Programming Languages to Learn in 2018

Everyone of us has desire for a better future and a better career, but these things don’t come on their own. Timely and wise decisions can bring you good fortune. The year 2017 is a past now and we just have stepped into a new year, 2018. A new year’s resolution is not going bring you anywhere if you do not think wisely and act properly.

Those who are going to start a career in programming or those who want to switch their primary programming language should take the next step wisely so that they won’t have any regrets at the end of this year.

In this article I am going to suggest learning different programming languages, give proper reasons to do so, and help you choose which is best for you. The languages are in no particular order, so don’t let that influence your decision. Go over each section to decide what is good and what is bad for you.

Python

Throughout 2017 Python was the most desired programming language. More career opportunities were open for Python programmers and the salary range was increased for Python developers. Does that mean that it will also be a good choice in 2018? Let's first see what Python is.

Python is a dynamic programming language. It was developed by Guido van Rossum in 1991. Many people have the misconception that it is an interpreted language. But the reality is that it first compiles to bytecode and then that bytecode is run by the Python VM. So, technically speaking it is a compiled language like Java. Its reputation as interpreted language is not going to go away soon though. It is not a strictly typed language but rather it is a duck typed language. That means it is a dynamically typed language and all data inside of it is not typeless—instead they are associated with some kind of typing.

In recent years we have seen a bloom of data science, machine learning and artificial intelligence. In these fields Python is on the top. Its high popularity in these arenas are not due solely to its characteristics, but for rich environments developed around it over many years, and the availability of various tools and libraries on top of Python for data science, machine learning, and artificial intelligence. So, if you want to pursue a career in these fields then Python whould be the best choice for you in 2018 and beyond.

Unlike many other languages, a Python programmer has a lot of options. Using Python one can develop desktop applications, web applications, day-to-day scripting, and more. If you want to develop web applications then you can use one of the popular web frameworks such as Django, Flask, aiohttp, etc. For developing desktop GUI you can use PyQt, WxPython, TkInter and multiple other options. Python will be a good choice for web developers and desktop application developers but it is in no way a good choice for mobile application developers. So, if you want to advance your career in mobile application development then Python should not be your choice. Again Python is a good choice for sysadmins, network admins, and scientists.

JavaScript

Nowadays, JavaScript is everywhere. Once it was a king as a language that run on browsers. Over the years it also secured its position as a backend language of the web. Its asynchronous behavior, performance, ease of use and versatility has made it a perennial favorite..

JavaScript is a high level dynamic programming language. This language was designed in 10 days that resulted in various immaturity in it and distaste of many developers. But over the years many of its drawbacks were resolved. Now ES6 can run on the latest versions of every major browsers, save Internet Explorer.

If you want to work on the frontend of the web and you need a programming language then you have one and only one choice: JavaScript. There are some solutions available that will help you write code in another language and convert them to pure JavaScript. But you cannot go far with them—you will have to fall back to JavaScript at some point. If you want to be a backend web developer then you can use JavaScript with NodeJs. Many popular web frameworks have been built on top of NodeJs. You will be overwhelmed to see how many options you have got. Both for backend and forntend web development, JavaScript is a good choice.

Many tools and frameworks have been developed for developing desktop and mobile applications with JavaScript. Though they will be convenient ways of developing desktop and mobile applications, you will not be able to go far with them. For example, if you are developing Android applications, somewhere down the line you will have to use some Java instead of JavaScript. You can use JavaScript as a convenient language for mobile and desktop application development, but you should not use it as a serious language for that purpose. Day to day scripting is also easy with it.

Java

History says that a career in Java is stable. It does not fluctuate up and down like other languages. Java developers usually have a good salary, stable career, and good life.

Java is a statically typed language that made it a safe and scalable language for almost all platforms. Java is used on the web, desktop, mobile phones and even in smart cards (e.g. SIM card, credit card, etc). It is the preferred language in the enterprise world. If you are developing enterprise grade applications then Java will be the best fit for you. Many people may argue that C# is also a good option, but in the world of C# you will not enjoy as much flexibility as Java and C# does not run on as many platforms as Java does. For Android application developers there is no better alternative to Java, though Kotlin is also catching up recently. Though Java is a good choice for mobile, web, and desktop, it is not well suited for machine learning, data science, and artificial intelligence. The question of goodness is not in how good the language is, but in the already built environment around it. Do not choose it as a day to day scripting language—it is not a scripting language.

PHP

I know that many people will be surprised to see PHP on the list. Many people hate PHP for various reasons. Salaries for PHP developers are lower than other languages described above. But, this is the language that survived throughout the age of web development.

PHP is a high level dynamic programming language. It is the de-facto programming language for backend web development and a lot of tools and frameworks are built on top of it. You can build the backends of a web application much quicker and more easily in PHP than in any other language. PHP is also easier to setup for the cloud than any other languages. Jobs for backend web developers are much more available all over the world than for any other language. So, learning it will help give you a better shot at landing a career, even if it’s not the most lucrative one.

Remember one thing: PHP is a specialized language for backend web application development. It is possible to do other things with this language but it is not wise to expect much. Think of it as a language for the backend of the web and not for other things. We have seen a noticeable fall in the popularity of PHP in the recent years. But that is not going to put careers of PHP developers at stake anytime soon. Sometimes popularity shown in surveys dose not directly affect the career and especially not for PHP.

Conclusion

To keep this article short I have skipped a lot of other great languages like C, C++, C#, Ruby etc. Here I covered the languages that will help people secure a good career, not the languages that will help them enrich their computer science knowledge more than another language. Popularity or career choice of languages does not help make the decision for learning programming or computer science better. So, before you make a decision to learn a programming language, first think what you are going to do with it.