Hot or Not? Timelapsing through the World of Programming Languages

 Are you ready to rrrrrumble? We’re about to embark on a non-nauseating space odyssey to the riveting world of programming languages! Our captains today will be our very own Rakettitiede consultants Aleksandr ”Aleksi” Koltsoff and Sergey Alto. During our voyage you will be able to enjoy some nostalgic, trending and futuristic vistas into various programming languages. Which language is dying away, what is the lingua franca of today, and which language are going to be using in a few years?

Take a seat, lean back and enjoy the ride. We wish you a pleasant journey!

Ye olde COBOL still going strong as its contemporaries wither away

Although COBOL often gets a bad rep in the world of IT consultants, our dynamic duo of captains can’t help but marvel at its longevity. The language is showing few signs of expiring although its contemporaries, such as BASIC and several other OOP languages, have moved on to greener programming pastures due to their inability to meet today’s demands.

As a language, the 60-year-old COBOL is a bit of a simpleton. It’s been that way since the beginning, since the language was aimed at business people, who presumably couldn’t handle complex matters.

Despite its well-deserved dunce cap, COBOL has served as the platform of many business critical systems, and coders who know it are in high demand across the world. The thing is, it’s no longer taught anywhere. 

“Now, if some future IT professional out there is trying to figure out what to do with their life, I wouldn’t really recommend taking up COBOL. But if you’re already good at it, the world’s pretty much your oyster,” Koltsoff says.

(Notice: Flutter is not a programming language. Flutter’s language for cross-platform development is Dart.)

What’s slaying right now

Rust, Rust anywhere you look. But why is rust suddenly a good thing?

The world of programming in its entirety is gradually steering away from memory unsafe languages, like C++, and moving towards environments where the developer doesn’t need to pretend to be an omniscient god but can instead rely on the compiler to detect any problems. This requires a change of mindset: putting memory safety first and the actual doing second.

“No matter how we look at it, C++ is still used in many performance critical applications. When those have bugs, they are usually highly critical. All tools that can help to reduce the number of bugs are essentially a good thing. And Rust is just the language for the job,” Koltsoff says but then continues that he doesn’t believe Rust will replace any higher level languages, such as Javascript or Kotlin.

And since we’re on the subject of Kotlin, let’s roll with that.

“In my opinion, Kotlin is one of the hottest languages at the moment. It’s largely due to the fact that Google supports it actively and that the developer is JetBrains, one of the biggest programming tool developers today. In addition, Kotlin is compatible with Java, which means that it can be brought into existing Java project one part at a time. The active research and development strategy JetBrains follows has provided developers with multiple usage scenarios, including multilevel application, serverless application and so on,” Alto enthuses.

Which language should I learn?

Time to bring out the crystal ball and have a little look-see. What’s bubbling under? What’s the next big thing to slay the opponents?

“If we’re talking about mobile, Flutter has a good chance of being the next big thing. It’s reliable and its Dart syntax isn’t too different from JavaScript. That helps, since it’s easy for developers to make the transition from one language to the next. There’s no doubt Flutter’s market share will increase,” Alto muses.

If we believe both rocket scientists – and why wouldn’t we – Machine Learning and ML-created code are going to break through sooner or later.

“ML solutions can be used to recognise serious problems at an early stage or to create complex data models with great precision, so it’s bound to trend in the near future,” Alto says.

Koltsoff agrees although also doubts whether ML will be used to its fullest potential.

“AI and ML are surrounded by so much hype that there will be lots of people trying to benefit from it. And since AI and ML solutions will be used everywhere, the outcomes are bound to vary. I don’t think people have been giving enough thought to what these things require and how they can be used as effectively as possible.”

“Even if you don’t allow yourself to be swept away completely, it’s good to be aware of the tools and solutions these things can provide,” Koltsoff says.

Mind your language - but put your mind first

Whether your language of choice is Rust, COBOL or Northern Pashto, you’ll never be able to tap into your fullest potential and skills if you’re batteries are about run out on the other side of the keyboard. Programming is first and foremost a language of the mind.

One the traits of the IT industry is that it’s always changing. Constantly and actively learning new things would be straining in any job. In IT, it’s just something you need to more or less get used to.

“A lot depends on whether the developer sees learning as something that they’re forced to do. It can be difficult to get excited about new things if you’re not convinced about the usefulness of what you’re doing. And if you get discouraged by not learning something right away, you’re in for some trouble,” Koltsoff says.

“After you’ve been coding away in what are hopefully some different types of projects for ten years, you come to realise that the programming language doesn’t really matter all that much. Knowing how to solve problems and the ability to understand what you’re seeing in front of you are much more important. I wish these skills were taught somewhere but unfortunately it’s something everyone needs to figure out for themselves.”

We have landed. We hope you enjoyed your flight with us and hope to see you onboard the Rocket again.

This year, Rakettitiede celebrates its 10th anniversary while keeping a keen eye on the future. We want to keep boosting our clients’ demanding software development projects in the decades to come, so we teamed up with the Finnish Central Association for Mental Health to see what we could do to improve well-being in the industry.  We decided to start a countdown to a more mental health positive tomorrow and embarked on a journey to find ways to develop organisational cultures and promote employee well-being.

Selling a recently serviced and inspected consultant in mint condition. Buy yours today!

Read the other parts of the series:

Rakettitiede claims: The Primary Programming Language of the Future is the Mind

A Five-Star Mind Menu for Developers - A Diablog

Rocket Scientists’ 10 Commandments for a High-Quality Coding Future