Current trending programming languages

The first seed of programming languages dates back to 1957 when FORTRAN came up as the first commercially available programming language. Technology has progressed a lot from 1957 to 2021. In today’s digital age, coding stands as a fundamental literary measure.

Programming languages help in increasing one’s problem-solving skills and creativity. They lead to a mammoth confidence boost too.

The first seed has now blossomed into a towering tree today with over 600 programming languages worldwide. Out of them, the currently trending ones are cited below for you to get started with programming languages.

1. Python:

As of today, python stands as the most prominent programming language because of its beginner-friendly nature and readability. It was developed by Guido Van Rossum during the 1990s and released in 2000. It is an object-oriented, interpreted, and interactive high-level language. It is a portable, scalable, free, and open-source language. It owes its popularity to extensive support modules and community development, easy integration with web services and GUI based applications.

Applications:

Python functions on cross-platform OS and includes a vast collection of libraries which fetches its enormous applications:

• Web development: Python web frameworks are widely known for their security, flexibility, and scalability, consisting of useful libraries like Twisted Python, Paramiko, Requests, and Feedparser.
• Game development: Python has been the pedestal for games like Battlefield 2, Frets on Fire, Disney’s Toontown, Civilization IV, etc.
• AI & ML, data science, deep learning: SciPy, Pandas, Seaborn, Keras, Tensorflow and NumPy
• Scientific apps like FreeCAD, Abaqus

2. JavaScript:

Brendan Eich developed JS in the 1990s. It is a powerful client-side scripting language that “gives life to web pages.”. It allows users to create dynamic content for the web and permits cross-platform. It is an open-source language too. JS comes with many merits like faster speed, less compilation time, rich interfaces, and reduces server traffic by validating user input on the client-side.

Applications:

• Web applications: easy to create interactive pages
• Serverless computing
• Server applications: faster than other server-side languages due to Node JS
• Game development: Easel JS library has simple solutions for working with rich graphics.
• Machine learning: frameworks like Keras.js, Brain JS, WebDNN have applications in ML
• Mobile and smartwatch applications: PhoneGap & Pebble JS

3. Java:

James Gosling developed Java in 1995. It is one of the most common languages used today that is owned by oracle corporation. It is an object-oriented, class-based programming language. It is in demand due to its “ Write Once, Run Anywhere” (WORA) trait. That means Java code can run on all platforms which support Java without the need for recompilation. Client-server web applications majorly use Java. It is strictly backwards compatible(crucial for business applications).

Applications:

• Desktop GUI applications: includes abstract windowing toolkit(AWT), Swing, and JavaFX. These facilitate quick scripting of Java applets.
• Mobile apps: Android apps are generally scripted in Java using Android SDK
• Embedded systems: sim cards, blue-ray disk players, and TVs use embedded Java technologies
• Web servers: Apache, Simple, Jo!, Weblogic, Webspace etc.

4. C :

Dennis Ritchie had developed C in 1973. C is regarded as the “mother of all programming languages.”. It is because a majority of other languages owe their derivations to C. It is an imperative procedural language designed to support low-level access to memory and language constructs that map efficiently to machine instructions with minimum runtime. It facilitates structured programming, lexical variable scope, and recursion. It encourages cross-platform programming.

Applications:

• Google: C/C++ was used for creating Google file system and Google Chromium browser
• System programming: Microsoft Windows and various OS are scripted in C.
• Embedded systems: as C closely relates to hardware, it is best suitable for apps and drivers of embedded systems
• C is used in developing IoT and real-time systems.
• New programming platforms: C++ is an enhanced version of C, MATLAB, and Mathematica in C
• Game development: C is suitable for game development due to its faster speed than others.

5. C++ :

Initially, it was developed as an extension of C by adding object-oriented features by Bjarne Stroustrup. Over the years, C++ has evolved as an individual prominent programming language that offers low-level memory access and is directly compiled to machine code. It gives full control over hardware but with the cost of accidental complexity. It can take advantage of every kind of hardware GPU, TPU, Container, mobile devices, or cloud.

Applications:

• Game development: the ability to override the complexities of 3D games and provides multiplayer networking
• GUI based applications: most apps of Adobe systems like Illustrator, photoshop are developed using C+.
• Database software: C++ has been used in scripting two infamous databases SQL and Postgres
• OS: Just like C, C++ is used in scripting OS
• Browsers: Mozilla Firefox, Mozilla thunderbird are developed in C++
• Cloud systems: These are implemented using C++

The Bottom line:

These were some of the current trending languages. If you aim to stand out above all, you need to master multiple languages specific to your respective domains.

Some of the other prominent languages include:

• C#
• HTML
• CSS
• Kotlin
• PHP
• Swift
• Go
• Ruby and the list goes on as far as your interest extends!

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