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To some people learning a new programming language is an excess best avoided.
Why, oh why, they argue, do we need yet another language?
Dont we have enough already?
Arent the existing tools getting the job done?
If something does this radically enough, chances are it will continue to snatch mindshare and reach the top.
When that happens, you dont want to be left behind.
You want something that is new, sensible, and has a solid foundation.
How, then, do you cut?
For this post, I focused on a few parameters to keep my search within reasonable boundaries.
Release Date
I specifically avoided languages that are very, very new.
But I do hope to come back to this and write about their success someday.
Now, of course, there are exceptions to this rule, and these will be considered where applicable.
But the meat of the matter is still the community.
Knowing these terms makes it easier to evaluate a language and its ecosystem.
Focused, Well-Defined USP
The third thing Im looking for is a clear-cut goal for the language.
Honestly, Im bound to dismiss syntax-only improvements immediately.
Clear, Consistent Syntax
Yes, I know.
I just said that syntax doesnt matter.
Well, to be precise, I said that syntax-only improvements dont matter.
Along with syntax comes the idea of consistency.
Function naming, module structuring, etc., are key things a language cant afford to get wrong.
So, without further ado, lets get started with our top five recommendations.
Python, for all its clarity and popularity, lacked native constructs for dealing with data objects.
As a result,Juliawas born.
Heres what the official website has to say about its capabilities:
Julia excels at numerical computing.
Julias multiple dispatch is a natural fit for defining number and array-like datatypes.
To keep matters simple, Julia is blazing fast and doesnt enforce strict typing.
And what sort of eye-candy does Julia offer?
Heres what a Rust program looks like:
Concise and elegant, in my opinion.
So, what gives Rust the courage to go after C++?
Its the new memory model.
Rust has taken the system programming world by storm.
LearnRust from Dmitri Nesteruk.
Its a language that reads like poetry and has enough shortcuts to reduce mental friction by order of magnitude.
No wonder, then, that the Rails framework continues to dominate full-stack development for serious developers and startups.
But not everyone was happy with Rails, especially one of its core developers Jose Valim.
And behold,Elixirwas born!
In even simpler terms, what it means is this.
Syntax-wise, Elixir shamelessly copies Ruby, and its dominant Web framework, Phoenix, shamelessly copies Rails.
Some might scoff at the lack of originality, but at least Im not complaining.
Finally,Elixiris one of those technologies that are refreshing, pleasant, and damned practical.
Many people think that Node.js was a makeshift attempt at concurrency and would soon be replaced by Elixir.
I have to say I agree with them.
Kotlin
In 2017 I/O, Google unleashed a bomb upon the unsuspecting crowd.
The company formally announcedKotlinas the primary language for Android development, sending shock waves through the industry.
For the time being, though, Kotlin is enjoying a surge.
Kotlin was developed by JetBrains, a company better known for its suite of insanely good code editors.
One of them, IntelliJ IDEA, forms the bedrock of the Android Studio.
The design goals of Kotlin are safety, conciseness, and 100% interoperability with Java.
TypeScript
God knows I had to restrain myself for this spot!
Everything inside me was screaming Elm!
Anyway, lets move on to whatismainstream: TypeScript.
Thats because TypeScript adds some much-needed and fantastic superpowers to the most famous programming language in the world.
Yes, its finally possible to write native JavaScript code without suffering and cursing ones birth!
Async/await:The async/await keywords and patterns are fundamental, so no more messing around with Promises and Callbacks!
Namespaces, generics, tuples .
The impact of TypeScript cannot be denied.
As a result, significant libraries like React, D3, Vue (even jQuery!)
TypeScript is a smalllanguage to learnwith considerable benefits in the future.
It is a functional programming language created by Evan Czaplicki in 2012.
Elm is said to have no runtime exceptions thats where it shines.
As a statically typed language, the compiler validates all the errors at compile-time (wow!)
with friendly messages (the messages are full texts and not weirdly thrown codes).
What a sigh of relief for developers (de-buggers)!
Elm boasts of being speedier than React and more strongly typed than even TypeScript.
Elm code is very organized and neat and will make you a better developer.
Since Elm is module based, you’ve got the option to easily create reusable components.
Elm compiles to JavaScript that you’re free to run on the net internet ride.
So, lets play around a little bit, then!
Similar to how we useHTMLtags, we can create forms in Elm using the model div tags.
Traditional programming languages provide a lock feature to handle concurrency, which impacts performance.
Pony doesnt have a lock, thereby avoiding any blocking operations or deadlock scenarios.
Each actor is single-threaded.
For example, the capabilities describe what other aliases are denied rather than what they are allowed.
Notions like mutability and isolation are based on these capabilities.
This deny capability feature makes Pony free from the data race.
Pony ensures pop in safety for data handling.
It doesnt have any exceptions only errors need to be handled to compile the code.
The main reason for this is that Pony is statically typed.
There is also a at the end of the class attributes.
you’re free to also create functions:
Funto write functions, eh?
Now, the main part of actors and promises.
But they promise that the behaviours will be executed for sure.
Well, promises can be rejected, too if the actor cannot fulfill the asynchronous request being sent.
Do you think this code will compile?
Another great feature of Pony is that it is memory safe no NULL or buffer overruns.
Any code that might return null will never compile unless fixed.
There aremathematical proofsfor all the features in Pony.
To write Pony programs, you need toinstall the Pony compiler.
Since Pony is a compiled language, you must compile the program using ponyc before running it.
Once you plant the compiler, try thehello world program.
Vyper
Vyperis a smart contract programming language based on Python.
Like Python, it is human-readable, easy to code, and secure.
Vyper compiles down to the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) bytecode.
EVM identifies the state ofEthereumfor each block on the blockchain.
To understand why Vyper is special, lets understand smart contracts.
These are self-executing automated contracts that do not need human intervention.
However, smart contracts are prone to vulnerabilities.
These vulnerabilities are usually introduced via the code unintentionally or intentionally.
Vyper eliminates this issue by providing secure code, making it difficult to introduce vulnerable or misleading code.
This avoids code complexity (having multiple files, making it difficult for auditing purposes).
These features make Vyper quite secure for writing code for smart contracts used in blockchains.
To practice writing programs in Vyper, you’re able to use theremix online compiler.
R
Ris one of the most popular programming languages for data analysis and machine learning.
R is open source and widely popular for its rich graphical user interface.
R has a function called mean that does all this calculation for us.
The above variable, mynum was a vector that contained a list of numbers.
Similar to Python, we create a data frame in R to work with more dimensions.
This is most useful for analytics.
Let us say we have employee name, skill, and age vectors.
R will blow you away by performing complex matrix calculations with a breeze.
All you have to do is create the matrix and give it to theR program.
Apache Groovy
After careful consideration and evaluation, I have includedGroovyin my list of top programming languages.
Its worth noting that the JVM is an abbreviation forJava Virtual Machine.
JVM is an integral part of Java, providing a platform for running Java bytecode on any gadget.
From a performance perspective, Groovy can statically key in-check and compile your code for improved robustness and performance.
Groovys seamless integration with existing Java classes and libraries sets it apart from other programming languages.
Groovys dynamic nature may make punch in-checking problematic and debugging code more challenging, which is one potential disadvantage.
However, many programmers believe that the flexibility and simplicity of Groovy outweigh any potential disadvantages.
As a developer, its essential to recognize the unique value that Groovy brings to the table.
Hence, it is evident why Groovy deserves the attention of every developer.
Crystal
After extensive research, we couldnt help but addCrystalto our list.
And no, were not talking about minerals!
Crystal is a general-purpose, object-oriented programming language released in 2014.
It was designed to have a syntax closely resembling Ruby while being fast and efficient.
With its static key in system and ahead-of-time compilation, Crystal offers developers Cs speed and Rubys simplicity.
Nevertheless, this tradeoff has made Crystal an attractive option for building high-performance applications in a more developer-friendly language.
This code demonstrates Crystals benefits in syntax, performance, and jot down safety.
Crystals syntax is similar to Rubys, making it easy to read and write.
However, Crystal compiles to native code, resulting in faster execution than interpreted languages like Ruby.
Additionally, Crystal is statically typed, which provides key in safety at compile-time and improves performance.
In addition, several tools like dune and esy that aid in this process.
These versatile options make Reason and OCaml appealing to developers across various industries.
Reason is a contemporary programming language with a user-friendly interface and syntax similar to JavaScript.
Its versatility and straightforward design make it a popular choice for developers in various industries.
Elm is great for neater code separation and modular programming.
Pony is one of the best for asynchronous programming.
While Vyper is quite new in the smart-contract language world, it provides a promising alternative to Solidity.
Vyper particularly scores well when it comes to contract definition and error handling.
However, for some of us, the norm isnt enough.
They want to go out and explore and bet big on the future.
Whereas the happiness and monetary returns that can be generated in the future will be several times more.
