The Big Four Languages Revisited
A while ago, I wrote about the Big Four languages - JavaScript, Python, Java, and Go - that were dominating commercial software development. Four years later, I’m curious how the Big Four has changed.
Reviewing the landscape 1 2 3 4 5, it looks like the top three languages (JavaScript, Python, and Java) have stayed the same. However there are a couple of interesting developments: the rise of Rust and the wane of TypeScript and Go.
Rust has easily been the breakout story over the last four years. It has been adopted by Microsoft and Linux. It’s being used by DARPA and mentioned by the White House. It has repeatedly held the title as “the most desired” programming language according to Stack Overflow. It’s the top language where developers are migrating, according to JetBrains. It has the fastest increasing number of contributors according to GitHub. In short, Rust is growing.
The Rust story is even more impressive considering it’s a complex language with a strong-minded community. I wonder if a “Kotlin for Rust” - a friendlier sibling of the language - would help Rust adoption go beyond the hard core of software engineers. Since several organizations are migrating their C/C++ codebases to Rust, developer experience at the high end might improve organically anyway. A world where major commercial operating systems, video games, and mission-critical programs are written in Rust seems possible in time.
