are the technologies of the future.
What programming language will be used in the future?
Most of the languages on the list above have a bright future ahead of them. Surely, all languages supporting ML, AI, VR and other significant technologies of this type will have a greater share. Hence, for example, the growing interest in the R language. Also, Go and Kotlin are rapidly growing languages, which broaden the range of purposes. When it comes to web solutions, frameworks based on JavaScript are in the lead and will probably continue. So it is still a modern technology that shows its different faces.
Summary – Which programming language will dominate in future?
So far, there is no single language that can be used to develop absolutely anything, any kind of software, application, or so. Consequently, there is not just one dominant technology in each sector; instead, we have several representatives. Diversity is good, however, and any problems with one language create a better one. It drives development. Which programming language will dominate in the future then? So far, it’s hard to say at the general level due to the multitude of needs.
As you can see, JS is still dominant in the web category and will probably continue to do so. However, in terms of mobile applications, technologies are constantly competing to achieve the status of the most popular or the best of them. It can be seen in the duel between Flutter and React Native. Certainly, any language supporting advanced algorithms, machine learning, complex analytics, microservice architecture, blockchain, augmented reality, and other solutions of the future will be crucial. So if you are considering choosing the most future-proof programming language for your project, start with a good analysis of your needs, requirements and business goals. Our analysts and technology consultants will be happy to help you choose a solid, meaningful solution not only for our times but also for what is to come.
September 4, 2021
