A Look at 5 of the Most Popular Programming

Languages of 2019 - 2020

If you’re a software developer, then you probably—every now and then—feel

overwhelmed by the super-fast pace at which our industry evolves, and that’s fine. I certainly feel
that way sometimes, especially when trying to keep up with the latest trends.

But it’s possible to be well-informed about what’s going on out there, and use that
information to your advantage, by being economical about your learning.

Sure, there are lots of programming languages. Sure, new ones keep being created every
week—and don’t even get me started on JavaScript frameworks.

Do you need to learn all of them? Of course not.

First, learn about a number of the most popular programming languages. Then, narrow
that list down, by picking the ones that make the most sense for your current knowledge level,
employment status and other criteria that might make sense for your scenario.

For instance, if you intend to learn the functional paradigm, then pick a functional
language from the list. Rinse and repeat.

That’s what this post is about. We’ve done the legwork for you, compiling a list of five of
the most popular programming languages for 2019. Now you only have to read it and put it to
good use.

A Look At Our Sources

You might be wondering where have we found our data for this post. There are hundreds
of metrics to look at when considering the top programming languages, but we focused on a few
of the most authoritative, namely Tiobe and GitHub.

Tiobe Programming Index

For decades, Tiobe (the software quality company) has generated an index of the most
popular programming languages. They update this list monthly, pulling in data from hundreds of
sources around the world.

GitHub
GitHub is one of the largest code repositories in use today. Every year they create a Year in
Review report, sharing statistics about their programmer community. We use this data as another
indicator of language popularity.
 In this post, we also attempt to predict the future of programming languages.

We use a wide variety of resources to predict the fastest growing languages and the most
influential languages. Of course, all of these insights are up for debate, but they are worth
considering if you want to stay ahead of the curve.

Let’s get into it. Below are the most popular programming languages of 2019, and
predictions about the future of code.

The table below shows the top 20 most popular programming languages as of August
2019. The Tiobe Index works like market share; the percentage is the amount of “market share” a
language holds. All of the languages combined total 100 percent.

Most Popular Programming Languages

 Tiobe factors in variables like the number of professional developers worldwide, training
courses, and third-party vendors.

Last, but not least, we take data from The GitHub Year in Review—which is a report
published annually by GitHub.

Using the data from GitHub we can see not only the most used languages on the platform
during the year, but also the ones which are growing the fastest.

The chart above shows GitHub’s top languages over time.

The Top Programming Languages, Explained

What makes the top programming languages so popular? We’ll take a deeper look at five
of the top languages to learn how they’re used and why people love them.

1. Java
According to Tiobe, Java has been the number 1 or 2 most popular language basically
since its creation in the mid-90s. Many of the world’s biggest companies use Java to build desktop
apps and backend web systems.

If you know Java, chances are you won’t be desperate for work!

There are a number of factors that make Java so popular:

1. Portability: Thanks to the platform-agnostic Java Virtual Machine (JVM), Java can run on
nearly every system. Java is also the most popular Android language, so the vast majority of
Android apps are built in Java.
2. Scalability: James Governor has a saying: “When web companies grow up, they become
Java shops”.Java is built for scalability in mind, which is why it is so popular among enterprises
and scaling startups (Twitter moved from Ruby to Java for scaling purposes). Since Java is a
statically-typed language, it’s faster and easier to maintain with less bugs. It is also backwards
compatible, which means old versions of the language will still run perfectly even after new
versions are released. This is a big relief for businesses who would otherwise worry about
rewriting their code every time a new version comes out.
3. Large community: The popularity of Java helps to ensure its future popularity, thanks to a
huge community of users. With massive Stack Overflow and GitHub communities, developers
can find help on virtually any problem they might encounter. Coupled with its portability,
developers know that investing in Java will pay dividends for a long, long time.

2. The C Programming Language

C is one of the oldest, most popular programming languages, thanks to its near universal
portability and early adoption by Tech’s biggest brands, including Microsoft, Apple, Linux, and
Oracle.

C is also the most popular language for embedded systems in cars, electronics, and other
devices.

Nearly everything that we touch today, from our cell phones to alarm clocks, is influenced
by—if not directly written in—the C language.

Why is it still a popular programming language to learn today? First, it’s essentially
a portable assembly language. It works with nearly every system and operates about as low to the
machine as you can get.

C also has features that make is perfectly qualified for operating systems and embedded
systems (like your car’s dashboard). Thanks to its relatively small runtime, C is perfect for keeping
these systems lean.

Any programmer will benefit from learning the C language.

Many algorithms written and shared online are done in C. It’s essentially the “universal
language” of programming languages. C spinoffs like C++ and C# are also among the top 5 most
popular languages, again emphasizing the influence C still has today.

3. Python
The popularity of Python has risen steadily over the past 15 years, finally breaking the top
5 on the Tiobe Index a few years ago. This is because Python is a major language in some of the
most exciting technologies today.

Machine learning, artificial intelligence (AI), Big Data, and Robotics all rely heavily on
Python (Robotics also relies on C for its use in systems programming). Cyber Security, one of the
top software challenges of our time, is also driven by Python.

It’s surprising how simple Python is to learn.

It’s now the most popular introductory language taught in universities and often picked up
by experienced developers as a second or third language.
 4. JavaScript
Thanks to the ubiquity of web browsers, JavaScript has become one of the most popular
programming languages in the world, and number 1 on GitHub in terms of pull requests.

There are notable complaints with JavaScript (more on that in a bit), but JavaScript has
held its own against newer languages and will continue to play a significant role on the web.

JavaScript allows developers to add interactive effects to web pages. It often works
alongside HTML, but it’s becoming more common for web apps to be built entirely in JavaScript.

Because of its simplicity and speed, more startups and tech businesses are starting to use
JavaScript on the backend via the Node.js framework.

5. Ruby
Ruby is one of the most popular languages among tech startups.

Many Silicon Valley unicorns have been built on Ruby, including Airbnb, Twitch, GitHub,
and Twitter. Its popularity is bolstered (and perhaps dependent) on Ruby on Rails, a full-stack web
application framework that runs Ruby.

Ruby is beloved by developers for a number of reasons.

 First, Ruby has an incredibly simple beautiful syntax that allows a developer to do more
with less code.
 Second, thanks to Ruby on Rails, getting a web application up-and-running takes less time
than in other frameworks.

This explains why startups are so fond of the language: it enables the famous startup
mantra, “move fast and break things.”

The downside of Ruby is its scalability.

Ruby is a dynamically-typed language, which makes it very flexible and great for
prototypes, but difficult to maintain at scale. As a Ruby app grows, the dynamic nature of the
language obscures the source of code errors and eats up computing resources. This is why Twitter
switched from Ruby to Java.

2020 Programming Language Predictions

Now that we’ve looked at the most popular programming languages right now, we’re
going to take the liberty of predicting what’s to come in 2020 and beyond.

Based on trends from previous years, we’re confident that the list of top programming
languages won’t change that much from year-to-year.

But where are the winds headed? Let’s try to take a glimpse into the future.
 Fastest-Growing Languages
Every year, the Tiobe Index crowns the fastest growing language as “Language of the Year”.
Recent winners have been Python (2018), C (2017), Go (2016), Java (2015), and JavaScript (2014).

Tiobe will crown a new Language of the Year in the next few weeks, but their website says
the candidates are Kotlin and C. It’s an interesting dichotomy with C being of the oldest languages
(1987) and Kotlin being one of the newest (2011).

Let’s look at each language.

Kotlin

The couple last years have been great for Kotlin, the statically-typed programming
language from JetBrains.

On top of receiving loads of good press, in 2017 Kotlin was also named an official
development language for the Android platform.

This is an enormous boost; not only is Android the most popular mobile development
platform, but it’s also the 3rd most populardevelopment platform behind Windows desktop and
Linux,according to StackOverflow.

And, as you can see in the image above, GitHub’s report indicates that Kotlin was the
fastest growing language in 2018.

There are several reasons for Kotlin’s rise in popularity, not least of which is its 100-
percent interoperability with Java and the fact that IT runs on Java Virtual Machine (Java is
another official Android language).

Kotlin also compiles down into JavaScript, making it extremely versatile for both front and
back-end development.

Expect to hear a lot more about Kotlin in the years to come, and if possible, take some
time to add it to your repertoire (it’s surprisingly simple).

The C Programming Language

We’ve already discussed why C practically runs the world, but what’s behind this latest
boost in popularity?

Like we mentioned earlier, C is the perfect language for embedded systems, and frankly,
everything is becoming an embedded system these days.

C is one of the top programming languages for IoT devices, including wearables and car
dashboards. As more products become “smart”, we’ll see C’s use continue to expand.
 Most Influential Programming Languages
The popularity of a programming language is one thing, but which languages will have the
greatest influence in the years to come?

One way to determine whether a language is “influential” is to look at the technologies

built on top of it (see Python and C).

Another way is to look at a language’s ability to solve intrinsic software problems. For the
sake of treading new ground, let’s focus on the latter definition.

“Individual problems tend to be more influential than any one specific language,” said
Ehrlich. “Right now the biggest problem we’re facing is end of Moore’s law.”

Moore’s Law says that computing power will double every 18 months, and for the first
time in decades, computer chip makers are not keeping pace. That means software developers
need to figure out a way to make powerful web applications with the same amount of computing
processing power.

Another hardware issue Ehrlich references is power consumption.

“Batteries just aren’t getting better,” said Ehrlich, despite the fact that more and more of
our devices run on them. “So now we need to make hardware and software that is as power-
efficient as possible.”

One solution to both of these challenges, Ehrlich suggests, is the use of native languages.
“It turns out that the same sort of features that improve speed and responsiveness also allows us
to write more power-efficient code.”

Ehrlich thinks we will see a move towards native languages like Go, Swift, Rust as hardware
attempts to catch up.

Compilado por Mauricio Codega para Inglés Técnico 2 de la carrera de Analista de Sistemas