Demi JenkinsProgramming is at the heart of developing powerful applications.
Are we living in a technological era where applications are at the core of every activity performed?
Just take a look around.
From playing video games to booking a ride, from traveling to favorite destinations to finding a nice cozy place to dine; we find mobile applications piquing our interests, keeping us interactively engaged at all times.
It often makes us wonder how are these interactive apps built? And the answer is programming languages. Some of the most common types of programming languages which we know of are,
- C++
- Node.js
- Ruby on Rails
- Perl
- Python
- Visual Basic
But can you decide which top programming languages are going to be in demand in the future?
Now that’s a hard choice to make, isn’t it? how about we take a look, statistically!
What is the Best Programming Language to Learn?
A programming language empowers humans to control machines and pass significant instructions. For this purpose, one may find countless options trending in the international market.
Some are going obsolete, while others are on the rise.
As far as the question, “Which one is the best?” is concerned, let’s check it out.
Today, we are going to discuss some of these languages based on their popularity trends. All the data which I am going to share today is referenced from the Stackoverflow popularity survey 2015-19.
We have divided programming languages into two groups. One addresses programming languages that were built before the millennium while the other contains languages built after the millennium.
The chart will shed light on every language’s popularity index and the purpose for which it was built.
Findings
If you’ve carefully studied the data extracted from the StackOverflow survey, you will find that there is a gradual decrease in all programming languages over the course of time. It indicates that many old languages and their respective technologies are slowly becoming obsolete carving new paths for future technology. It is giving rise to newer platforms like Node.js and Kotlin allowing better-built apps to surface the market. However, one particular programming language, despite its early date of origin, is still on the rise and that is Python. Why? Perhaps, some belief because of its generality in purpose.
Python
Python is magnanimously growing. Python is earning its popularity because of its versatility and highly productive nature. As a general-purpose language, it has constantly increased in popularity in just over half a decade. Those seeking to learn a single powerful programming language in 2020 can build their very foundation by learning Python. Once learned, they can then explore additional areas within the field of software development. The syntax is very simple and you can learn it very quickly.
JavaScript
A great chunk of popularity circulating JavaScript is because of its frameworks like Node.js. With JS becoming a thriving success in the development market, the dynamics of developing websites have drastically changed. The language features a massive library that allows developers to build dynamic websites. Even though the language has earned the maximum popularity index on the charts, it has still fallen short on popularity compared to last year’s performance. Still, it holds the lion’s share.
Java
Similar to other languages, Java was also on the rise but it experienced a fall just this year. This change occurred because Google announced Kotlin as the official language for Android development at Google IO in the year 2017. Hence, programmers who wanted to explore the Android domain had to shift their focus from Java to Kotlin taking away a major population who favored Java. Java is powered by Oracle and Google is now promoting Kotlin which has put Java into a conflict zone.
Ruby
Though Ruby is an exceptionally good back-end development programming language, it is still observing some massive competition from programming languages like JavaScript and PHP.
However, Ruby is great because it offers expressive power which helps it win a place among many other languages. It is the language that powers an amazing framework called Ruby on Rails.
You can create easy codes to run complex tasks on a website. However, if you are creating a website that is more server-oriented, then I suggest you should use a more flexible domain than Ruby.
A server-based website requires more versatile development languages like JavaScript and Python.
C/C++
The language C and C++ have fallen down into the 20% popularity index.
Once, it was one of the highly favored programming language for gaming and software development.
Yet till today it survives in the global development market because of its outlived legacy. C/C++ is a language dating back to the inception of the coding world. It allows the developers to code just about anything.
Due to its freedom and flexibility, it is still considered a buzzworthy programming language.
But, C/C++ means that you are required to code a lot in order to create the simplest functionality.
R
Another language that has earned significant popularity in the coding world is none other but R. It is favored among modern-day developers because of its exceptional usage in the data science world.
R is a general-purpose language and is considered a high performing language in the data science world. Programmers have built massive libraries and highly functional modules on R allowing developers and data scientists to access, analyze and calculate the massive amount of information. With R, data scientists can predict new patterns, design powerful algorithms and implement them.
PHP
Statistics show the Popularity index of PHP has come down 6% compared to the previous year. This fall appeared in the percentile because of the high acceptance of JavaScript and Python among other programming languages. Yet, PHP is still considered a favored option among many web developers.
It is a great server-side development language that favors a number of popular frameworks. Some of these frameworks are Laravel, Codeigniter, Symfony, CakePHP, Zend Framework, Yii and many more.
Objective C
Objective-C is the main programming language on which most of Apple’s software is based. However, as much as Swift has gained significant popularity over the years, Objective-C has seen some serious decline. With this transition, Swift has gained some importance, whereas Objective-C has lost some.
Previously, I would’ve recommended Objective-C, but if you want to develop products/services for Apple, then I would open-heartedly suggest you should choose Swift as a language of choice.
The second set of data mostly surround statistical information on Languages which came after the millennium.
Swift
It is a multi-purpose & progressively compiled programming language powered by Apple Inc.
As discussed, Swift has replaced Objective-C for coding and development of most Apple powered applications. Swift is a language highly favored, fully-supported and extensively promoted by the Apple company itself. This immense support coming from Apple indeed looks very promising as they have assured that they will eventually continue their support of Swift for Apple backed platforms.
However, compared to the previous year Swift’s popularity has observed a significant decline in percentile by 2%. Does it indicate that Swift is going to be replaced by something better soon?
Go (Golang)
Invented by some of the great minds at Google, Go (Golang) is a free and open-source programming language mostly favored, maintained and updated by tech-savvy individuals at Google.
Initially, the compiling software code of Go(Golang) resided on C, but after years of hard work, developers have successfully moved the system in GO itself making the platform self-hosted.
It was a by-product of criticism and was coded to address criticism on some of the existing popular web development coding languages. From the year 2017, GO has seen a significant rise in its popularity.
According to our popularity index, Go has become a primary language for multiple applications. It has earned a greater percentile than other similar platforms of the present time and stands at 8.2% in the popularity index.
Kotlin
Kotlin has recently become a great alternative to Java for Android development. It is another programming language that is widely supported by Google; therefore, it is picking up its pace in the development world stratosphere. Over the course of years, Kotlin has earned significant popularity.
One of the best things about using a Kotlin is that it offers simpler and cleaner syntax. Ease of coding is what makes Kotlin a favored option among multiple Android app developers and help them code.
Based on the statistics, Kotlin has risen 2% up on the popularity index compared to the previous year.
Scala
Scala is a programming language which remains the perfect alternative to Java; however, Scala doesn’t seem to perform as much adequately among developers as it was expected to be.
No multinational firm fully supports the Scala for programming and it has a dependency on JVM. All of that and much more creates significant hindrance within the increase in its popularity.
We can observe a stable gradual growth; however, we have to wait a bit to see it reach its success.
Julia
Searching for a programming language that can work both ways, offering you the speed of “C” and at the same time the simplicity of “Python”? Julia is the perfect coding platform to offer you both.
Julia has earned its position among the world of data science and has been observed as a website existing in direct competition with programming language giants such as R and Python.
We expect there will be a gradual growth in Julia overtime. For now, Python and R are taking the top spot, offering modern-day developers better jobs and significantly remarkable growth & progression.
Is Web Development a Good Career in 2020?
Without a doubt, if you’re planning to become a web developer in the future, then it is definitely a great future career choice. However, if you walk on the path of becoming a developer, let me assure you that it is not going to an easy one. It is not a job that you can concur in a month or two, but it will take plenty of your time and patience. To master the art, you will have to practice on a daily basis as well.
The best thing about choosing this career path is the liberty it offers to a person to work. Whether you want to work from home or you wish to work from an office, you can start working with your favorite web development language and web design software from just about anywhere.
If you want to code, you need to work side by side with a website designer and front-end developer. If you don’t have one to your expense, then you will have to learn front-end coding alongside the back-end.
Which Programming Language is Best for Web Development?
Well, I can’t say for sure because there are plenty of options circulating the market. Yet, if you still want to make up your mind for one then I will suggest that you go for Python. It’s one of the fastest trending programming languages in the web design and development world as it offers significant diversity and flexibility to the users. It has earned a position in the top 3 web development languages.
Here is a trend index which shows Python has the maximum shares and is on the plus side in trends.
It leads us all to wonder whether or not, Is Python the future of web development?
I think we can say, YES!
So with that, I conclude my article on which programming languages are winning the top spot.
I hope this has been an informative read.
