Analyst company Redmonk regularly compile a survey of programming languages, based on popularity on GitHub and Stack Overflow, in an effort to track trends. The latest report has several points of interest. JavaScript is number one, swapping places with Java; PHP is steady in third place, and C# is up a little to fourth.
Clojure, a functional programming language based on Lisp which runs on the JVM (Java Virtual Machine) is in the top 20 for the first time.
The C-like Go, developed by Google, is rising fast and sits just outside the top 20. No mention yet of Dart, another Google project, which is a web programming language that can be compiled to JavaScript or run by a Dart Virtual Machine in the latest versions of Chromium, the open source variant of Google’s Chrome browser.
These surveys are fun to read; but are they relevant to professional programmers looking to sharpen their skills? Specialising in a language that is in decline or no longer popular may not always be a disaster – sometimes, if everyone else has moved on to something more fashionable, skills in less prominent or older languages like COBOL or Delphi, dBase or FoxPro, may turn out an advantage when there is demand to make sense of code in existing applications that few now understand. That is a niche you may not want to get into though, if you would rather work on the newest projects rather than patching up old ones.
The trends are also illuminating in what they suggest about wider technology trends. JavaScript is popular because it is not only the language of web browsers, but also server-side in platforms like node.js, and in mobile apps thanks to projects like PhoneGap/Cordova. Java is popular not only because of its continuing key role in enterprise applications, but also because it is the language of Android.
The question I posed in the title though was which programming language you should learn? There is no harm in learning one of the top languages if it is not already in your skill set; it is bound to be useful. There is another more important factor though. Learning a new language is a great way for developers to learn new approaches to their craft, even if you expect to continue working mainly in languages you know already.
That is why there is particularly high value in learning a language that represents a different style of programming than what you are most used to. That might be a functional language like Clojure or F#, or a dynamic language like Ruby if you are a C++ or C# person, or Objective-C if coding for iOS and the Mac is a foreign country for you.
The goal here is not only to learn a new skill, but to keep learning and thereby remain inquisitive and excited about programming itself. Those are the qualities which will set you apart in job interviews. Learn any language you like; but above all, keep learning.
