The Top 10 Programming Languages (For Techies only)

Tech Impulsion ^ | Feb 2012 | Ajit Singh

[SeekAndFind]

The knowledge of a handful of programming languages could come to be a lifesaver to many a programmer, especially since most languages that were popular 10 years ago are not as viable as they are now.

But there are many developers who have earned their worth simply by knowing the right programming language at the right time, simply because they had solid skills that were profitable while the language was popular.

Here are some languages though, which stayed popular through the years, and prove to give young developers a jumpstart to their careers, and always are a bonus to add to any developer’s resume, as compiled by TIOBE software, a coding standards company.

1. Java

What is it?
 An object-oriented programming language developed in the late 1990s by James Gosling and colleagues at Sun Microsystems.

Why is it important?
This “beautiful” programming language is central for any non-Microsoft developer, i.e. any developer who focuses on the non-.NET experience. It is mostly derived from C and C++ but has a more basic object model. It ranked first on TIOBE’s list of most popular programming languages.

2. C

What is it?
C, a general purpose programming language built by Dennis Ritchie when he was a part of Bell Telephone labs, is the bass of C++ and other programming languages. It was built to work with the Unix operating system.

Why is it important?
C is one of the most widely used programming languages of all time, and ranked second on the list. “Learning C is crucial. Once you learn C, making the jump to Java or C# is fairly easy, because a lot of the syntax is common. Also, a lot of C syntax is used in scripting languages,” Wayne Duqaine, director of Software Development at Grandview Systems, of Sebastopol, Calif., told eWEEK.
 

3. C#

What is it?
This general-purpose programming language developed by Microsoft evolved from C and C++ as a part of the software company’s .NET initiative.

Why is it important?
This language is an essential part of the .NET framework, so developers who use Microsoft heavily will find it critical, according to Duqaine.

4. C++

What is it?
C++ is a general purpose multi-paradigm spanning compiled language that has both high-level and low-level languages’ features. It was started as an enhancement to the C programming language, Bjarne Stroustrup in 1979.

Why is it important?
It is one of the most popular programming languages, winning fourth place on the list, with application domains including systems software, application software, server and client applications, and entertainment software such as video games.  The language has also greatly influenced many other popular programming languages, such as C# and Java.

5. Objective-C
 

What is it?
This object-oriented programming language created first by Brad Cox and Tom Love at their company Stepstone in the early 1980s, adds Smalltalk-like messaging to the C programming language.

Why is it important?
This language is most used on the Apple iOS and Mac OS X. Objective-C is the principal language used for Apple's Cocoa API as well.

6. PHP

What is it?
This language is especially suited for Web development because of it easy embedding into HTML pages. It is an open-source, server-side, cross-platform, interpretive HTML scripting language

Why is it important?
It is a popular language, ranking sixth on TIOBE’s list. "High-speed scripting with caching, augmented with compiled code plug-ins (such as can be done with Perl and PHP) is where the future is. Building Web apps from scratch using C or COBOL is going the way of the dinosaur," said Duquaine, according to eWEEK’s report.

7. (Visual) Basic

What is it?
This is an event-driven programming language which is implemented on Microsoft’s .Net framework.

Why is it important?
This language ranked as the seventh most popular language on TIOBE’s list, probably because it was designed by Microsoft to be easy to learn and use. According to Tim Huckaby, CEO of San Diego-based software engineering company CEO Interknowlogy.com, “It is currently dominating in adoption and that is where all the work is,” as in eWEEK’s report.

 8. Python

What is it?
This is an event-driven programming language which is extensively used by Google because of its simplicity. It is managed by the Python Software Foundation.

Why is it important?
Python is a general-purpose, high-level programming language whose design philosophy emphasizes code readability. Python claims to combine "remarkable power with very clear syntax", and its standard library is large and comprehensive.

It is releases on 4 September 2011, 6 months ago.It is developed by Python Software Foundation.

9. Perl

What is it?
Being a high-level programming language, its emphasis lies in code readability and clear syntax. It combines Object-oriented and functional programming styles, and is often used as a scripting language. Perl is an open-source language used widely to process text through CGI programs.


Why is it important?
Perl’s efficiency in processing of piles of text has ranked it ninth in terms of programming language popularity. It is used extensively to write Web server programs for a variety of tasks. “Learning some form of scripting language, such as Perl or PHP is critical if you are doing Web apps," told Wayne Duqaine, director of Software Development at Grandview Systems, of Sebastopol, Calif., in a talk with eWEEK.

10. JavaScript

What is it?
JavaScript is an object-oriented scripting language that is smaller than Java. Being a client-side language, it runs in the web browser on the client-side with a simplified set of commands, easier code and no need for compilation.

Why is it important?
JavaScript is simple to learn and is the tenth most widely used programming language. It is used in millions of web pages to authenticate forms, detect browsers and improve design, and it is easier to run these functions as it is embedded into HTML.

[SeekAndFind]

This article is a few months old but I don't think things have changed much since then.

[SeekAndFind]

[ClearCase_guy]

What? No ADA??

[Terpfen]

Java #1—instead of C++ or Obejctive-C? No HTML/CSS? No Ruby?

Yeah, this is a pretty silly list.

[Carriage Hill]

What happened to Fortran and COBOL? They were a b*tch, back when I was drinking too much. LOL.

[SeekAndFind]

RE: What? No ADA??

Ada is definitely still being used in a number of niche markets, but it isn’t popular for mainstream commercial development. But then again, Ada wasn’t designed to be C# or Java, it was designed to meet a number of requirements for DoD systems, and these requirements also align with those for heavy industry, safety-critical systems, verifiable systems, and so on, and that’s where you find Ada today.

Some factoid for those interested...

Oracle’s PL/SQL language is based on Ada, the syntax, structure the concepts of records, packages and exceptions are all taken from Ada.

There are a lot of people using PL/SQL, I think they just stay quiet because it’s so dull.

[Carriage Hill]

“Building Web apps from scratch using C or COBOL...”

There it is. Using COBOL never would have occurred to me for web pages. HTML and xHTML-CSS were enough.

[Ragnar54]

bfl

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks SeekAndFind. Have a great day, all.

[SeekAndFind]

The most popular (i.e., the most visited) websites have in common that they are dynamic websites. Their development typically involves server side coding, client side coding and database technology. The programming languages applied to deliver similar dynamic web content however vary vastly between sites.

Programming languages used in most popular websites*

Website	Popularity (unique visitors)[1]	Frontend (Client-side)	Backend (Server-side)	Database	Notes
Google.com[2]	1,000,000,000	HTML	C, C++, Java, Python, PHP	MySQL	"MapReduce" is programmed in PHP
Facebook.com	880,000,000	Ajax	PHP, C++, Java, Python, Erlang	MySQL	The Most visited social networking site
YouTube.com	800,000,000	Flash, Java, JavaScript	C, Python	MySQL	video sharing site
Yahoo	590,000,000	PHP	Ajax	MySQL
Live.com	490,000,000	ASP.NET
MSN.com	440,000,000	ASP.NET
Wikipedia.org	410,000,000	PHP		MySQL	"MediaWiki" is programmed in PHP; free online encyclopedia
Blogspot.com	340,000,000	Python
Bing	230,000,000	ASP.NET	JavaScript
Twitter.com	160,000,000	RoR, Scala, Java	C++		160 character social network
Wordpress.com	130,000,000	PHP, JavaScript			uses JQuery library
Amazon.com	110,000,000	Java, J2EE	C++, Perl
eBay.com	88,000,000	Java, WebSphere, Servlets		Oracle Database	online auction house
Linkedin.com	80,000,000	Java, Scala

*data on programming languages are based on:

• HTTP Header information

[BaylorDad]

What about the languages I know? And I’m still working.

Fortran
RPG
Cobol
Basic

Believe it or not, I still support programs in RPG running on IBM’s AS400 SSP operating system.

[BuckeyeTexan]

I have mad skills in five of these languages. How ‘bout you, Laz? I know you have mad skills.

[aquila48]

ADA? What about FORTRAN?

[bigbob]

I’ve always echoed the words of the great Steve Ciarcia:

“My favorite programming language is SOLDER”

[SeekAndFind]

RE: Ruby

The TIOBE index, which measures the growth of programming languages, now ranks Ruby as #9 among programming languages worldwide. Much of the growth is attributed to the popularity of software written in Ruby, particularly the Ruby on Rails web framework.

See here:

http://www.ruby-lang.org/en/about/

Ruby is also totally free. Not only free of charge, but also free to use, copy, modify, and distribute.

[tacticalogic]

Strangely absent (to me, at least) from any consideration is Windows Powershell.

[Tanniker Smith]

I used to know quite a bit of that stuff. And back when my ISP had Unix shell accounts, I used to play around with that stuff (and the vi editor, too).

But now I'm an Algebra teacher and I don't have anything to program that would allow me to practice any of that stuff. Oh, well.

[Dr. Sivana]

The list was already made in the ground breaking Bally/Midway arcade game TRON:

Eachlevel was a different programming language. Here is the RPG level:

[Grams A]

And then there are those of us who still remember and treasure the old DOS commands. I still have one very, very old computer which contains one very, very old program that I still use on occasion when I get tired of fighting with everything else.

[desertfreedom765]

This article is slanted towards Application development and Web programming. Lots of Systems administrators are using Perl and other scripting languages to solve problems every day.

In fact on Dice the number of Jobs for Per greatly exceeds PHP or Python.