Learning is a lifelong process. A lot of new things pop up frequently and it would be very difficult to survive if we are not keeping up with its ever-changing mechanism.
Same can be said about technology and programming languages. Once the basic foundation of HTML, CSS and often times, JavaScript has been laid, then the possibilities and capacity of the mind are limitless. Judging from the plethora of programming languages and learning resources available right now, I’d say a programmer should possess knowledge of a language that’s
- Close to the system(C, Go, or C++)
- An object-oriented language(Java or Python)
- A scripting language(Javascript, Ruby, PHP, JQuery)
- A functional programming language (Haskell, SML, Scala)
- A procedural programming language (BASIC, FORTRAN, C, PASCAL)
Statistically, the most sought-after and widely-used programming languages according to GitHub are:
- Javascript
- Python
- Java
- PHP
- C#
- C++
- Typescript
- Shell
- C
- Ruby
According to hackr.io, the top 10 programming languages for 2021 are:
- Python
- Java
- C/C++
- Javascript
- Go
- R
- Swift
- PHP
- C#
- MATLAB
While the concept of learning something new may be thrilling at first, it is imperative to put in hundreds of hours to master that new skill and ultimately build cool applications.
So you should consider the following factors:
- The market demand for the language
- How easy the language is to learn (it usually never is)
- The kind of projects you wish to build with it
- Materials and resources available to learn
It is necessary to stay updated, as these languages are updated frequently.
Remember to learn one language well before moving to another one, it promises to be easier, and it is not enough to just learn it, practice and practice some more and upload to your repository.
A number of these programming languages carry out the same function, the most important thing is the application. If you are confused as to what programming language to adopt, start off with the foundation, carry out a series of research and tests and employ the language you are comfortable with.
Remember, no one can become an expert in anything by just squeezing all the information into his/her mind. It takes time and efforts to attain the mastery level.
Here’s a few pointers:
- If you are looking to learn how computers work, go for C
- If you want to work at major tech companies, go for Java, it’s been around for a while, but still in very high demand
- Python is great for science and arguably, the most adopted language.
- If you’re a game-lover, you’ll appreciate C++
