There are around 600 programming languages out there. The demand and popularity of programming languages fluctuate every year. Also, new programming languages are coming with attractive features.

Are you looking forward to starting your programming career in 2021? or do  you want to learn your first or second programming language, then it is wise to learn one of the mainstream and established programming languages.

Are you ready?

 Here I will list programming languages based on the following criteria:

1. Already mainstream and firmly established in the Software Development industry.
2. Top-ranked in the renowned programming languages ranking websites.
3. Also, I will summarize the programming languages along with historical context, key features,popularity and their primary use cases.

1. PYTHON

When Guido van Rossum developed Python in the 1990s as his side project, nobody had thought it would be the most popular programming language one day. Considering all well-recognized rankings and industry trends,Python finds itself as  the number one programming language overall.  Python has focused on developer experience and tried to lower the barrier to programming so that school kids can also write production-grade code. In 2008, Python went through a massive overhaul and improvement with the cost of introducing significant breaking changes by introducing Python 3. Today, Python is omnipresent and used in many areas of software development, with no sign of slowing down.

KEY FEATURES:

1. The USP of Python is its language design. It is highly productive, elegant, simple, yet powerful. Python has set the gold standard in terms of developer experience and heavily influenced modern languages.

2. Python has first-class integration with C/C++ and can seamlessly offload the CPU heavy tasks to C/C++. Also, Python gives a powerful toolset for Mathematics, Statistics, and Computational Science with various libraries like NumPy, Pandas, SciPy, Scikit-Learn. As a result, Python dominates the Machine Learning/Deep Learning/Data Science landscape and other Scientific domains.

3. Python has a very active community and support. You can always find enough Python libraries and frameworks, no matter whether you are working on Enterprise Applications, Data Science, or Artificial Intelligence.

POPULARITY:

In the last several years, Python has seen enormous growth in demand with no sign of slowing down.Python has been ranked as the number one programming language with a considerable popularity gain in 2019. Also, StackOverflow developer survey has ranked Python as the 2nd most popular programming language (4th most popular Technology). TIOBE has ranked Python the 3rd most popular language with a massive gain in last year. Python still has the chance to go further up in ranking as Python saw a 50% growth last year according to GitHub Octoverse. StackOverflow developer survey has listed Python as the second most loved programming language. Also, Python is an exception as it has an increasingly upward trending during the last five years as clear from Google trend. According to Indeed, Python is the most demanding programming language in the USA job market. Also, StackOverflow developer survey has shown that Python developers earn a high salary with relatively low experience compared to other mainstream programming languages:

MAIN USE CASES:

1. Data Science
2. Data Analytics
3. Artificial Intelligence, Deep Learning
4. Enterprise Application
5. Web Development

2. JAVASCRIPT

Netscape had assigned Brendan Eich to develop a new programming language for its Browser during the first browser war. The initial prototype was developed by Brendan Eich in only ten days, and the rest is history. Software developers often ridiculed JavaScript in its early days because of its poor language design and lack of features. JavaScript has evolved into a multi-paradigm, high-level, dynamic programming language. The first breakthrough of JavaScript came in 2009 when Ryan Dahl released cross-platform JavaScript runtime Node.js and enabled JavaScript to run on Server Side. Another enormous breakthrough of JavaScript came around 2010 when Google had released a JavaScript based Web development framework AngularJS. Today, JavaScript is one of the most widely used programming languages in the world and runs on virtually everywhere: Browsers, Servers, Mobile Devices, Cloud, Containers, Micro-controllers.

KEY FEATURES:

1. JavaScript is the undisputed king in Browser programming. Today, Web development is dominated mainly by JavaScript based SPA frameworks like React, Vue.js, Angular.

2. Thanks to Node.js, JavaScript offers event-driven programming, which is especially suitable for I/O heavy tasks. Today, JavaScript and Node.js run on almost all Platforms, including Servers and Mobile devices.

3. JavaScript has gone through massive modernization and overhaul in the last several years, especially in 2015, 2016, and later. The major JavaScript releases like ES5, ES6 has added many modern features, and JavaScript of today is entirely different from JavaScript of the last decade.

POPULARITY:JavaScript is one of the most top-ranked programming languages because of its ubiquitous use in all platforms and mass adoption. Octoverse has put JavaScript as the number one programming language for five consecutive years by GitHub repositories contributions:

MAIN USE CASES:

1. Web Development
2. Backend Development
3. Mobile App Development
4. Serverless Computing
5. Browser Game Development

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3. JAVA

Java is one of the most disruptive programming languages to date. Back in the ’90s, business applications were mainly developed using C++, which was quite complicated and platform dependent. James Gosling and his team then develop business applications by offering a much simpler, object-oriented, interpreted programming language that also supports Multi-threading programming. Java has achieved Platform independence by developing Java Virtual Machine (JVM), which abstracted the low-level Operating System from developers and gave the first “Write Once, Run anywhere” programming language. In recent years, Java has lost some of its markets to highly developer-friendly modern languages and the rise of other languages, especially Python, JavaScript. Also, JVM is not quite Cloud friendly because of its bulky size.

Fortunately, Java is working on its shortcomings and trying to make Java fit for Cloud via the GraalVM initiative. Also, in OpenJDK, there is a free alternative to the proprietary Oracle JDK.

Java is still the number one programming language for enterprises.

 KEY FEATURES:

1. Java offers a powerful, feature-rich, multi-paradigm, interpreted programming language with a moderate learning curve and high developer productivity.

2. Java is strictly backward compatible, which is a crucial requirement for business applications. Java has never introduced a major breaking change like Python or Scala. As a result, it is still the number one choice for enterprises.

3. Java’s runtime JVM is a masterpiece of Software Engineering and one of the best virtual machines in the industry. With 25 years of innovation and engineering craftsmanship, JVM offers high performance and features to Java. Also, JVM provides some advanced Garbage Collection to Java.

POPULARITY:

Only after five years of its release, Java became the 3rd most popular programming language and always remained in the top 3 lists in the next two decades. StackOverflow developer survey also ranked Java high and only superseded by JavaScript and Python programming languages: According to the GitHub repository contribution, Java was in the number one spot during the 2014–2018 and only slipped to 3rd position last year.

MAIN USE CASES:

1. Enterprise Application Development
2. Android App Development
3. Big Data
4. Web Development

5. C#

In 2000 Microsoft decided to create their Object Oriented C like programming language C# as part of their .NET initiative, which run on a Virtual Machine like Java. The designer Anders Hejlsberg designed C# as part of Microsoft’s Common Language Initiative (CLI) platform where many other (Microsoft’s languages mainly) compiled into an intermediate format which runs on a Runtime named Common Language Runtime (CLR). During the early days, C# was criticized as an imitation of Java. But later, both of the languages diverged. Although Microsoft is currently not enforcing its patents under the Microsoft Open Specification Project, it may change. Today, C# is a multi-paradigm programming language that is widely used not only on the Windows platform but also on the iOS/Android platform thanks to Xamarin and Linux platform.

KEY FEATURES:

1. Anders Hejlsberg did an excellent job to bring C# out of Java’s shadow and give its own identity. In terms of developer experience, C# is ahead of Java.

2. Backed by Microsoft and being in the industry for 20 years, C# has large ecosystems of libraries and frameworks. The ASP.NET is used for Web Development, especially on Windows.

3. Like Java, C# is also platform independent (thanks to CLR) and runs on Windows, Linux, Mobile devices.

POPULARITY:

The popular language ranking site TIOBE has ranked  C# 5th in January 2020 with huge gains. StackOverflow developer survey has placed C# as the 4th most popular language (7th most popular Technology for 2019. StackOverflow developer survey has ranked C# as the 10th most loved programming language.

MAIN USE CASES:

1. Server-Side programming
2. App development
3. Web Development
4. Game Development
5. Software for Windows Platform

 6. C

During the 1960s and 1970s, every cycle of the CPU and every byte of memory was expensive. Dennis Ritchie, a Bell lab engineer, has developed a procedural, general-purpose programming language that is compiled directly to machine language during 1969–1973. C programming offers low-level access to memory and gives full control over the underlying hardware. Over the years, C became one of the most used programming languages. Besides, C is arguably the most disruptive and influential programming language in history and has influenced almost all other languages on this list. Although C is often criticized for its accidental complexity, unsafe programming, and lack of features. Also, C is platform-dependent, i.e., C code is not portable. But if you want to make the most use of your hardware, then C/C++ or Rust is your only option.

 MAIN FEATURES:

1. As C gave low-level access to memory and compiled to Machine instructions, it is one of the fastest and most powerful programming languages.

2. C gives full control over the underlying hardware. C programs can run on every platform and take advantage of every kind of hardware, whether it is GPU, TPU, Container, Cloud, Mobile devices, or Microcontroller.

3. C is one of the “Programming languages of the Language,” i.e., compilers of many other programming languages like Ruby, PHP, Python have been written in C.

Popularity:

C is the oldest programming language in this list and has dominated the industry for 47 years. C has also ruled the programming language popularity ranking more than any other language as clear from TIOBE’s long-term ranking history:

Octoverse has also ranked C as the 9th most popular language according to the GitHub repository contribution

Google trending also shows a relatively stable interest in C over the last five years.

MAIN USE CASES:

1. Server-Side programming
2. App development
3. Web Development
4. Game Development
5. Software for Windows Platform.

Internet of things (IOT), is a system of interrelated computing devices, mechanical and digital machines provided with UIDs and ability to transfer datas over a network without requiring human to human or human to computer interaction. The definition of the internet of things has evolved due to the convergence of multiple technologies, real time analytics, machine learning, commodity sensors and embedded systems. The Internet of Things is an extension of connectivity into a broader range of our environment which enables greater data insights, analytics and control capabilities of our world. From our perspective, we like to think about the Internet of Everything (IoE). This is because while the ‘things’ in the equation are the key driver in some of the new components of this internet evolution, there are still the critical existing components of the Internet (servers, applications, users, organizations and more), with which all these ‘things’ need to interface and interact.

CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES

The demand for connected devices spans multiple industries, including energy, automotive, consumer devices, healthcare and more. Ultimately the potential in solving real-world problems is only limited by your imagination and time horizon to consider.  The demand for connected devices spans multiple industries, including energy, automotive, consumer devices, healthcare and more. Ultimately the potential in solving real-world problems is only limited by your imagination and time horizon to consider.

The first is the ability to enable improved efficiency and thus improve the cost drivers in a business environment. The second is the ability to add new features into a product or service which aid in competitive differentiation, adding additional value to the buyers of the product/service and allowing the provider to collect additional revenues.

Application

Internet technology provides various services via network. With the diversification of terminals and development of internet technology, internet technology has come into the stage of Next Generation Network(NGN) technology. Compared with the current Internet technology that provides services in the imaginary space. It links things together via sensors and wireless communication technology to collect a variety of information on the condition of people and their surrounding space in the real world, by providing information on many topics that could get people worried and curious such as medical analysis, engineering, business revenues, smart grid transmission, agriculture, news, technology and so on.

Augmented Reality (AR):can be defined as a system that fulfills three basic features: a combination of real and virtual worlds, real-time interaction, and accurate 3D registration of virtual and real objects. The overlaid sensory information can be constructive (additive to the natural environment), or destructive (masking of the natural environment). Augmented Reality is the most interesting for most people. 

 The idea is that a computer overlays content on the real world.  An example of this is an app on your cell phone that turns on the camera and overlays information about the things and places it is pointed at.  A scene might include the date of construction for the building the camera is pointed at, along with local weather information and a small map showing the location of the nearest bathroom or ShopRite.

This experience is seamlessly interwoven with the physical world such that it is perceived as an immersive aspect of the real environment in this way, augmented reality alters one’s ongoing perception of a real-world environment. whereas virtual reality completely replaces the user’s real-world environment with a simulated one. Augmented reality is related to two largely synonymous terms: mixed reality and computer-mediated reality.

The primary value of augmented reality is the manner in which components of the digital world blend into a person’s perception of the real world, not as a simple display of data, but through the integration of immersive sensations, which are perceived as natural parts of an environment. Augmented reality is used to enhance natural environments or situations and offer perceptually enriched experiences. With the help of advanced AR technologies (e.g. adding computer vision, incorporating AR cameras into smartphone applications and object recognition) the information about the surrounding real world of the user becomes interactive and digitally manipulated. Information about the environment and its objects is overlaid on the real world. This information can be virtual or real, e.g. seeing other real sensed or measured information such as electromagnetic radio waves overlaid in exact alignment with where they actually are in space.

 Augmented reality also has a lot of potential in the gathering and sharing of tacit knowledge. Augmentation techniques are typically performed in real time and in semantic contexts with environmental elements. Immersive perceptual information is sometimes combined with supplemental information like scores over a live video feed of a sporting event

VIRTUAL REALITY:

Virtual Reality is the one everyone is familiar with.  It has been around since the 1970’s but has been just too expensive and needed too much computing power to be practical until the mid-2000’s.  VR is most often presented in a helmet or wrap around glasses that allow you to immerse yourself in a fully computer generated world which give you the impression that you’re somewhere else.

In virtual reality (VR), the users’ perception of reality is completely based on virtual information.

 DIFFERENCE BETWEEN AR AND VR

In augmented reality (AR) the user is provided with additional computer generated information that enhances their perception of reality. For example, in architecture, VR can be used to create a walk-through simulation of the inside of a new building; and AR can be used to show a building’s structures and systems superimposed on a real-life view. Another example is through the use of utility applications. Some AR applications, such as Augment, enable users to apply digital objects into real environments, allowing businesses to use augmented reality devices as a way to preview their products in the real world.Similarly, it can also be used to demo what products may look like in an environment for customers, as demonstrated by companies such as Mountain Equipment Co-op who use augmented reality to allow customers to preview what their products might look like at home through the use of 3D models.

Automata theory is the study of abstract machines and automata, as well as the computational problems that can be solved using them. It is a theory in theoretical computer science . The word automata (the plural of automaton) comes from the Greek word αὐτόματα, which means “self-making”. 

Automata theory is closely related to formal language theory. An automaton is a finite representation of a formal language that may be an infinite set. Automata are often classified by the class of formal languages they can recognize, typically illustrated by the chomsky hierarchy, which describes the relations between various languages and kinds of formalized logics.

Chomsky Hierarchy

Chomsky–Schützenberger hierarchy This hierarchy of grammars was described by Noam Chomsky in 1956. It is also named after Marcel-Paul Schützenberger, who played a crucial role in the development of the theory of formal languages.

FORMAL GRAMMAR

A formal grammar provides an axiom schema for (or generates) a formal language, which is a (usually infinite) set of finite length of symbols that may be constructed by applying production rules to another sequence of symbols (which initially contains just the start symbol). A rule may be applied by replacing an occurrence of the symbols on its left-hand side with those that appear on its right-hand side. A sequence of rule applications is called a derivation. Such a grammar defines the formal language: all words consisting solely of terminal symbols which can be reached by a derivation from the start symbol.

A formal grammar of this type consists of a finite set of production rules  (left-hand side → right-hand side), where each side consists of a finite sequence of the following symbols:

a finite set of nonterminal symbols (indicating that some production rule can yet be applied)

a finite set of terminal symbol (indicating that no production rule can be applied)

a start symbol (a distinguished nonterminal symbol.

Nonterminals are often represented by uppercase letters, terminals by lowercase letters, and the start symbol by S. For example, the grammar with terminals {a, b}, nonterminals {S, A, B}, production rules

S → AB

S → ε (where ε is the empty string)

A → aS

B → b

and start symbol S, defines the language of all words of the form 

Type-0 grammars include all formal grammars. They generate exactly all languages that can be recognized by a turing machine.. These languages are also known as the recursively enumerable or Turing-recognizable languages. Note that this is different from the recursive language. Type-1 grammars generate context-n sensitive languages each of these grammars has a rule of linear bounded non- deterministic Turing machine with non-terminal strings of terminal. Type-2 grammars generate context-free languages which are defined rules by a form of non-deterministic pushdown. While Type-3 grammars  generate the regular language, such a grammar restricts its rules to a single nonterminal on the left-hand side and a right-hand side consisting of a single terminal, possibly followed by a single nonterminal (right regular).

Note that: Every regular language is context-free, every context-free language is context-sensitive, every context-sensitive language is recursive and every recursive language is recursively enumerable. These are all proper inclusions, meaning that there exist recursively enumerable languages that are not context-sensitive, context-sensitive languages that are not context-free and context-free languages that are not regular.

 Turing Machine

A Turing machine is a mathematical model of a hypothetical computer machine which can use a predefined set of rules to determine a result from a set of input variables. A turing machine is a system of rules, states and transition rather than a real machine, it is used mainly for deciding formal languages and solving mathematical functions, it’s one of the most important formal models in the study of computer science.

Application

Each model in automata theory plays important roles in several applied arrears, finite automata are used in processing compilers and hardware designs, these automata are responsible for compiler flagging error when code syntax is wrong. Ms Word, excel and other word processors also use them to check if a sentence is correct or wrong. Context-free grammars (CFGs) are used in programming language and artificial intelligence. But then, it was used originally to study human languages. Cellular automata are used in the field of biology. Going further, a study suggesting that the whole universe is computed by some sort of a discrete automaton, is advocated by some scientists. The idea originated in the work of Konard zuse, and was popularized in America by Edward Franklin.

Generation Z (or Gen Z for short) is the demographic cohort succeeding millenia and preceding Generation Alpha. Researchers and popular media use the mid-to-late 1990s as starting birth years and the early 2010 as ending birth years. Most members of Generation Z have used digital technology since a young age and are comfortable with the internet and social media, but are not necessarily digitally literate. Most members of Generation Z are the children of Generation X. 

The  first use of the term generation Z  has been in september 2000 advertising age article discussing changes that will occur in the education system over the following years as this demographic cohorts entered school. Oxford living dictionary describes generation z as “generation reaching their adulthood at the second decade of the 21st century”. According to Mirriam Webinar dictionary the term Zoomer has been used to as nickname for members of the generation z since at least 2016, PEW research centre also surveyed various names cohort trend on google and find out that in the Us the term generation z is the most used by far, and according to the research conducted by the U.S department of health service and human services that also PEW research centre have adopted the term post millennial. Statistics Canada has noted that the cohort is sometimes referred to as “internet generation) as it’s first generation to be born after the popularization of the internet. Generation z has been given many terms depending which state or belief it is, proposed names like I generatio, Gen wii, digital native, plural, zoommer and so on.

In Japan, the cohort is described as Neo-Digital Natives, a step beyond the previous cohort described as Digital Natives. Digital Natives primarily communicate by text or voice, while neo-digital natives use video, video-telephony, and movies. This emphasizes the shift from PC to mobile and text to video among the neo-digital.

Generation Alpha (or Gen Alpha for short) is the demographic cohort succeeding Generation z. Researchers and popular media use the early 2010s as starting birth years and the mid-2020s as ending birth years. Named after the first letter in theGreek, Generation Alpha is the first to be born entirely in the 21st century. Most members of Generation Alpha are the children of Millennials.

Date and Age Range Definition

The Pew Research Center defines Generation Z as people born from 1997 onward, choosing this date for “different formative experiences,” such as new technological developments and socio-economic trends, including the widespread availability of wireless internet access and high-bandwidth cellular service, and key world events, including the September 11 terrorist attacks. Members of Gen Z were no older than four years of age at the time of the attacks, and consequently had little to no memory of the event. Pew has stated that they have not set a definition for the endpoint of Gen Z, but they did use 1997 to 2012 to define Gen Z for an analysis in 2019. According to this definition, as of 2020 the oldest member of Generation Z is 23 years old, and the youngest will turn 8 this year.

Demographers usually define the Generation Z cohort as people born since 1997. The American psychological association started Generation Z in 1997. News outlets such as The Wall Street Journal and the Harvard Business Review describe Generation Z as people born since 1997, and the New York Times describes members of Generation Z as people born after 1996. Bloomerang news describes Gen Z as those born between 1997 and 2012. In Japan, generations are defined by a ten-year span with “Neo-Digital natives” beginning after 1996. PBS and Reuters define Generation Z as the group born after 1996.

Psychologist Jean Twenge describes Generation Z as those born in 1995 or later. Forbes stated that Generation Z is “composed of those born between 1995 and 2010.”In a 2018 report, Goldman Sachs describes “Gen-Z” as “today’s teenagers through 23-year olds. Australia’s McCrindle Research Centre defines Generation Z as those born between 1995–2009, starting with a recorded rise in birth rates, and fitting their newer definition of a generational span with a maximum of 15 years. The Irish Times defines Generation Z as “people born between 1995 and 2010. BBCdescribes the cohort as anyone born after about 1995. Ipsos Mori states that their official definition of Gen Z is anyone born from 1996. Business insider defines Generation Z as those born between 1996 and 2010, as does Forbes who also uses 1996–2010

Statistics Canada defines Generation Z as starting from the birth year 1993. Statistics Canada does not recognize a traditional Millennials Cohort and instead has Generation Z directly follow what it designates as Children of Baby Boomers. Randstad Canada describes Generation Z as those born between 1995–2014.

In a minority viewpoint, authorNeil Howe, co-creator of theStrauss- Howe generation theory, defines the Homeland Generation as those born 2005 onwards, but states that the “2005 date remains tentative”, saying “you can’t be sure where history will someday draw a cohort dividing line until a generation fully comes of age”.

Arts and culture

According to Cross-cultural Gen Z, “Our research indicates that a majority of Gen Z will define their cultural identity in fundamentally different ways from their predecessors. By embracing and balancing multiple cultures, they are moving their cultural identity beyond simple definitions of race and ethnicity.

Both september 11 terrorist attack and the areas of recession have greatly influenced the attitudes of Generation z. True, this generation has little or no idea of what went wrong, which means they either in avery young age or don’t know what went wrong during the outbreak, but they have been subjected under a very powerful influence of not wanting to go through the struggles and sufferness they’ve seen their parents and siblings go through and with this has given them the strong of mind of taking up responsibilities at a very young age. Some of the people born around this time have become a source of living for their family, footing college bills and trying to make through every possible means they possibly can. Some venture into business, having the entrepreneurship mind and adding to the fact that most are technology oriented makes it easier for them to portray what they are into. But then, it has also been confirmed that this generation happens to be the most unhappy generation compared to the previous generation that has been in existence, they fall under a great depression of making up for the family needs, some are scared of being kicked out of college due to the finance, so they became financially depressed. A 2014 study Generation Z Goes to College found that Generation Z students self-identify as being loyal, compassionate, thoughtful, open-minded, responsible, and determined. How they see their Generation Z peers is quite different from their own self-identity. They view their peers as competitive, spontaneous, adventuresome, and curious all characteristics that they do not see readily in themselves.In addition, some authors consider that some of their competencies, such as reading competence, are being transformed due to their familiarity with digital devices, platforms and texts.

In 2016, the Varkey Foundation and POpulus conducted an international study examining the attitudes of over 20,000 people aged 15 to 21 in twenty countries: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Israel, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Nigeria, Russia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and the United States. They found that most important personal values to these people were helping their families and themselves get ahead in life (both 27%), followed by honesty (26%). Looking beyond their local communities came last at 6%, some young mean followed the trend of some celebrities, some were greatly affected by athletes, politicians and so on. The economist has described Generation Z as a more educated, well-behaved, stressed and depressed  generation in comparison to previous ones. Also despite the pressure emmanating in the generation.