
Ask HN: What languages of the last 20 years are here to stay? - elamje
I am curious after reading HN so much, and seeing so many language fanatics on here, what languages do you think are going to be used for the foreseeable future?<p>There are so many new ones, so which of the ones from 1999-present, so you think will gain popularity, or maintain a strong niche going forward?
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EnderMB
C# is nearly twenty years old, and is still developing at a rapid pace. As
more people switch towards .NET Core, I can see more people adopting the
language and framework. On the same stack, I can also see PowerShell remaining
for a long time, due to its scripting power on the Windows platform. As long
as Windows is around, PowerShell will stay and continue to evolve.

Alongside these, I can see Rust expanding its reach, probably not to general
purpose developing, but taking over more use cases from C++.

~~~
jetti
You bring up a good point with .NET Core potentially increasing the use of C#.
I would love to see new languages coming out for the CLR as well. It seems
like there was a bunch in the first few years but it has dwindled to only a
few non-Microsoft CLR languages with some of those no longer maintained (Boo
and Nemerle).

~~~
EnderMB
Above anything else, I would love to see F# get more love. From my experience,
it's in a weird place where .NET devs would love to use it, but either don't
see the benefit of switching, or don't see how to switch.

If Microsoft were to tackle a new language, I'd love to see a systems
language, especially as many industries still use Windows to build software in
C++. A language that can be used alongside Rust for things like gaming would
be fantastic.

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Simulacrum0
Javascript will be with us for a long time ( the new BASIC?)

C99: while there is much to applaud in Rust and Swift, but i doubt C will be
displaced in the embedded space given the pace of embedded device development
and scale of legacy libraries and investments.

Languages from Walled Gardens, even when open sourced, such as Microsoft/Unity
& C#, Google & Go, Apple & Obj-C/Swift, etc., do not seem to expand far from
their origins, and thus their fates seem entwined with their creator. Hard to
call their futures, but i suspect the market will shift.

LLVM's intermediate language (IR) and Vulkan's SPIR-V, seem to underlie many
other languages compiled outputs so i'd expect they will be with us for a long
time as a validating, porting, and research standard.

~~~
Veen
Swift is an interesting one because IBM seem to be quite keen on it as a
server language:

[https://developer.ibm.com/swift/](https://developer.ibm.com/swift/)

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sgillen
I also think python is going to be around for a long long time. It has become
the runaway favorite in the AI/ML space, and that space seems to be here to
stay.

Even bigger for its staying power is the fact that I see it more and more as
the language universities use to teach, which is obviously going to be a big
boon for its popularity and staying power.

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dpods
PHP is 25 years old this year. Despite all the hate it gets, the core team
continues to move the language forward, and it most definitely has its niche
in web development.

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clintonb
For reference, here are some of those languages:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_programming_languag...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_programming_languages#Current_trends).

Swift, Scratch, Go, and TypeScript seem like they will be around for a while.

~~~
cimmanom
Probably Rust too. And Scala.

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0_gravitas
I really think that Elixir has a shot at staying around for a while

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quickthrower2
SQL. I bet there aren’t many of you who haven’t had to use it.

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Mindexperiment
Javascript will be the most long lasting language

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lamchob
Does modern C++ count ( c++ >= 11) ? The modern standard changed a lot of
paradigms of the language, like a multi threading aware memory consistency
model.

In the domain of system programming and gaming C++ is still paramount. While
Rust will be an alternative in the system domain, the gaming "core" is still
created with C++.

Also, compilers. Most modern compiler projects (LLVM, TVM, Tiramisu, MLIR,
Lift) are written in C++, and compilers are among the most long-lived software
projects.

~~~
danieltillett
C++ seems to becoming like Fortran. The old joke is we don't know what
language physicist will be using in the future, but we know it will be called
Fortran.

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gjvc
LISP will still be there running like a river of molten lava inspiring future
generations of language designers :-)

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digitalsushi
Perl isn't as popular as it was 20 years ago, but it's still very present -
and now that ruby has been around as long as perl had been, I'd venture that
ruby will be a smell we find in code junk drawers for decades and decades to
come.

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macando
Java once they merge all the nice features from Kotlin and Scala.

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elamje
I believe Java is more than 20 years old.

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cbluth
English, Spanish, and Chinese. They'll be around forever.

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deepaksurti
Swift, Elixir

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elamje
Elixir seems awesome

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sahinyanlik
wow no one said Java yet!

