Computers and the internet have made lives easier; thanks to these technologies, most of the daily human chores can be done in seconds. But have you ever wondered how hard developers work and the insane amount of hours they spend so that the users can do usual chores like shopping, learning, etc in seconds..

Programming is a term that powers almost everything we see and use today, be it smartphones, various kinds of apps such as e-commerce and gaming, smart appliances and more such things. Programming refers to a set of codebases that run on computers to execute a particular operation. With an increase in digitalization, the need for programming and things powered by it are increasing too.

Gone are the days when coding was considered a thing for techies and geniuses. Digitalization boosted programming capabilities and led to the creation of a range of programming languages that are easy to use and developer-friendly. Today, with a little effort, individuals can learn a programming language that will help them meet their needs.

In this post, we’ll be looking at some of the best programming languages that every developer must know. Javascript, Python, Scala, Java, and C/C++ are some of the most popular languages that every developer should learn. The languages we’ll be discussing are extremely developer-friendly and efficient.

Five programming languages a web developer must know

#1 Javascript

According to Statista, Javascript is one of the most used programming languages worldwide. Around 65% of respondents in the survey responded that they are using Javascript. Developed under Netscape, Javascript, also known as JS, was officially released on 4th December 1995.

Javascript is a high-level language, often just-in-time compiled and dynamic in nature. It’s ideal for web development, web games, and developing web applications. Candy crush saga, one of the most successful games, popular amongst people of all ages, was developed using Javascript. Linkedin, a very popular business networking and employment services app, is also based on javascript.

Javascript is the leading technology behind the world wide web and powers a range of browsers, including internet explorer. The web pages would be all static without javascript. Besides CSS, Javascript is the only technology that can bring dynamicity to a web page. All of the dynamic things you encounter on a web page, such as click down menus, changing background colors, etc., are possible due to this technology.

In recent years javascript has found its use not limited only to web browsers but also non-browser environments such as frameworks like Adobe Acrobat, Apache CouchDB, and Node.js.

The core benefit of the language is the speed; it is very fast because it is usually run on the client-side server and doesn’t need outside sources. Moreover, it is just-in-time compiled; hence it doesn’t need to be compiled before running. Another main advantage of this language is that it is effortless to learn.

#2 Python

Python is the third most used programming language globally, only behind Javascript and HTML/CSS. Initially launched in 1991, python has come a long way with its 3.0 version. According to its creators, python is an interpreted language, i.e., its instructions can be executed directly and don’t require to be compiled into machine language.

Python is a high-level language and is a dynamically typed and binded language. Hence, it doesn’t need variable declarations in the code base as the interpreter checks types only when it runs. These features combined help in building applications quickly. Moreover, this language is also popular as a scripting language that helps connect various components.

As it’s an interpreted language, the compilation step is totally emitted; hence the program execution cycle that consists of edit-test-debug is fast. Another great benefit of this language is that its debugging is not bothersome. If a bug appears, it doesn’t lead to a segmentation fault; instead, it raises an exception if the interpreter finds an error. Usually, these exceptions are resolved, but if they can’t be handled, an error message is generated.

Python has found its extensive use in data science, machine learning, game development, computer vision, image processing, etc.

#3 C++

C++ is considered a must-known language for students aiming to learn computer science and every professional seeking to become a software engineer. It was initially developed as an extension of the popular C language. It’s the oldest and most demanded basic programming language that a company looks for in a software engineer portfolio or, say, web developer.

Experts consider it to be the best language for developing large-scale applications. C++ is an object-oriented language and hence comes with classes, data abstraction, inheritance, and encapsulation features which allow this language to reuse codebase and easily manage lengthy programs.

Another striking feature of C++ is that it is machine-independent, i.e., it can be run on any operating system, be it Linux, Windows, or Mac OS. Most of Microsoft’s open-source apps are written in C++, for example, Microsoft office.

#4 Java

Java is the fifth most popular programming language in the world. It is also a high-level, object-oriented programming language that boasts the feature of write once, run anywhere. Unlike C++, Java is not only machine-independent but also platform-independent due to which compiled java files can run on any platform without the need for recompilation.

Java can be used for all kinds of software development, be it desktop, mobile, web, enterprise, or client-side server applications. Java is considered a very portable language compared to C++, thanks to its platform independence.

One of the most noticeable disadvantages of Java is that the programs written in Java are slower and require more memory than their C++ counterparts. But the performance of Java has considerably improved with the introduction of the just-in-time feature.

Some of the best-performing apps like Spotify, Twitter, and web browsers, specifically Opera Mini, are written in Java. These are enough reasons for the developers to learn this language.

#5 HTML/CSS

HTML stands for HyperText Markup Language and is one of the most basic but essential languages that a web developer must learn. It’s the second most popular programming language amongst developers across the world. Although it’s not as advanced as the languages discussed above but is still a fundamental building block of the web.

CSS is a language explicitly created to give style to HTML elements of a web page. It helps create animation, fonts, attractive colors and backgrounds, tables, indexes, images, and much more in HTML web content to make it more interactive. Along with CSS (cascading style sheets) and javascript, it helps the development of unique web content and pages.

Some of its more appealing features are that it is simple to use and learn and is platform-independent, which makes it faster to create content for multiple platforms in a bit of time. HTML 5 is the latest version of this language, launched in 2015.

Wrapping up

As the world of programming evolves rapidly, the number of sectors and objects required to be programmed is increasing. With new programming languages being created in abundance, not all of them need to be learned by web developers. It’s not all recommended as well as necessary.

A few languages are a must and enough for web developers to learn to walk hand in hand with the rapidly evolving computer world. We discussed some of the most popular languages worldwide in this post that all aspiring programmers and developers should know to keep up with the world.