Introduction

To choose the best programming language for a new project is never an easy task. There are thousands of programming languages and each of them has its own advantages and disadvantages. I often see some discussions at programmer forums like “Java is much better than C++” and “Python is the best programming language ever”. As I can see as a programmer: no programming language is better than an other one. You cannot set an order between them without the real context. And the real context is the project to be done. You can tell that “for this project Java is a much better choice than C++” and to be honest before starting a new project you always need to decide which language is the best choice for the project. To be able to do such a decision you need to analyse the project requirements. So for example if it should run on an Android Phone of course you would never choose PHP or if it is a web service then most likely C is not the best choice. You need also take into account what is the current knowledge level of the team which will work on the project. So if your team has a good experience on Java, but they have never worked with C++ then it makes sense to choose Java even if C++ would be more fitting for the project.

The popularity of the languages is constantly changing. There’s the so called TIOBE index, which is telling the popularity of a programming language at a certain point of time.

I think it is giving a good overview now at the start of the new year to check what were the most popular programming languages of 2018 and getting a brief overview about them.

Java

 

public class HelloWorld {

    public static void main(String[] args) {        
        System.out.println("Hello, World");
    }

}

 

#include

int main() {
 printf("Hello World\n");
 return 0;
}

 

#include 
using namespace std;

int main() 
{
    cout << "Hello, World!";
    return 0;
}

Python

 

print("Hello, World!")

 

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Threading.Tasks;

namespace ConsoleApp1
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
                Console.WriteLine("Hello, world!");
                Console.ReadLine();
        }
    }
}

Visual Basic .NET

 

Module Module1

    Sub Main()
        System.Console.WriteLine("Hello World.")
        System.Console.ReadLine()
        End
    End Sub

End Module

 

<php
  echo "Hello World!";  
?>

JavaScript

 

console.log("Hello, World!");

Ruby

 

puts 'Hello, world!'

Delphi/Object Pascal

 

program ObjectPascalExample;

type
  THelloWorld = class
  public
    procedure Greet;
  end;

procedure THelloWorld.Greet;
begin
  Writeln('Hello, World!');
end;

var
  HelloWorld: THelloWorld;
begin
  HelloWorld := THelloWorld.Create;
  try
    HelloWorld.Greet;
  finally
    HelloWorld.Free;
  end;
end.

Top programming languages for year 2018