In 2019, developers can choose from a wide range of well-known or almost unknown programming languages to complete a huge variety of tasks in web and desktop development; data analysis and visualization; computer graphics and games; face and object detection; artificial intelligence, and more. It’s almost impossible to decide which programming language is the “best” – each of them has its own certain purposes and areas of use. JavaScript is great for web development, Python is a perfect match for developing neural networks, C++ was created to implement high-performance complex logic, C# is a must for Windows applications and Unity development, Swift conquers the fame of best iOS development language, etc.
As you can see, almost each programming language can be considered as the best one. In 2018, Java, C, C++, and C# took 4 out of 5 top places in the “most popular programming languages” ranking, but we won’t cover those giants in this article. Let’s talk about 3 modern promising languages that are gaining more and more attention from developers over the past years. All the three are powerful and multifunctional enough to make you want to learn them in 2019.
PHP
PHP is a widely-used open source programming language, the distinguishing feature of which is that its code is executed on the server, contrary to the client-side languages like JavaScript. This makes PHP especially suited for web development because it makes it impossible for the client to know what the underlying code was: he would only receive the results of running that code. Thit is probably one of the reasons why such giants as Facebook, Wikipedia, and many large open source platforms such as WordPress and MediaWiki use PHP. Facebook has even gone further by creating its own dialect of PHP called Hack.
Moreover, PHP is very friendly to novices as well as it provides infinite opportunities for professionals. PHP is also very flexible in solving problems for it has no strict rules on how to build features you need to implement in your projects.
Although PHP’s development is focused on server-side scripting, you can do much more with it: create stunning, dynamic websites, web applications, and various web development projects; develop mobile apps and, of course, develop WordPress plugins. It is easy to learn, has easy database integration, and has numerous applications and uses.
JavaScript
Today, it’s hard to imagine a website without JavaScript (JS). This language isn’t limited only to web development, it’s also a decent choice for desktop, server, and mobile applications. Due to its efficiency, dynamic typing, and a huge amount of available training materials, JavaScript becomes one of the easiest to learn and most demanded programming language in 2019.
JavaScript is well-known for its variety of frameworks that are able to ease web development a lot. AngularJS follows the MVC (Model-View-Controller) pattern and is great for dynamic websites. NodeJS is quite hard to learn but still an effective framework for the server side of a web application. There are even more of them. ReactJS, Vue.js, Meteor, Polymer Project – there are dozens of different frameworks with varying complexity and entry thresholds. They are able to fulfill almost every task you may find in web development.
Python
Python becomes a real “universal soldier” nowadays. This is a language with a relatively low entry threshold. Python is a dynamic typing language. This means that you don’t need to explicitly specify types of variables – the compiler will handle this task for you. Today, Python is being used in a huge range of areas – from web and games development to artificial intelligence. This language provides various packages for different purposes such as SciPy for engineering calculations, Pandas for data analysis and modeling, NumPy for mathematical operations, etc.
Python can be a decent choice for web development. It is able to develop great client and server sides of a website using Django and Pyramid frameworks, CGI (Common Gateway Interface) scripts, Django CMS (Content Management System). Python is suitable for game development with PyGame or PyKyra. Moreover, Python is considered to be one of the best languages for neural networks due to its awesome Tensorflow package.
Final Thoughts
Basically, every programming language has its own strengths and weaknesses, areas of use, and possible pitfalls. They all are tuned to different areas of work. PHP, JavaScript, and Python are forward-looking programming languages nowadays. Despite the fact that they have conquered their place under the sun, all three of them continue to improve from year to year to solve more complex tasks.
