As another year begins, novice programmers are faced with the question of choosing to learn a programming language. The language needs to be relevant to the field of work and in terms of maintenance as well.

This article sheds some light on what can be good options in early 2019.

Also read: Microcontrollers: A layman’s guide to the microcontroller world

Python

Python has been growing rapidly over the past few years and shows no signs of slowing down. As of early 2019, you can find it anywhere from web apps to microcontrollers.

Python can be quite useful for back-end web development and APIs, especially if you’re into reliability or security. Also, python based web-frameworks such as Django and Pyramid have been gaining popularity.

Overall, it’s a pretty good choice for any beginner looking to code. It’s a high-level language, easy to learn, understand and read and has consistently been rising to the top.

JavaScript

As of the StackOverflow survey 2018, JavaScript is the most popular language out there, with about 71.5% of developers using it.

It’s been essential in front-end development and is quickly being adapted to back-end as well. The language is also rapidly expanding in other areas such as IoT and game development.

JavaScript, in conjunction with HTML/CSS, allows you to build interactive web apps/website which is an essential need in today’s world. Most browsers in some way implement JavaScript as well.

Rust

If you haven’t heard of Rust before, don’t worry. It’s a relatively new language.

Rust came out in 2018 and has completely changed the way we think about programming. According to the Stack Overflow developer survey, it’s been the most loved and wanted language on Stack Overflow already.

Rust was initially developed by the Mozilla Foundation and operates as a system-level language, hence best suited for performance critical code. It was built with the purpose of avoiding buffer overflows, dangling pointers and any other commonly occurring memory errors.

All of these things also make Rust a bit difficult for a beginner to pick up. The various rules about memory safety make it a bit of a nightmare for some. However, its greatly loved by experienced developers and is expected to be in high demand in the coming years.

Go

Go is a simple high-level programming language by Google.

The objective behind Go was to design a language which is as simple to implement like Python but as efficient as something like C++. Google, (who also happens to be a Python lover) have come up with the perfect brainchild in the process.

Go provides features for writing concurrent programs. In a time where multi-core apps are being written everywhere, Go handles the need quite well with its built-in support for concurrency.

Go combines the simplicity of Python with the efficiency of C++; hence you get the best of both worlds. With the best aspects of functional as well as object-oriented programming at your disposal, Go makes for a valuable programming language.

Swift

If you’re looking to get into iOS development, Swift is the way to go.

Swift is Apple’s new language of choice for programming native iOS and macOS applications. Since native apps outperform hybrid apps, Swift is increasingly becoming more popular. Its built-in Sprite-Kit makes 2D game development a breeze.

It is much of an improvement in terms of usability and performance compared to Objective-C.

Swift is also statically typed. This means that the XCode(the editor for Swift) checks your errors for you as you type the code. Hence it becomes much easier to track and fix bugs.

Also read: How to become an ethical hacker? A concise guide

Kotlin

Kotlin is the second most loved language on Stack Overflow as of 2018.

Initially developed by JetBrains, Kotlin is completely interoperable with Java and has no limitations whatsoever. This means that it can be used anywhere Java is used.

Android developers have been using Kotlin as their language of choice for quite some time now. In 2017, Google announced Kotlin to be the official language for Android app development.

It works great with any pre-existing Java libraries and frameworks hence performing at the same efficiency, if not more than Java.

Overall, an excellent choice at this point.

C++

We have been there done that.

If you’re reading this post you probably already know C++. Almost everyone on the planet knows C++. Yes, it’s old, but it never goes out of fashion.

C++ has always been in demand because of its high reliability, efficiency and the number of contexts you can use it in.

Building a career as a C++ developer, you’ll be making tons of desktop applications, from GUI-applications to 3D games to real life research simulations.

TypeScript

TypeScript is basically JavaScript, just on a significantly larger scale. It was essentially designed for large scale JavaScript applications.

In 2018, TypeScript came to the front foot as it caught the attention of a much larger developer community. Like JavaScript, you can not only use it for front-end, but also the back-end, hybrid mobile applications, cloud solutions, robots and even neural networks.

TypeScript is now pretty much fundamental to core JavaScipt frameworks. Even Google decided to include it in Angular.

Java

How can Java not be on a list of programming languages to learn?

Like C++, chances are you already have heard of Java or better yet, know how to code in it. Java has been the language of choice for beginners to get started in coding. Even most school curriculums include Java.

Java’s JVM (Java Virtual Machine) gives it cross-platform abilities like no other language. The ‘Write Once Run Everywhere’ ideology has been the key to Java’s astounding success.

Many people have predicted that Java will die out or become obsolete. However, Java has come back from the dead more times than we can count now so, that claim is just word of mouth.

According to the Stack Overflow developer survey, Java still ranks fifth in Programming and Markup languages.

F#

F#, pronounced as F Sharp, was originally designed by the F# foundation. It is the highest paid programming language according to the Stack Overflow developer survey.

The language is most often used as a cross-platform CLI (Command Line Infrascture). It can also generate JypeScript and GPU Code.

The language can be a bit tricky for beginners. However, considering the demand for the language and the shortage of developers now might be the best time to start.

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