Programming Languages of the Future

The future of code is intrinsically tied to the future of innovation, and that future appears more and more automated and open source.

Think about it. Faster, smarter programming with fewer bugs tethered to increasing automation. It just makes sense.

The future of coding requires newer approaches, stability and good practices and also needs to be tied to our innovations that work.

Nothing changes quite as fast as which programming language new devs need and want to learn. So I’m trying to keep up with the trends as well. Sure, you’ve probably heard of them before, but I hope you can take something new away from this list of promising programming languages.

Software engineering has to continually optimize itself and newer trending programming languages can help us do just that.

Rust

With so many programming languages out there, how do you choose which one to learn? The hype is real for Rust.

Rust, developed by Mozilla, has a modern package management system and can be installed for use on almost any operating system and even on embedded hardware.

You can install Rust from the official website, which also provides documentation for the language. Rust is considered “somewhat special” for several reasons.

Rust combines the speed and control of a lower-level language with the tools, safety and debugging provided by a high-level language. That’s a nifty combination.

Rust is a fan favorite for other reasons too. Rust is open source, memory safe (not permitting null pointers, dangling pointers or data races), and has a concrete syntax similar to C and C++. It’s widely considered elegant, friendly to those with less experience and useful in web and operating system contexts. What’s not to love about Rust?

Rust is, in my opinion, the favorite as the software programming language that is growing the fastest among web developers.

• Open-source
• May challenge the likes of C and C++ for market mega adoption.

Swift

While it’s worth noting the July ratings of the TIOBE index — a programming community index which is a measure of the popularity of programming languages, created and maintained by the TIOBE Company, based in Eindhoven, The Netherlands — it’s important to also think for ourselves.

Each developer’s path is going to be a bit different. Which brings me to Swift.

Swift is not just a syntactic cleanup of Objective C. There are plenty of new features too.

Also, let’s keep in mind Apple is throwing it an enormous amount of official support. Swift is the official answer to the endless mess of writing in Objective C.

Swift will likely become the true backbone of Apple programming in years ahead — meaning that, between macOS, iOS, and watchOS, it will drive software on an enormous number of devices. Enough said.

Python

Python continues to rise. Python is a huge language, embraced by developers around the world for a variety of uses. Its new uses in machine learning and data analytics are cementing its rise.

Python’s already-enormous user base is a clear winner in 2019 and with its deep embedding in a wide plethora of businesses, it seems extremely unlikely that Python is going to fade away anytime soon — a fact that bodes well for the future of its ubiquity.

Therefore, in some cases, the programming languages of today are also the best choices of the future. There’s a window in how software engineering languages gain popularity and continue to rise and Python is a good example of one entering its prime.

It was created by Guido van Rossumand first released in 1991 and is today the darling of seasonal coders.

Python is becoming extremely relevant for all developers to learn and grow, especially as we approach an age of automation, AI, ML and data analytics.

Kotlin

A decade ago, the only “Kotlin” was the Russian island; now there’s the programming language that has been uplifted to relevance in part by Google.

Interestingly, Kotlin was named a first-class development language for Android.

Kotlin was basically crafted with developer productivity in mind. Another major reason Kotlin has a bright future is that you can easily build Android apps with it. These are the two best reasons so far for why it’s an up-and-comer.

Kotlin is popular with devs because of its features and flexibility. Kotlin is reaching maturity, turning 9 years old. A statistically-typed programming language that is 100% compatible with Java, it can be compiled to JavaScript and runs on the Java Virtual Machine (JVM). It was created by JetBrains (which is a Czech software development company) back in 2010.

Think about it. Some major companies such as Pinterest, Basecamp, and Expedia have already switched over to Kotlin for their Android apps. Over the years, the language had gone through many stages before its stable version was unveiled in 2016.

Due to Android and Google’s push behind the language and the obvious foundation of developer interest, it essentially means that Kotlin has a sizable base from which to expand in the coming years. I personally think it has a bright future, mainly for this reason.

Addendum

There are so many up-and-coming programming languages there are likely dozens of others that deserve honorable mention. Each year there will be a new one that will have its own measure of hype around it.

I’m really passionate about covering software programming trends and hope to continue to do so. Here are a few more that might be worth taking a closer look into:

• MATLAB
• Groovy
• Haskell
• Go
• Arduino
• Solidity
• Dart
• R Language

How about you, is there a software programming language that you think has a bright future? Let’s talk about it, guys.

Software engineering remains such a fascinating career choice. With so many languages to choose from, it’s no wonder that software listicles and software engineering guides around the languages are so popular today.