The IT companies hire programmers and code writers for desktop application development, frontend web development, backend web development, mobile app development, game development, and system programming. A programmer can write a single software solution or application in a number of programming languages. For instance, the programmers can choose from several server-side programming languages – PHP, Java, C#, Ruby, and Python.
Also, they can use a runtime environment like NodeJS to write server-side code in a widely used client-side programming language like JavaScript. But experienced software developers know that each programming language has its own strengths and shortcomings. Also, the popularity of programming languages changes from time to time based on a slew of factors. That is why; beginners like you can enhance their career prospects only by learning some of the trending programming languages in 2021.
13 Trending Programming Languages to Learn in 2021 According to Your Career Goals
1) C/ C++
C and C++ are two mature programming languages that are still more popular than the new-generation programming language. According to the TIOBE Index of Programming Language Popularity, C is more popular than C++. C was developed as a procedural programming language, while C++ supports both object-oriented and procedural programming language. Initially, the programming languages were used for the development of desktop GUI applications. But many popular databases, web browsers, operating systems, and games are written in C++. Also, C++ is one of the most preferred programming languages for cloud computing and big data programming.
2) Java
Java has remained one of the most in-demand programming languages since its initial release in 1991. The web developers use Java as a server-side programming language, while the mobile app developers write Android apps in Java. At the same time, Java is considered one of the most preferred and reliable programming languages for the development of desktop application development. Many developers nowadays opt for Java to write the code once and run the same code on any Java-enabled system. Also, Java is one of the trending programming languages for big data programming, artificial intelligence (AI) development, and cloud computing.
3) Python
Unlike other programming languages, Python was developed with a focus on making programmers more productive. It enables programmers to build a variety of software applications while keeping their codebase concise and readable. Python is one of the most popular programming languages for server-side web development. More and more web developers are leaning towards Python nowadays.
According to TIOBE.com,
“Python is popping up everywhere. It started as a competitor of Perl to write scripts for system administrators a long time ago. Nowadays it is the favorite language in fields such as data science and machine learning, but it is also used for web development and back-end programming and growing into the mobile application domain and even in (larger) embedded systems.”
4) JavaScript
JavaScript was originally developed as a client-side scripting language. It lacked some of the robust features provided by widely used web programming languages. But JavaScript has been evolving consistently. At present, programmers use JavaScript as a client-side web technology while developing various websites and web applications. But many programmers integrate libraries, frameworks, and runtime environments by write both client-side and server-side code in JavaScript. At the same time, JavaScript is used widely by programmers to developing cross-platform mobile apps. The programmers can use specific JavaScript frameworks to create innovative use cases for JavaScript. Here is an interesting article on evolution of JavaScript as a language.
5) PHP
PHP is one of the trending programming languages which are used extensively for server-side programming language.
According to W3techs.com,
“PHP is used by 79.1% of all the websites whose server-side programming language we know.”
Both novice and experienced web programmers write PHP scripts without putting extra time and effort. Also, they can speed up the development of custom websites and web applications using a variety of PHP frameworks – Laravel, Symfony, Yii, Zend, CakePHP, FuelPHP, and CodeIgniter. The developers also have the option to curtail web development time and cost using PHP-based content management systems (CMS) like WordPress, Joomla and Drupal.
6) C#
C# (C Sharp) was developed by Microsoft as a general-purpose programming language. The simple programming language runs on .NET Framework and borrows many language features from C++ and Java. The rich set of libraries for C# provided by Microsoft help programmers to write web applications and Windows application without putting extra time and effort. The programmers can use Unity Game Engine to write a variety of games in this open source programming language. Likewise, they can use an open source platform like Xamarin to create iOS, Android, and Windows apps using a single and shared codebase. The latest version of C# comes with features to support cloud computing and big data processing.
7) HTML5
Some bloggers describe HTML5 as a markup language, while others consider HTML5 a programming language. While writing websites and web applications, many programmers prefer HTML5 to HTML to leverage several new elements, attributes, and behaviors. In addition to keeping the codebase clean, HTML5 helps programmers to embed forms, audio, and video into a web page without using specific plugins. Also, web developers can combine HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript to build responsive web applications that look good on both computers and mobile devices. Also, the programmers can use specific frameworks to use HTML5 for developing hybrid and mobile web apps.
8) R Language
In a short amount of time, R has emerged as one of the trending programming languages for big data analytics, statistical computing, machine learning, and graphic processing. The programmers can use R as a programming language as well as access R as a software environment. That can further customize the open source programming language according to the precise needs of each project. The R libraries help programmers to perform data visualization and statistical analysis without putting in the extra effort. At the same time, the programmers can leverage data packages for R that are interoperable with most databases.
9) Structured Query Language (SQL)
Unlike other trending programming languages, SQL helps programmers to access, manage, and manipulate the data stored in various relational database management systems (RDBMS). The programmers can write SQL code to retrieve specific information from databases based on varied conditions or parameters. While writing web applications and mobile apps, programmers use SQL statements to retrieve data from a database and update data on the database. That is why; most programmers these days learn SQL along with other trending programming languages.
10) Swift
Apple released Swift as a proprietary programming language in 2014. It subsequently made Swift an open-source programming language. Swift is designed specifically to help programmers write application and apps for iOS and OS X. Both Objective-C and Swift uses the same runtime. But Swift is designed with language features to help programmers write fast and safe applications for Apple devices. The popularity of Swift can be determined from the fact that about 50% of the iOS apps available on the Apple App Store are written in this new-age programming language. The growing popularity of the iPhone and iPad makes Swift one of the trending programming languages of 2021.
11) Kotlin
JetBrains has developed Kotlin as a general-purpose programming language that is fully interoperable with Java. But the huge popularity of Kotlin is currently linked to the massive mobile operating system market share of Android. Google recommends programmers to write native Android apps in Kotlin. While using Kotlin, programmers can boost code quality by combining object-oriented and functional programming principles. Also, they can keep the codebases simple and manageable by avoiding boilerplate code. At the same time, Kotlin is designed with features to overcome some of the major shortcomings of the Java programming language.
12) Ruby
Ruby was developed as a general-purpose programming language. It supports object-oriented, functional, and procedural programming paradigms. But Ruby is currently used widely by web developers as a server-side scripting language. In addition to being simple and clean, the code written in Ruby can be embedded seamlessly in HTML code. The programmers can further leverage a slew of built-in functions to avoid writing longer lines of code. But the programmers cannot use Ruby efficiently without using Ruby on Rails. They must use Rails to simplify and speed up web application development using model-view-controller (MVC) principles.
13) Go/Golang
The open-source programming language is developed by Google. The syntax rules of Go or Golang is hugely influenced by the syntax of C. But Go scored over other programming languages in the category of concurrent programming. It enables programmers to run multiple processes simultaneously by supporting the concurrent programming paradigm. Since its initial lunch in 2007, the popularity of Golang has been increasing consistently. Many enterprises these days opt for Go while developing large-scale software applications to manage large codebases and multicore systems. Go is currently one of the most preferred programming languages for big data processing due to its superior performance and agility.
While learning coding or software programming, you have the option to choose from over 700 programming languages. You can further write the same software application in various languages. So, the software programmers need to keep a tab on the top programming language to learn. But you must remember that some programming languages are more popular than others. Also, the popularity of every programming language fluctuates from time to time. Hence, you must consider learning more than one trending programming language in 2021 according to your career goals.
While building a software application, the programmers have the option to choose from a number of programming languages. They have to focus on choosing the right programming language to the software application’s code base clean, organized and maintainable. They cannot pick the right programming language without monitoring the current and emerging trends in programming languages. The developers also need to keep a tab on the top programming languages to learn for keeping themselves updated. The programmers must adopt these hot programming languages trends in 2020 to write custom software applications quickly and efficiently.
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The programmers have the option to choose from a wide range of programming languages while writing software applications or learning software development. The programming languages differ from each other in several aspects – programming paradigm support, language features, ecosystem, security vulnerabilities, and community strength. Also, the popularity of programming languages keeps changing from time to time. I wrote on the same topic back in 2016 December and if you see that list you would understand that some of the top programming languages in the 2017 list still exist in the 2021 list. Many websites help novice and experienced programmers to identify the top programming languages to learn in 2021 by comparing the technologies using various parameters. But the programmers must focus on learning and knowing the in-demand programming languages proactively.
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Software programmers want to build custom software applications, according to specific business requirements, without writing longer lines of code. At the same time, they also need to focus on keeping the code base readable, structured and maintainable. So the software developers have to keep track of the most recent programming trends to boost their skills, efficiency and proficiency.
Important Update: This is 2020 June: I was trying to update the old post and realized that most of the trends have changed completely. So I chose to write a new post on this topic. Please feel free to visit the new post for the latest programming trends in 2020 and beyond.
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