For people who are interested in programming, choosing which programming language to start with can be quite the challenge. I’m also one of those experts who say “just pick something and learn”. But if you’re a beginner, the words “just pick something” might make you panic a little bit because you likely have no clue where to start.
Computer programming is an essential skill that can help you stand out in the job market. If you’re thinking of learning to code, having general programming knowledge across several languages can help you improve your coding skills and future career prospects.
Best to start with: Python
The ever-growing importance of data in business has resulted in a quick rise in popularity and demand for Python. Python is used in server-side development, web and mobile app development to building machine learning software, there’s nothing Python can’t do. Also this programming language has a vast collection of libraries, tools, and frameworks that make it a must in the field of Data Science and Machine Learning. Along with being exceptional at handling Data, it’s also incredibly versatile. Therefore, based on potential and demand, Python is one language to learn in 2021 and it’s intuitive and elementary to learn, even for beginners. Python is mainly used for data science, artificial intelligence, machine learning, back end development, web/ mobile app development and Internet of Things.
Python is widely believed to be the best programming language to learn first. Python is fast and easy to use. It is also commonly used to develop scalable web applications and very easy to deploy. Some of our most well known and well-used apps are all built in Python; YouTube, Instagram, Pinterest and SurveyMonkey for example. It is not only the big names that use Python. A lot of Startups are using Python as their primary backend stack. Arguably it is this meeting of the established and the emerging that makes this language a great place to start….it opens a whole world of opportunity for full-stack Python developers
Another string to its bow is the community of support Python’s popularity provides. It has excellent library support and has a wide developer community. It is opensource which means the opportunities for collaboration and learning as you work are brilliant. Its ease of use makes it ideal for building and testing prototypes.
Best for web applications: Java
If we talk about Java as a programming language, this is one of the oldest object-oriented programming languages. It is still one of the most popular and highly sought-after. It holds #2 rank in the PYPL popularity index in June 2021. Java as a programming language is omnipresent in web, Android apps, banking and finance software, desktop, and so on. Moreover, you get scalability, robust memory allocation, numerous libraries, APIs, and high security with Java. Java can also be efficiently used in handling vast amounts of data and can run on any operating system. Therefore, Java will always remain relevant and in high demand because of its multitude of efficient features. Java is mainly used for Android App Development, Web Development, Software and Finance & e-commerce.
Java is also the language of choice for Android app development, a requirement for any business today owing to the vast numbers of android device users across the globe. This fact alone is a huge green light for Java developers, especially because Google has created an excellent Java-based Android development framework – Android Studio.
Much like Python, Java has an abundance of open-source libraries and is ideal for distributed computing. It also offers a lot of APIs for accomplishing different tasks, such as database connection, networking, utilities, and XML parsing. It is also highly secure due to the exclusion of explicit pointer and its inclusion of a security manager responsible for defining the access of classes.
Best programming languages: C/C++
C++ is fast and stable and as a result, it is widely used by competitive programmers. C++ also provides something called STL – Standard Template Library. STL is a pool of ready to use libraries for data structures, arithmetic operations and algorithms.
It has a significant following within the High-Frequency trading community as well, thanks to the speed of the language and the library support.
A solid understanding of C/C++ will also help you should you want to move on to learning other programming languages in the future; it forms the basis for understanding more complex programming languages.
C++, in particular, opens the door to a wide variety of application domains, such as games, GUI applications, and real-time mathematical simulations.
C/C++ are the backbones of almost all low-level systems. Think operating systems, filing systems and the like; these are all written in C/C++. Should your goal be to become a system-level programmer, C/C++ is the language you should learn.
Best for frontend: JavaScript
JavaScript is the most used programming language in the world. Even famous social media platforms such as Facebook, Google, or YouTube, use JavaScript in its infrastructure. JavaScript is famous for its various frameworks, such as Node.js, and you get a language capable of server-side scripting too. Not only this, with the use of JavaScript, one can also build full-scale games in an external game engine or the browser using JavaScript. JavaScript is mainly used for Front-end and back-end web development, mobile apps and developing games
JavaScript is the “frontend” programming language. It is widely used to construct interactive frontend applications. When you click on a button which opens a popup, the logic is implemented in JavaScript.
Many startup organisations today are using NodeJS which is a JavaScript-based run-time environment. NodeJS lets developers use JavaScript for server-side scripting to produce dynamic web page content before the page is sent to the user’s web browser. Now with JS, you can use a single programming language for server-side and client-side scripts.
Client-side, JavaScript is very fast. It runs immediately within the web browser as there is no compilation requirement. JavaScript very rich and gives a very nice aesthetic to the website. It also has to be highly versatile and can be used for building a diverse range of applications; it is the programming language of the web!
Working within the JavaScript community will come with a mass of resource and a huge level of support.
In short, that cool tech job at that progressive startup? JavaScript is the programming language for you.
Best programming languages: Go Programming Language
Go is fairly a new system-level programming language that has a focused vocabulary and simple scoping rules. It blends the best aspects of functional programming and object-oriented styles. Go is the fastest-growing language on Github, meant to replace languages like Java and C++.
Also known as Golang, Go is a programming language built by tech giant, Google. Go provides excellent support for multithreading and so it is being used by many companies that rely heavily upon distributed systems.
It has a clean syntax which makes it easier to learn, and the fact it is a statically typed language makes it easier to learn.
Best for Machine Learning: R
R provides an excellent framework and built-in libraries to develop powerful Machine Learning algorithms. R has been well adopted by enterprises as it can be used for general statistical computing as well as graphics.
If data and analytics is your career of choice, R programming language is the one you should learn. R is one of the most commonly used programming languages for Data Analysis and Machine Learning.
Best programming languages: Swift
What Java is for android application, Swift is for iOS. Swift is the programming language that is used to develop iOS applications. As iOS and Apple products have become increasingly popular, so too has the number of Swift practitioners.
If you wish to serve this community of consumers, then Swift is the programming language for you.
Best programming languages: PHP
It has an abundance of powerful frameworks and is easy to to get started in making web pages. It has lots of automation tools for testing and deploying applications with no scarcity of good automation tools for deployment and testing.
Even though PHP is facing tough competition from Python, PHP is among the most popular backend programming language with the dev community still needing a large number of PHP developers.
Should you wish to move into a secure organisation as a backend developer, then PHP is where you may like to focus your learning.
Best for Windows: C#
Although C# is widely used for backend programming, building games (using Unity), building Window mobile phone apps among many other use cases.
Ideal for all types of Windows development, C# is a general-purpose programming language developed by Microsoft.
It follows a syntax similar to the C programming language and is fully integrated with the .Net library. Despite this though, it offers less flexibility than C++ and requires more time and effort to learn. Resolving issues though is not for the beginner! Managing error requires a significant level of expertise and knowledge.
Best programming languages: MatLab
MatLab is not free to use though and requires a purchasing a licence.
Ideal for developing scientific research applications, MatLab is another programming language if data is your thing. Matlab is a statistical analysis tool that is used in various industries for Data Analysis. It is also widely used in the Computer Vision and Image processing industry as well.
Due to its somewhat limited scope – it does not have much application beyond the scope of numerical computing – this is not the programming language for you if you are wanting a broad skill set.
Conclusion
It’s hard to believe that in the modern age of technology, children are still learning BASIC! I remember sitting in class writing code like PRINT “Hello world!” and waiting for the computer to process it.
Get started today and move from “Basic”!