Tommi's Scribbles
The top 10 best programming languages
- Published on 2024-05-18
I have been programming since 1990's, so I have tested a fair share of programming languages. Below I share the top 10 coding languages (of the ones I have tried).
1. Swift
Swift is simply a joy to write and more importantly, a joy to read. Take this example:
func bookFlight(for passenger: String, at time: String, from city: String) {
print("\(passenger) booked a flight from \(city) at \(time).")
}
bookFlight(for: "Drake", at: "10:00 AM", from: "New York")
Swift allows for beautiful, easy-to-read code.
2. C#
I love C#, and it is my language of choice when possible. You get much of the power of traditional C/C++, while gaining a lot of convenient functionality like nice reflection capabilities in built-in core libraries. If the world ran on C#, we'd be much better off.
3. Ruby
Ruby is a writer's language. The beauty of Ruby is you can write it your way. While some people are put off by the plethora of ways to do things, or the fact rubyisms try to force things on you, the fact remains that Ruby allows you to write code that looks like you, similar to natural language.
4. Python
Python is the opposite of Ruby, very rigid in styling. This is the main driver for the language though, and means that no matter if you or me wrote the code, it looks the same. If I have to work with trendy languages, I hope I can do it in Python.
5. Kotlin
There is a good reason Google has adopted Kotlin for Android development. Writing Kotlin is more fun and efficient than writing Java. Kotlin also adds great features such as data classes to the mix, which make structuring your code nice.
6. C++
I started programming with C++, so it holds a special space in my heart. C++ is still a powerful language that is great to write. However, I don't really like the direction the language has taken, and as such C# has replaced C++ as my preferred language.
7. C
C and C++ are often lumped together. However, they are definitely different beasts. I've recently picked up C after being a heavy C++ user, and enjoy the C/MRuby combo a ton. While C++ has gone a direction I like, C has stayed pretty much the same. This means C remains a classy, powerful language.
8. Java
While Java is ranked only 8th on this list, that does not mean Java is a bad language. In fact, Java is a pretty nice coding language to work with. Where Java loses out is the rather high verbosity and heavy indenting inherent to the language. The Java designers clearly followed the "I didn't have time to write short, so I wrote long" philosophy to the tee.
9. Go
To be honest, at this point I started to run out of good programming languages to list. Of all the recent languages, I think Go shows the most promise. However, like most things Google, Go carries risk of becoming just an obscure foot note.
10. Javascript
The company I currently work at is a Javascript shop, so I sadly have to write a ton of javascript. Luckily, I can kick out Python when required, thanks to the more mature data and AI libraries available. Javascript has a single thing going for it, which is the speed of development. However, AI assistants greatly mitigate this benefit. There is also the odd desire to get typesafety and make people use Typescript, which eliminates the only single benefit Javascript has (the speed).
With any luck, WASM finally kills the dominance of javascript in the web, and we can finally all move to good programming languages.