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.

[ImJustAnotherOkie]

Objective C has no place on this list. It’s not a language at all. It is simply a precompiler for C. It’s kludgy and stupid. I don’t like the stupid [] crap.

[SeekAndFind]

RE: If a programmer doesn’t know c, they’re not a programmer.

No, not at all. It simply tells us that in a job market like the one we have now, employers want someone who can do the job NOW. They’re not going to invest the time for someone to learn a programming language on the job.

You might be an excellent Assembly language programmer, but if the market for Assembly programmers are few ( i.e., not in demand, which is the case today, and I suspect, in future ), you are unlikely to find a job and would be better off targetting those companies that still have need for this specific skill.

I rememeber in the 1990’s there was humongous need for developers with POWERBUILDER skills. Now, I see little or no advertisement for this skill at all.

[SeekAndFind]

RE: Objective C has no place on this list. It’s not a language at all. It is simply a precompiler for C. It’s kludgy and stupid. I don’t like the stupid [] crap.

Love it or hate it, as long as APPLE’s iPhone is tremendously popular and Apps for the iPhone will be needed, Objective-C will be on the top 5 of the list.

Sometimes, the best products do not dominate and crappy ones do ( Remember the Blue Screen of Death for Windows 3.1 ?)

[Revolting cat!]

11. Databus.

[Cementjungle]

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

I was forced to do an interactive system in COBOL once (on an IBM mainframe). It had to have some subroutines done in BAL (assembly), but was mostly done in COBOL (with some REXX scripts supporting things). Those were the days.

[Carriage Hill]

THAT’s very, very impressive, Cj!

[cynwoody]

Google uses PHP ??

According to Steve Yegge, who works there, Google has four corporate-wide standard languages, and PHP is not among them:

One of the (hundreds of) cool things about working for Google is that they let teams experiment, as long as it's done within certain broad and well-defined boundaries. One of the fences in this big playground is your choice of programming language. You have to play inside the fence defined by C++, Java, Python, and JavaScript.

MapReduce (a Google invention) programmed in PHP? Not so. You may be able to use MapReduce or work-alikes from PHP, but MapReduce is not written in PHP.

[Bobalu]

I use C almost exclusively.
It’s king in the embedded systems world.
ASM is also very useful for writing fast interrupt code.

When I need to quickly create a windows app that will work I pull out good old Delphi :-)

[cynwoody]

Objective C has no place on this list.

Looking at the chart in #28, it appears Objective C's curve has been trending upward the last few years. That's no doubt due to the popularity of those iThingies.

[central_va]

I use/maintain Java, C and Perl code on a daily basis. I guess my skills are still up to date. If you can take the punishment learning PERL you will be handsomely rewarded as it is to me the most useful thing in the world. I can do things with PERL (regex hashes) on one line that would take 10 to 100’s of lines of c or java code.

[kosciusko51]

What, no RATFOR?

[AnotherUnixGeek]

The knowledge of a handful of programming languages could come to be a lifesaver to many a programmer

If you know how to code, you're going to pick up enough of any compiled or interpreted language to become productive in it pretty quickly. Languages are just part of the details. But C will always be my first love.

[PieterCasparzen]

This is a silly thread.

[Cementjungle]

Yea, I was working at a warehouse for a big supermarket chain distribution center at the time. Keeping track of the union guys’ hours and productivity over three shifts was an all manual process of logging times and numbers of pices being loaded into trucks for delivery to the markets.I thought there had to be a better way, so my boss let me get a TRS-80. I built a system in BASIC on that (learning as I went), and eventually headquarters caught wind of it, so they moved me to HQ and had me redo the system on the mainframe for all the national warehouses... and COBOL just happened to be the official in-house language. It all worked out well anyway.

[COBOL2Java]

Yeah, you should have seen the computers we used in the COBOL days! ;-)

[Delta Dawn]

Craigslist is for Cartagena escorts looking to diversify.

[COBOL2Java]

But C will always be my first love.

C is such an elegant language. Unfortunately I'm in management now and don't get to do as much programming as in the past. I mostly find myself writing VBA apps to pull metrics out of our databases for the boys & girls on the top floor...

[the invisib1e hand]

Java #1? I freaking doubt it. Java wipes your backside.

[Chode]

yup, i know for a fact three are FORTRAN process control programs i wrote over twenty years ago still running though modified over the years...

[COBOL2Java]

Anyone ever program in GAIN? It’s a language that was developed for SYBASE databases back in the early 90s and AFAIK is a dead language. However, one of my teams had to maintain a GAIN app (written in 1995) for a while, before we finally persuaded the owners to let us rewrite it.