Top 10 programming languages of the future - you voted! ( for techies only)

Found Read ^ | 9/7/2007 | copywryter

[SeekAndFind]

Editor’s Note: Our friends over at Red Canary (http://www.redcanary.ca/view/top-10-programming) conducted a public forum with entrepreneurs and founders, like you, to find out what will be the top (most relevant, most used) programming languages in 2013. The results are in, we think they are worth reviewing for your strategic planning, and future hiring needs. (If you haven’t yet, do check out Red Canary (http://www.redcanary.ca/) so you can vote on the #1 language yourself (http://www.redcanary.ca/view/top-10-programming). Red Canary is full of other very useful content, and we really like their tagline, “opportunity meets community,” which expresses an ethos complimentary to Found|READ’s own mission.)

While digging around in the archives of Red Canary’s predecessor-site, Editor Trevor Stafford came across a ranked list of programming languages that were most in demand by employers in 2001. So Trevor posted the top-10 languages on Red Canary and asked his readers to vote on which of these languages would be most relevant in the future. Then he conducted the poll again, with the help of other entrepreneurial groups, like YCombinator.

For your ease, I’ve published the most recent results of Trevor’s poll, first.

TOP PROGRMAMING LANGUAGES FOR 2013

Here’s the list after 2 weeks of voting and an influx of opinions from Californian startup types (thank you, yCombinator). Python is the biggest mover.

1. HTML/CSS 7.6

2. Javascript 7.3

3. Ajax 7.2

4. Python 6.9

5. Java 6.7

6. C# 6.7

7. Ruby 6.2

8. .Net 6.0

9. C++ 5.4

10. C 5.1

10 = extremely relevant

1 = irrelevant

Note: Even though Ajax and CSS/HTML are markup tools, not programming languages, I couldn’t put a list like this together without them, and I couldn’t come up with an umbrella term for everything. Future technologies? Yuck. If you wanted to get really picky you could point out that transact-sql is merely a language extension. So is PL/SQL. Javascript might even warrant an argument. Please don’t get that picky, however. One Red Canary reader asked for Haskell to be added, but it didn’t make the top 10.

Below is the list Trevor started with, based on what was most valued, six years ago.

I. MOST POPULAR LANGUAGES (BASED ON EMPLOYER DEMAND) 2001

1. C++

2. Windows NT4

3. Oracle

4. Java

5. HTML

6. ASP

7. Visual Basic 6

8. DB2

9. Cobol

10. ANSI-C

Seeing that list got me to thinking about the nature and future of coding. What languages or splinter languages would dominate the list in 2013? Certainly not Cobol and ANSI-C :) Where will .Net and Java be in 6 years? What about xml and the surging popularity of Ajax? Will PERL and Lisp coders be able to transition to Ruby? Will they need to? What about young languages like Lua?

I’m not smart enough to see into 2013’s crystal ball, so here’s a list of 20-odd languages. Assign up to 10 stars to as many languages as you like (according to how relevant they will be in 6 years).

II. AFTER 1 WEEK OF VOTING

Here are the predicted top 10 languages of 2013 after almost one week of voting:

1. Java 7.7 (avg. stars)

2. C# 7.7

3. HTML/CSS 7.4

4. .Net 6.9

5. Ajax 6.8

6. Javascript 6.2

7. Transact-SQL 6.0

8. C++ 5.5

9. Ruby 5.4

10. PL/SQL 5.4

III. AFTER 2 WEEKS OF VOTING:

1. HTML/CSS 7.6

2. Javascript 7.3

3. Ajax 7.2

4. Python 6.9

5. Java 6.7

6. C# 6.7

7. Ruby 6.2

8. .Net 6.0

9. C++ 5.4

10. C 5.1

Remember, this is not a list of today’s most popular languages, but which languages you think will be dominant in 2013.

[SeekAndFind]

I personally think that C and C++ are losing ground. Languages without automatic garbage collection are getting out of fashion. The chances of running into all kinds of memory problems is gradually outweighing the performance penalty you have to pay for garbage collection.

PERL has probably seen better days too ( Python is slowly becoming more popular as a scripting language ). PERL used to be the standard for every sys admin and build manager, but everyone has been waiting for a major release since 2000. That's taking too long and its time might have passed.

[the invisib1e hand]

the first list is in ascending order of “future importance?”

[ShadowAce]

[SeekAndFind]

the first list is in ascending order of “future importance?”

I think all the list is in ascending order according to perceived popularity and widespread use and demand with #1 being the MOST popular.

If a language makes the top 10 and you are skilled in it, that means your skills will still be in demand. If the language you are good in isn't on that list, that means people perceive it to be losing popularity.

[RockyMtnMan]

Ajax is not a language it stands for Asynchronous Javascript over XML. So technically they are saying Javascript. However there is a server side component to AJAX which could be a variety of other languages (Java, Python, PHP, etc).

[Dr. Sivana]

Uh oh . . .

What about?

1. RealBASIC
2. FOCAL
3. FORTRAN-77
4. PAL
5. SNOBOL
6. Forth
7. Logo(Coleco Z-80 version)
8. ALgol
9. Lisp
10. Postscript

[SeekAndFind]

What language do they teach for Artificial Intelligence a the Universities today ? It’s been a long time since I did LISP. A few years after graduation, PROLOG was all the rage with Japan’s 5th Generation Project ( which went nowhere wasting billions of government dollars).

And you forgot what was supposed to be the military standard for every project — ADA — whatever happened to that ?

[AdmSmith]

An extension of an “old” language is required for multithreaded parallel programming, maybe Z++ or Charm++ (yes I'm still fond of C++, but agree with you on the garbage collection)

[AppyPappy]

The most common languages requested of the university by employers are things like ASP, VB strains and PL/SQL. We send a lot of students out to COBOL shops as well. You can train a monkey to code COBOL. COBOL is still the best batch program language.

[the invisib1e hand]

What language do they teach for Artificial Intelligence a the Universities today ?

Idunno about that, but I know they teach "pseudo intelligence" in English.

[papasmurf]

What? No Assembly?

[papasmurf]

Odd. The company my wife works for is seeking sql/c++/VB programmers.

Very good privately owned and managed company, too. Atlanta if anyone’s interested. :)

[SeekAndFind]

RE:
yes I'm still fond of C++, but agree with you on the garbage collection

I think you are aware of a new language called D, which is supposed to be a successor to C++. D is a systems programming language. Its focus is on combining the power and high performance of C and C++ with the programmer productivity of modern languages like Ruby and Python. Special attention is given to the needs of quality assurance, documentation, management, portability and reliability.

See here

Personally, I think for the next 5 years, there will be two main languages : JAVA and C#. I don't forsee any earthshaking new paradigm. But then, the schools in Asian countries like India and the Philippines are teaching these languages to their college kids. I'm not sure what's in it for American Programmers.

[the invisib1e hand]

I don't know where this fits into the discussion, but what of RAD environments?

Some of us really get tons of productivity out of them.

[mamelukesabre]

Fortran?

That’s funny.

[frankenMonkey]

What?
no MUMPS?

[frankenMonkey]

I once had a salesman comment that “Now that we have code generators, we don’t need coders.”

[the invisib1e hand]

I once had a salesman comment that “Now that we have code generators, we don’t need coders.”

Yeah! And I remember how offices were going to be "paperless" by the '80's.

[dfwgator]

Uhh, AJAX is not a language.

Some languages to look out for are the functional languages like, Erlang, Scala and F#. These languages can do for multi-threaded programming, what Java did for memory management. Concurrent programming in Java is a major pain in the you-know-what, and with multi-core processors, it’s going to become a major problem, as most Java developers only know enough about concurrency to be dangerous.

[dfwgator]

If a language makes the top 10 and you are skilled in it, that means your skills will still be in demand. If the language you are good in isn't on that list, that means people perceive it to be losing popularity.

It's all about developing a "knowledge portfolio". Java and C# are the "blue chip" languages, low risk, but probably lower pay than experts in more "cutting edge" languages, like Ruby, higher risk, but consultants who are experts in these languages command a lot of money, even though over time as more people learn Ruby, that will drop. But the key for any developer is to be proficient in the blue-chip technologies, and try to become also proficient in other higher risk/higher potential return technologies.