Learning a programming language can be a daunting task for you if you’re not familiar with the basics of how computers work. In this blog post we will have a closer look into programming languages and why they are popular and worth learning. You will have to eventually decide which programming language you want to learn depending on what you’re building. If your goal is to develop web applications, learning a low level programming language such as C/C++ would not be a right first step toward your goal. However, if you’re interested in embedded systems and want to work closer to the hardware, then learning a programming language like C/C++ would make more sense.

As a programmer, developer or a software engineer you goal is to become a language agnostic person. A programming language should not define you. Learn a programming language like a professional so that you can break rules like an artist.

1. JavaScript

JavaScript has evolved over the years from being just a browser scripting language to server, backend, and even mobile application development language. With React, Angular, and other popular JavaScript frameworks the popularity of the language will not diminish anytime soon. JavaScript is the go to language for people who want to develop cross platform mobile applications. The main reason why people do this is because it saves time and money. But there is a caveat, you should assess your project requirements carefully when choosing JavaScript for mobile development. React Native and other frameworks are always evolving and sometimes framework developers may introduce API changes that could break your code.

2. Swift

Programmers love Swift, you should too! The language is beautifully designed and it has powerful features like enums and protocols. When Swift was first announced back in 2014, it was Apple’s proprietary language for developing macOS and iOS applications. It’s deemed to be a replacement language for Objective-C. Apple’s API documentation is written Swift first in mind. The language is open source, and there is currently Ubuntu and macOS releases available on the official website.

Swift is the language of choice for developing iOS applications. You could of course still opt-in for Objective-C to develop on macOS/iOS platforms. You could also use Swift on web development as well, however the language is not a popular web development language and current Swift web frameworks are still evolving.