Language Ranking: IEEE Spectrum
An object-oriented, interpreted language that gains much of its power from a large constellation of libraries, including popular modules for machine learning and scientific computing.
An object-oriented language that creates code intended to be run on a virtual machine, allowing it to run on different platforms with little or no modification. Java is a popular choice for Web applications.
C is used to write software where speed and flexibility is important, such as in embedded systems or high-performance computing.
Essentially an object-oriented version of C that proved to be a natural fit for software driven by graphical user interfaces.
A scripting language used primarily to add functionality to Web browsers on the fly, allowing the creation of complex Web pages.
An object-oriented language created by Microsoft for developing software for the .NET framework, which supports many applications running on Windows and Azure.
A language and programming environment designed for statistical analysis and data-mining applications.
Created by Google, Go has built-in support for programs that need to exchange information while running concurrently on different cores or computers.
HTML is a specialized language for describing the appearance and content of web pages, often extended using CSS
Apple's current language for creating iOS and macOS software. The language is compatible with C, C++, and Objective-C code
Based on the Wiring language, with a development environment based on the Processing language , the native language for the Arduino microcontroller has become the basis of a huge number of home-brew and prototype devices.
A scripting language for MathWorks' Matlab computing environment, Matlab is designed for numerical computing tasks, such as engineering or scientific simulations.
A scripting language primarily designed to support dynamic websites.
Developed by Google, Dart can be compiled to the ARM and x86 architectures for mobile use or transpiled to JavaScript for browser applications. The Flutter framework built on Dart is designed for building native iOS and Android books.
A specialized language designed to query and manipulate databases. Extensions exist that allow more general programs to be written, allowing, for example, buisiness logic to be run alongside a database.
A scripting language designed to offer greater support for objects than other such languages.
Rust is designed to make concurrent systems easier to program reliably.
A catchall term for a vast family of processor instruction sets, writing assembly code requires considerable expertise, but it allows the creation of high-speed software that can run directly "on the metal."
An extension of Java, Kotlin code can run on the Java Virtual Machine or be compiled to JavaScript or a native Android app.
Julia is designed for statistical and scientific computing while retaining compatibility with legacy libraries written in Fortran or C.
Programs written in Scala, an alternative to Java, can run on the same "virtual machine" as Java programs.
Microsoft created Visual Basic to allow rapid development of Windows applications but no longer supports it. A descendant, Visual Basic.NET, which is still supported, works with the more modern .NET framework.
A catchall term for a number of frameworks that allow scripting of operating system command-line instructions.
Originating at MIT, Processing has been developed to make it easy for artists, designers, and hobbyists to generate visualizations. A closely related JavaScript library called p5.js allows browser applications to be built.
Created in the 1950s, Fortran is designed for high-performance scientific and engineering computing.
Objective-C was Apple's favored language for writing applications for OS X or iOS until the introduction of Swift.
A scripting language often used to make other applications programmable, especially in the animation and gaming domains.
Created by graphics-chip maker Nvidia, Cuda is a platform and toolkit that allows programmers to tap the power of GPUs for general-purpose computing.
A hardware description language (defined by the IEEE 1364 standard) that is used in the creation and analysis of electronic circuits. It forms the basis of the more recent and extended SystemVerilog (IEEE 1800)
A data- and statistical-analysis language.
Originally designed for the U.S. Department of Defense, Ada is used for applications where reliability is critical, such as aerospace control systems.
A hardware description language used in the creation and analysis of electronic circuits.
A derivative of Pascal used for Windows applications, owned by the Embarcadero Delphi company. Open-source implementations under the rubric of Open Pascal exist for other platforms.
Originally a teaching language, Scheme is now a family of Lisp varients still used for applications such as the App Inventor for Android, which allows the rapid development of mobile applications.
Once a single language often used as the "glue" in complex systems, Perl now refers to two closely related but distinct languages, Perl 5, and the overhauled Perl 6.
Intended as a successor to C++, D features an inline assembler for using architecture specific hardware.
Created by National Instruments, LabView features a graphical programming environment designed for data acquisition and industrial control.
A language built around pure functional programming, designed for applications where reliability is important.
A dialect of Lisp that is compatible with the same "virtual machine" that supports Java programs.
Created in in the 1950s, Lisp became widely used by artificial intelligence researchers, but it has seen a decline in more recent years. However, dialects such as Clojure and Scheme (listed seperately) have active communities.
An extension of the Erlang programming language, Elixir is intended for large-scale software, such as high traffic websites or handling volumes of data.
An interpreted language intended for rapid prototyping and supporting the Tk graphical user interface used primarily with Unix systems.
A object-oriented programming language that run on the Java platform. The web framework Grails is built on top of Groovy.
Originally developed by Microsoft, F# is targeted towards the .NET software framework most often found on Windows. It is primarily built around functions, but also support object-oriented programming.
Created in the late 1950s for business and financial applications, COBOL software still drives critical systems in many large institutions.
ABAP (Advanced Business Application Programming) is an enterprise programming language created by SAP.
Created by Ericsson for embedded telephony applications, the release of Erlang as an open-source language in 1998 boosted its popularity among programmers developing applications that have to handle many concurrent tasks.
Originally designed to control radio telescopes, Forth is still used for applications such as boot loaders and other firmware.
Originating in the artificial intelligence community, Prolog is primarily used as a teaching and research tool.
A primarily graphical language for the development of industrial programmable logic controllers.
Primarily used for analytics and mathematical programming, code written in J is often very terse.
An object-oriented language with an emphasis on software reliability.
Coffeescript is designed to make writing Javascript easier by implementing a layer of syntatic conventions from other languages.
An object-oriented language that has influenced several other important languages. An important principle is that as much as possible of the job of optimizing code should be left to the compiler while the programmer focuses on fundamental logic and readability.
A variant of Lisp by way of Scheme, Racket makes it easy to build your own domain-specific languages
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