The best programming languages to learn

If you decide to join the ranks of those who, with their own hands, create a new technological reality, there is a question of choosing the actual programming language. There are many of them, but not all of them are widely used. Moreover, most languages are outdated, but you should credit them because many of these pioneers served as the basis for modern developments. 

What are programming languages in demand these days? For example, what language is used to program roulette online game and other online entertainment? We will try to answer this question in this article.

The history of programming languages – where it all began

The first programming language in the world is considered to be the codes of operations, used on the Jacquard loom back in 1804. However, the starting point of the history of high-level programming languages is 1943-1945, when Konrad Zuse, the German inventor of the world’s first computer, undertook the task of designing Plankalkül for his next computing machine Z4.

After the release of the first electronic general-purpose digital computer ENIAC in the USA in 1946, programming languages began to appear like mushrooms after the rain. Let us mention the most important ones:

• Fortran (1957) was the first widely used programming language to support a wide variety of computer architectures.
• ALGOL (1958), an algorithmic language created by a joint committee of American and European scientists, served as the starting point for the development of Pascal, C, C++, and Java.
• COBOL (1959) – the first business-oriented programming language.
• BASIC (1964) – the first programming language designed specifically for people unfamiliar with computers and mathematics.
• Pascal (1970) – was initially developed to teach students structural programming, one of the world’s best-known languages.
• Smalltalk (1972) – later had a significant influence on the development of object-oriented languages: Objective-C, Java, Ruby, Python, and others.

Let us take a look at the languages that appear at the tops most often.

JavaScript

Main areas of usage

• Web development (Frontend and Backend).
• Development of mobile applications.
• Creation of desktop applications.

JavaScript is incredibly popular right now. According to various studies, the majority of new projects have been written in this programming language for years. It was initially developed for the frontend and backend parts of websites in 1995. Contrary to the first impression of its name, it has nothing to do with the Java programming language.

Statistics show that 97% of web applications use JavaScript to process events directly in the user’s browser. Historically, the programming language was most commonly used for frontend. But with the advent of the powerful Node.js programming platform, it is also very much used for server-side website development.

Mobile cross-platform development is conducted by many companies using the React Native framework. A smaller but still significant market share is behind JavaScript in desktop software, thanks in large part to Electron JS. Google Chrome, Skype, Discord, and Atom, for example, have been written using this framework.

Python

Main areas of usage

• Web development (Backend).
• Big Data.
• Machine Learning.

Python is now a programming language with rapidly growing popularity. It threatens to squeeze out giants like Java and C++ and take the place of the most popular language in the world. Unfortunately, all the hype surrounding Python makes you think it’s a novelty like Scala back in the day. But no, Python was created by Guido van Rossum back in 1991.

The main advantage of this high-level programming language is its simple and intuitive syntax. That’s why Python is even taught in schools. On the other hand, since it is interpreted, it is relatively slow. But even this problem can be solved with, for example, Cython – an intermediate layer between Python and the programming languages C and C++.

Python is used to build the internal architecture of web applications using the Flask and Django frameworks. The latter is firmly in the top three global leaders in its direction. Python has also successfully cemented its place as the most used programming language in Machine Learning. So the neural network that processes photos on your smartphone is most likely written in this language. The same can be said about the algorithms that collect your data to show personalized ads.

Java

Main areas of usage

• Web development (Backend).
• Mobile application development.
• Creation of desktop applications and computer games.
• Embedded systems.

The language began to be developed as a tool for programming interactive TVs. It was initially called Oak, but because of a copyright conflict, it had to be renamed. The name was taken in honor of the coffee of the same name, as suggested by the official logo. The first version of Java was released in 1996.

Most of the mobile apps you see on Google Play, and the App Store are created using Java. In addition, several of the world’s most popular projects in their field are written in this programming language: the world’s most popular computer game Minecraft, as well as a search on Wikipedia.

According to estimates, about 3% of all Web site servers are built using Java. However, if you look at the largest sites in the world, the situation is quite different – of the 13 platforms with the highest traffic, 8 use Java in some way. It suggests that the programming language is prevalent in the Enterprise category – corporate development.

C and C++

Main areas of usage

• Development, operating systems, software, and drivers.
• Designing embedded systems.
• Development of desktop applications and computer games.
• Robots and microcontrollers.

C is the ancestor of many other programming languages and, without exaggeration, a legend. It appeared as far back as 1972. Its original purpose was system programming. So it’s no wonder that today a lot of OS is written in C. It includes the “big three”: macOS, Windows, and Linux. Also, the language is partly used in iOS and Android. Due to its extraordinary performance and conservatism in the consumption of system resources, C makes it possible to work in real-time almost without slowing down. And this is archival in the design of unmanned cars, smart watches, sensors, and so on. Not to mention the fact that C is not tied to any particular microprocessor or system.

If you don’t know C++, you’re not a programmer in the programming environment. That’s because this programming language does not forgive minor errors compared to many modern counterparts. For this reason, it’s challenging to learn C++ from scratch. But the salaries of C++ programmers are unusually high. The programming language was created back in 1983. It is incredibly fast because it is compilable. Only its predecessors C and Assembler are faster. Also, the language is universal – there are C++ compilers on every operating system. As a result, C++ has been very popular in game-device for the last decade. Today it occupies half of the video game market.

C#

Main areas of usage

• Development of desktop applications and computer games.
• Machine learning.
• Mobile applications development.
• Web development (Backend).

We probably wouldn’t have seen this programming language if Java was initially open source. But since Java was a closed project until 2006, Microsoft had to design its language for its development in 2000. So the company took the best of Java and added syntactic features to simplify and speed up development.

It is another programming language from the C family. It has many advantages: clean code, cross-platform, versatility, and high speed of development. Many libraries are written in it. C# fits incredibly well with the Microsoft ecosystem.

Read: Python becomes the world most popular programming language overtaking Java