Programming languages are the basic blocks of a pillar called IT. Developers use different programming languages to build several applications for industries. Today, the computer has entered into all fields, and it surrounds us in many forms. Due to the convenience that these applications serve us all, coding skills are the most sought in the IT industry, and it is the most valuable job one can pursue in today’s generation. Developers and programming languages are emerging all the time, and they are backed by tremendous community support, which is convenient for beginners.
❝ Any fool can write code that a computer can understand. Good programmers write code that humans can understand. ❞— Chris Pine
There are many programming languages available; however, we will discuss some of the top languages that are emerging and will be the future of the programming world.
1. JavaScript
JavaScript is a widely used front-end language that can be used to design interactive, user-friendly front-end applications. It has evolved into a high-level, multi-paradigm, and dynamic language in recent years. It’s one of the most widely used languages that can run anywhere, including clouds, mobile devices, browsers, containers, servers, and microcontrollers.
Significant features of JavaScript:
- It provides greater control
- It is a platform-independent language
- It has built-in functions to determine the date and time. Hence, it becomes easy to code by using methods like .GetDate()
- JavaScript has features to generate HTML content for the web
Pros:
- It is fast, and execution in a browser is instant without compiling
- It provides a better and more complete website interface
- Very versatile and provides data validation capabilities
- It offers regular updates to ECMA specifications
- Extend the functionality with various add-ons such as Greasemonkey
- It has lots of available resources and extensive community support
- It supports the development of diverse and wide-ranging applications
- Easy integration and implementation in other languages
Cons:
- Multiple inheritances are not allowed
- It's execution can be abused for malicious or other reasons
- Different browsers interpret the code differently
Use Case:
- Mobile App Development
- Browser game development
- Back-end development
- Server less computing
- Web development
2. Python
Python is one of the most potent and best versatile languages for web development and data analysis. It is an open-source language that is extremely easy to learn, use and deploy. It is considered one of the best languages to learn as it is primarily used to develop scalable web pages and applications. Even the libraries and frameworks used in Machine Learning is made in Python. So, if you want to learn ML, Python is the first choice.
Significant features of Python:
- Python’s unique selling point (USP) is the design of its language, which is simple, elegant, productive, and powerful
- The standard bar for developer experience has influenced various programming languages such as Julia and Go
- It is one of the best back-end languages for Web Development that has first-class integration with programming languages like C and C++
- It also can offload the heavy tasks of the CPU to C / C++ in a seamless manner
- Python provides a rich toolset for computational science, statistics, and mathematics with numerous frameworks and libraries such as SciPy, Pandas, ScikitLearn, and NumPy
- The Python programming language develops desktop and web applications and creates applications based on GUI, data science, machine learning, and network servers
Pros:
- It supports multiple platforms and systems to improve developer and programmer productivity driven by Object-Oriented Programming (OOP)
- It provides a wide range of libraries
- Quickly scale even complex web applications
- Focuses on code readability Python
Cons:
- It is not an ideal language for mobile computers
- It has a primitive database that is a little underdeveloped Python
Use Case:
- Internet of Things (IoT)
- Applications Server less computing
- Cloud-native development Business application
- System programming
3. C / C++
C is a middle-level language, whereas C++ is a high-level language. C is the base for all programming languages. It is a structured programming language that is extremely popular, simple, and flexible. It is extensively used and is machine-independent; this makes it so popular and ideal. On the other hand, C++ is extremely fast and stable. It has ready-to-use libraries for data structures, arithmetic operations, and algorithms.
Significant features of C / C++:
- It has a low level of abstraction
- It has enormous community support
- Programed created using C / C++ are efficient
- Easy to learn
Pros:
- Various compilers and libraries are available
- Execution of programs is faster
- Foundation of every language
- Rich function library
- Wide variety of domains such as GUI applications, real-time mathematical simulations, etc.
Cons:
- The syntax is complex.
- Inefficient as it cannot solve complex or real-world problems
- No garbage collection capability
- C/C++ does not have dynamic memory allocation
- No run-time checking
Use case:
- Competitive Programming
- Developing Operating Systems
- Games
- Banking Applications
- Maintaining databases
- Development of embedded systems
4. Rust
Rust is a blazing fast and memory-efficient static compiled language with a rich type system and ownership model. It can be used to power performance-critical services while guaranteeing memory-safety and thread-safety, empowering developers to debug at compile-time. In addition to that Rust has great documentation and a user-friendly compiler with top-end tools like integrated package managers and multi-editor with features like type inspection and auto-completion. Rust prevents all the crashes, and it is very interesting that rust is safe by default like JavaScript, Ruby, and Python. This is much powerful than C / C++ because we cannot write the wrong parallel code you can never see fault in rust. It is very fast in representing a lot of programming paradigms very well.
Significant features of Rust:
- Zero cost abstraction
- Threads without data races
- Guaranteed memory safety
- Efficient C bindings
- Safe memory space allocation
Pros:
- Built-in support for concurrency
- Offers ownership and security
- Thorough and impressive documentation
- Has a growing community
Cons:
- Compile time slower than competition
- Single implementation (yet)
- High learning curve
- Strict syntax rules
Use case:
- Cross-platform command-line applications
- Network security
- Digital signal processing (specially audio)
- Backend web development
- Machine learning
5. Swift
Swift is a compiled, general-purpose, and multi-paradigm programming language developed by Apple for their iOS applications. Apple earlier used Objective-C, so as an upgrade, they introduced Swift. It operates in collaboration with Apple’s Cocoa and Cocoa Touch Frameworks, and it can also interoperate with the already existing Objective-C. iOS-based applications are becoming popular day by day and are giving tough competition to Android. Swift is beginner-friendly as it has a neat syntax. You can experiment with your code and see real-time results on Swift. It is an enjoyable and expressive scripting language. Developers can express their ideas and bring them into reality very clearly and quickly using Swift by combining type inference with a modern syntax. If you are interested in iOS and want to create innovative applications, you must learn Swift ASAP!
Significant features of Swift:
- Swift provides safety
- It has structures that support methods, extensions and protocols
- It has a built-in error handling function
- Swift is expressive, and developers are evolving to make it even better
- Swift is speedy, thus increasing the task’s performance efficiency
Pros:
- It has automatic memory management, which prevents memory leaks
- Easy to add new features in Swift
- The syntax is English-like which makes it easily readable
- Interoperable with Objective-C
- For both front-end and back-end development, the development process is faster
- It is very fast as compared to other languages
Cons:
- Swift has limited resources and community support
- It is somewhat unstable
- It does not support legacy projects
Use case:
- iOS development
- Mobile and desktop applications
- Cloud services
- Server-side programming
Special Mention:
Go
Go is also known as Golang, introduced by Google to manage their server firms. It is an elementary language with easy syntaxes. Go provides excellent support for multi-threading; as a result, many enterprises that depend on distributed systems use Go. The essential features of Go are set in straightforward syntax without incorporating any complex code to stay in the programmer’s head. Go is used for developing minimal web applications, webservers and APIs. Go uses run-time polymorphism through interfaces to operate with protocols in other languages. Go also supports programs that may share data while running on separate PCs simultaneously. However, Go is widely used at companies in Silicon Valley, yet to spread in India.
Significant features of Go:
- It is an Open-Source programming language
- It is a statically typed programming language which means that you do not need to about the type conversions while coding
- Golang or Go has concurrency support, which helps app developers complete requests faster, free up allocated resources and network earlier etc.
- It has a robust set of libraries
- It has a powerful garbage collection, so developers do not need to worry about dangling pointers while coding
Pros:
- Since it is statically typed, so it is more secure
- The syntax is cleaner, so it is easy to learn
- SPA (Single Page Application) can be built
- It offers a wide range of inbuilt functions
- Very fast and efficient
- It has smart documentation
Cons:
- Since there is no virtual machine, it makes complex programs less efficient
- Interfaces are implicit
- No versatility
- Lacks GUI library
Use case:
- Web development
- Cloud computing
- Distributed network services
CONCLUSION:
❝ I’m not a great programmer; I’m just a good programmer with great habits ❞ — John Johnson
Your choice of language to learn depends on your path of career. I have mentioned the programming languages in trend and the languages that will be trending in the upcoming time due to their innovative features. As a developer, you must learn new languages and evolve with the tech-growing world. So, if any of the above languages interest you, you must learn it ASAP!
Thanks for reading, till the end
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