Best Programming Languages to Learn | A step by step Guide
Last updated on 11th Jul 2020, Blog, General
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The most important skill to learn in today’s world is to know how to write a computer program. Today, computers have entered in almost every industry. Be it the autopilot in an aircraft or digital speedometer in your bike, computers in various forms surround us. Computers are extremely useful for an organization to scale up well. Gone are the days of pen and paper. Today, in order to store and access your information, you absolutely need computers.
The programming and developer communities are emerging at a rate faster than ever before. Various new programming languages are coming up that are suited for different categories of developers (beginners, intermediate, and experts) as well as for different use cases (web application, mobile applications, game development, distributed system, etc). Every beginner is puzzled with the question, “What programming language should I learn?” Let us take a look at best Programming Languages to learn in 2020 for a job and for future prospects:
1. Python
Python undoubtedly tops the list. It is widely accepted as the best programming language to learn first. Python is fast, easy-to-use, and easy-to-deploy programming language that is being widely used to develop scalable web applications. YouTube, Instagram, Pinterest, SurveyMonkey are all built-in Python. Python provides excellent library support and has a large developer community. The programming language provides a great starting point for beginners. Talking about those who are looking for a better job, you should definitely learn Python ASAP! A lot of startups are using Python as their primary backend stack and so, this opens up a huge opportunity for full-stack Python developers. Here is a sample Python “Hello World!” program:
2. Java
Java is another popular choice in large organizations and it has remained so for decades. Java is widely used for building enterprise-scale web applications. Java is known to be extremely stable and so, many large enterprises have adopted it. If you are looking for a development based job at a large organization, Java is the language that you should learn. Java is also widely used in Android App Development. Almost any business today needs an Android Application owing to the fact that there are billions of Android users today. This opens up a huge opportunity for Java developers given the fact that Google has created an excellent Java-based Android development framework – Android Studio.
3. JavaScript
- During the first browser war, Netscape had assigned Brendan Eich to develop a new programming language for its Browser. Brendan Eich had developed the initial prototype in only ten days, and the rest is history. Software developers often ridiculed JavaScript in its early days because of its poor language design and lack of features.
- Over the years, JavaScript has evolved into a multi-paradigm, high-level, dynamic programming language. The first significant breakthrough of JavaScript came in 2009 when Ryan Dahl has released cross-platform JavaScript runtime Node.js and enabled JavaScript to run on Server Side.
- The other enormous breakthrough of JavaScript came around 2010 when Google has released a JavaScript-based Web development framework AngularJS.
- Today, JavaScript is one of the most widely used programming languages in the world and runs on virtually everywhere: Browsers, Servers, Mobile Devices, Cloud, Containers, Micro-controllers.
4. Go
Go is fairly a new system-level programming language that has a focused vocabulary and simple scoping rules. It blends the best aspects of functional programming and object-oriented styles. Go is the fastest-growing language on Github, meant to replace languages like Java and C++.
A Stack Overflow survey reveals that Go is the fifth most preferred language among developers today. This is because Go solves issues like slow compilation and execution in large distributed software systems.
5. C#
In 2000, Tech giant Microsoft decided to create their Object Oriented C like programming language C# as part of their .NET initiative, which will be managed (run on a Virtual Machine like Java). The veteran language designer Anders Hejlsberg designed C# as part of Microsoft’s Common Language Initiative (CLI) platform where many other (mainly Microsoft’s languages) compiled into an intermediate format which runs on a Runtime named Common Language Runtime (CLR).
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During the early days, C# was criticized as an imitation of Java. But later, both of the languages diverged. Also, Microsoft’s licensing of C# compiler/runtime is not always clear. Although Microsoft is currently not enforcing its patents under the Microsoft Open Specification Project, it may change.
Today, C# is a multi-paradigm programming language that is widely used not only on the Windows platform but also on the iOS/Android platform (thanks to Xamarin) and Linux platform.
6. C++
Bjarne Stroustrup has worked with Dennis Ritchie (creator of C) in Bell Lab during the 1970s. Heavily influenced by C, he first created C++ as an extension of C, adding Object-Oriented features. Over time, C++ has evolved into a multi-paradigm, general-purpose programming language. Like C, C++ also offers low-level memory access and directly compiled to machine instructions.
C++ also offers full control over hardware but with the cost of accidental complexity and does not provide language-level support for memory safety and concurrency safety. Also, C++ offers too many features and is one of the most complicated programming languages to master.
For all these factors and its platform dependency, C++ has lost its popularity to Java in especially enterprise software development and Big Data domain in the early 2000s.
C++ is once again gaining popularity with the rise of GPU, Containerization, Cloud computing, as it can quickly adapt itself to take advantage of Hardware or Ecosystem changes.
Today, C++ is one of the most important and heavily used programming languages in the industry.
7. PHP
Like Python, PHP is another programming language developed by a single developer as a side project during the ’90s. Software Engineer Rasmus Lerdorf has initially created PHP as a set of Common Gateway Interface binaries written in C to create dynamic Web Applications. Later, more functionalities were added to the PHP product, and it organically evolved into a fully-fledged programming language.
At present, PHP is a general-purpose, dynamic programming language mainly used to develop server-side Web applications.
With the rise of JavaScript-based client-side Web application development, PHP is losing its appeal and popularity, and PHP is past its prime. Contrary to popular belief, PHP will not die soon, although its popularity will gradually diminish.
8. Swift
Swift is one of the only two programming languages that has also appeared in my list: “Top 7 modern programming languages to learn now”. A group of Apple engineers led by Chris Lattner has worked to develop a new programming language Swift mainly to replace Objective-C in the Mac and iOS platforms.
It is a multi-paradigm, general-purpose, compiled programming language that also offers high developer productivity. Swift supports LLVM (developer by Chris Lattner) compiler toolchain like C/C++, Rust.
Swift has excellent interoperability with Objective-C codebase and has already established itself as the primary programming language in iOS App development. As a compiled and powerful language, Swift is gaining increasing popularity in other domains as well.
9. Ruby
Ruby is another scripting language that’s commonly used for web development. In particular, it’s used as the basis for the popular Ruby on Rails web application framework.
Beginners often gravitate toward Ruby because it has a reputation for having one of the friendliest and most helpful user communities. The Ruby community even has an unofficial saying, “Matz is nice and so we are nice,” encouraging members to model their kind and considerate behavior on Ruby’s chief inventor Yukihiro Matsumoto.
In addition to the active community and its straightforward syntax, Ruby is also a good language to pick up thanks to its association with great tech businesses. Twitter, Airbnb, Bloomberg, Shopify, and countless other startups have all built their websites using Ruby on Rails at some point.
10. MATLAB
MATLAB is a statistical analysis tool that is used in various industries for Data Analysis. MATLAB is used widely in the Computer Vision and Image processing industry as well.