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What is the best programming language to learn for backend developers?

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The Best 1 of 18 OptionsWhy?

18 Options ConsideredPriceCurrent stable versionGZipped size
Excellent
Python
3.6.422.5MB
Elixir
1.63.61 MB (without required Erlang VM)
Golang
1.9.216MB
Rust
1.24.1–
TypeScript
2.3–
See Full List
Excellent

Python

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Endi Sukaj
Laura Kyle
Barbara Glowa
Top Pro

Easy to learn

•••
Python has simple to learn syntax which helps beginners to utilize this programming language and has support guide available.
ResponsibleOshosi
Top Pro

Lots of tutorials

•••
Python's popularity and beginner friendliness has led to a wealth of tutorials and example code on the internet. This means that when beginners have questions, they're very likely to be able to find an answer on their own just by searching. This is an advantage over some languages that are...
ResponsibleOshosi
Top Pro

Active and helpful community

•••
Python has an active and helpful community, such as the comp.lang.python Google Groups, StackOverflow, reddit, etc.
ResponsibleOshosi
Top Pro

Very similar to pseudo-code

•••
When learning Computer Science concepts such as algorithms and data structures, many texts use pseudo-code. Having a language such as Python whose syntax is very similar to pseudo-code is an obvious advantage that makes learning easier.
ResponsibleOshosi
Top Pro

Clear syntax

•••
Python's syntax is very clear and readable, making it excellent for beginners. The lack of extra characters like semicolons and curly braces reduces distractions, letting beginners focus on the meaning of the code. Significant whitespace also means that all code is properly and consistently ind...
ResponsibleOshosi
Top Pro

Easy to get started

•••
On top of the wealth of tutorials and documentation, and the fact that it ships with a sizeable standard library, Python also ships with both an IDE (Integrated Development Environment: A graphical environment for editing running and debugging your code); as well as a text-based live interpreter....
ResponsibleOshosi
Top Pro

Cross-platform

•••
Installs and works on every major operating systems if not already installed by default (Linux, macOS).
IntellectualCerberus
Top Pro

Comes with extensive libraries

•••
Python ships with a large standard library, including modules for everything from writing graphical applications, running servers, and doing unit testing. This means that beginners won't need to spend time searching for tools and libraries just to get started on their projects.
Arpit Arya
Carson Wood
Top Pro

Lots of framework choices

•••
Has many frameworks like flask, django, pyramid, etc
Lubo
Top Pro

Can be used in many domains

•••
Python can be used across virtually all domains: scientific, network, games, graphics, animation, web development, machine learning, and data science.
Elliot Alderson
Top Pro

It's really simple

•••
It's very simple for understanding how programming works.
Elliot Alderson
Top Pro

Good documentation

•••
The Python community has put a lot of work into creating excellent documentation filled with plain english describing functionality. Contrast this with other languages, such as Java, where documentation often contains a dry enumeration of the API. As a random example, consider GUI toolkit documen...
Elliot Alderson
Top Pro

Has many libraries for scientific computing, data mining and machine learning

•••
Python is commonly used in data science and has many libraries for scientific computing, such as numpy, pandas, matplotlib, etc.
Alex
Luiz Barni
Top Pro

Promotes beautiful code

•••
You are basically put in a situation where you have to write beautiful code, because of the indentation rules.
Paolo
Arpit Arya
Top Pro

Supports multiple databases

•••
Trimalchio Pertinax
Top Pro

Multiparadigm language

•••
Robert McAlery
Peter Carter
Top Con

Slower than alternative languages

•••
Compared to alternatives such as C++, C#, F#, Elixir/Erlang or Go, Python can be sluggish and is often not a good choice for applications where performance is a significant concern.
Robert McAlery
Monika
Nick Luger
Top Con

Not type-safe

•••
For back-end system development, strong static type checking is extremely important. Without strong static type checking, errors that could have been detected at compile time won't show up until run time, which could have disastrous consequences.
NeighborlyHapantali
Top Con

Hard to debug other people's code

•••
As the structure of Python code is based on conventions many developers are not following them and so it is difficult to follow/extract the design of not trivial application from the code.
NeighborlyHapantali
Top Con

Might not be very future-proof

•••
Lots of features that will probably be crucial as time goes (good support for parallelism for example) are missing or are not that well-supported in Python.
IntellectualCerberus
Top Con

Language fragmentation

•••
A large subset of the Python community still uses / relies upon Python 2, which is considered a legacy implementation by the Python authors. Some libraries still have varying degrees of support depending on which version of Python you use. There are syntactical differences between the versions.
IntellectualCerberus
Top Con

Slow to run

•••
Check for example the first result from Google: https://benchmarksgame.alioth.debian.org/u64q/python.html
Zi-yao Jian (XenStalker)
Top Con

Multi-threading can introduce unwanted complexity

•••
Although the principals of multi-threading in Python are good, the simplicity can be deceptive and multi-threaded applications are not always easy to create when multiple additional factors are accounted for. Multi-thread processes have to be explicitly created manually.
Belle
Polyglot
Alex
Top Con

No delimiters, just indentation

•••
If you forget to indent your code, it will not work properly. Also you can't see the end of the command (";") or the end of the scope ("{" and "}"). This can prove itself very inconvenient for both beginners and experienced programmers.
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17 Other Options Considered

Elixir

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Rok
Top Pro

Fault-tolerant

•••
Elixir applications are composed of lightweight processes, mainly divided into workers and supervisors. When such a process crashes it can be automatically restarted in a number of ways so that there is minimal downtime.
Łukasz Jan Niemier
Top Pro

Pleasant Ruby-like syntax

•••
Default Erlang syntax (which is Prolog-based) is very unpleasant for newcomers. Elixir on the other hand solved this problem with creating more familiar syntax while keeping Erlang expressivity and all features.
Łukasz Jan Niemier
Top Pro

Built-in support for hot-upgrades and hot-downgrades

•••
As built for telecommunications system Erlang VM requires support for application updates without interruptions in running system (imagine that your call was unexpectedly ended due to software upgrade in your provider relay station). This allows you to update your system without disconnecting your...
Łukasz Jan Niemier
Top Pro

Easy interoperability with Erlang libraries

•••
Elixir which is build on top of Erlang's BEAM can directly use Erlang libraries and code, without any trouble. This gives developer access to over 30 years of libraries development for Erlang without any penalty and trouble.
PleasantSirsir
Top Pro

Great for concurrency

•••
Leverages the existing Erlang BEAM VM
Peter Carter
Top Pro

Great concurrency and scaling

•••
Processes in the Erlang VM are lightweight and run across all CPUs. Thread handling is simpler and more intuitive, and does not require developers to specifically impliment multi-threaded solutions. With multi-core CPUs now mainstream, and octocore not uncommon, this will have a significant effect...
PleasantSirsir
Top Pro

Great getting started tutorials

•••
The tutorials are very clear and concise (even for a person not used to functional programming). Plus they are also very mobile friendly.
PleasantSirsir
Top Pro

Full access to Erlang functions

•••
You can call Erlang functions directly without any overhead: https://elixir-lang.org/getting-started/erlang-libraries.html
PleasantSirsir
Top Pro

Easy to download libraries

•••
Comes with built in build tool called "mix". This will automatically download libraries and put them in the scope of the application when you add them to the "deps" function and run mix deps.get
PleasantSirsir
Top Pro

Great documentation

•••
Elixir's documentation is very good. It covers everything and always helps solving any problem you may have. It's also always available from the terminal.
PleasantSirsir
Top Pro

Syntax is similar to Ruby, making it familiar for people used to OOP

•••
All of the benefits of Erlang; without as steep a learning curve of prolog based syntax. Elixir is heavily inspired by Ruby's syntax which many people love.
PleasantSirsir
Top Pro

Powerful metaprogramming

•••
Write code that writes code with Elixir macros. Macros make metaprogramming possible and define the language itself.
Endi Sukaj
JovialDumakulem
Top Con

Lack of static typing

•••
Should be mentioned that Elixir also has its own way to check type safety : pattern matching, guards, typespecs and dialyzer.
Łukasz Jan Niemier
Top Con

Takes some time to wrap your head around around OTP supervisors trees

•••
This (unique?) feature of the OTP is quite uncommon and takes some time to get into understanding what is going on, when, and how to use all it's features and servers like GenServer, Agent, etc.
Łukasz Jan Niemier
Top Con

Requires some knowledge of Erlang

•••
Sooner or later you will be forced to dig into internals of the libraries that you use and some of them are written in Erlang, which has slightly different syntax. However after understanding some Elixir it becomes easier.
Jake Gage
Top Con

Immature backend runtime environments

•••
Monika
michel perez
Top Con

Bad for CPU bound processing

•••
See 15 more Pros & ConsSee 15 more Pros & Cons

Golang

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Slava Chernoy
Top Pro

High level programming language

•••
It makes it easy to learn and the learning curve is friendly for beginners. One can learn the main concepts and ignore unimportant details. While in low level programming languages, like C, one should spend a lot of time on low level details even when developing very basic (web) service.
Slava Chernoy
Alex
SuaveGobannus
Top Pro

Great runtime performance

•••
GoLang is compiled language, so it is expected to run faster than interpreted language. GoLang programs may run as fast as ones written in Java. It is just a matter of time when GoLang compiler will beat Java and will compete with C/C++.
Monika
Slava Chernoy
Top Pro

Green threads and channels built-in

•••
The system can easily support tens of thousands (user-space) threads, which can communicate and being synchronized using channels. This makes it easy to design a system consuming multiple cores (and being scalable) or making asynchronous I/O. Scalability and asynchronous processing are very impor...
Adrian Clepcea
Top Pro

It is supported on all the mainline operating systems and supports cross-compilation

•••
You can compile an executable for linux, windows, OSX, FreeBSD, NetBSD etc. You can easily cross-compile accross platforms.
Adrian Clepcea
Top Pro

The final package contains everything you need to run it

•••
Everything is contained in the executable. Is like you do static linking in C. That means you no longer need to provide external libraries. This also simplifies the installers (if you need them at all).
Dave Jensen
Top Pro

Large community

•••
The community is large enough at this point that there are plenty of resources on the web for learning, asking questions, and interacting with many other Gophers.
Monika
Slava Chernoy
Top Pro

Support of OOP and duck typing

•••
Interface based polymorphism and structural compatibility of interfaces make it easy to extend the system/application, to reuse the code and to refactor. Basically, it allows to build less coupled architecture. The OOP support is very simple comparing to other OOP languages like Java/C++. It is...
Laura Kyle
Slava Chernoy
Top Pro

Supports packages properly

•••
Explicit package-level export/import. Package dependency graph (DAG) defines the order of compilation and initialization. Packages help to build the architecture and to deal with the complexity of the system. Packages and clear dependancies makes it easy to understand the system (design). No surp...
Slava Chernoy
Top Pro

Strong static type system

•••
Most of errors related to types are detected during compile time. The compiler helps to find "stupid" mistakes on the very early stage, which is very helpful not only for a beginner but for any experienced developer as well.
Laura Kyle
Slava Chernoy
Top Pro

Simple infrastructure and tooling

•••
Someone may even claim it has too primitive approach, but in reality, when building complex systems, having very well understood infrastructure and tools have a great advantage. For beginners it is even more important that one needs to spend minimum time for learning how to compile and build your...
IntellectualCerberus
Top Pro

The go compiler compiles binaries instantly — as fast as a scripting language interpreter

•••
Compiled binaries are fast — about as fast in C in most cases. Compiles on every OS without effort — truly cross-platform compiler. As a result of the fast compilation speed, you can use the gorun program to use go source code as if it was a scripting language.
Roman Scharkov
Top Pro

Great team working behind it

•••
Go has a solid team of engineers working on it (some of the best networking engineers in the world are working on Go). Up until now, the great engineering of the language has compensated for its lack of power.
Roman Scharkov
Top Pro

Provides tools for automatically formatting code for your entire software project

•••
This helps keep every programmer on the same page in a project and eliminates arguments over formatting styles.
IntellectualCerberus
Top Pro

Built-in unit testing

•••
The idiomatic approach to writing a Go software project is to perform test-driven development with unit testing. Every source code file should have an associated *_test.go file which tests functions in the code.
Roman Scharkov
Top Pro

Great language for building networking services

•••
Go was started as a systems language but now it has fully committed in the niche of networking services. This has been a brilliant move by Go because it allows them to capitalize on the immense talent of the Go engineering team (who are in the most part network engineers). In a world dominated by...
IntellectualCerberus
Top Pro

Exceptionally simple and scalable multithreaded and concurrent programming

•••
Goroutines are "lightweight threads" that runs on OS threads. They provide a simple way for concurrent operations — prepending a function with go will execute it concurrently. It utilizes channels for communication between goroutines which aids to prevent races and makes synchronizing exe...
Elias Van Ootegem
Top Pro

Easy to install and configure; simple to compile software

•••
Go software can be immediately installed, regardless of your operating system, package manager, or processor architecture with the go get command. Software is compiled statically by default so there is no need to worry about software dependencies on the client system. Makefiles and headers are no l...
Roman Scharkov
Top Pro

Supports splitting source code into multiple files

•••
As long as every source code file in a directory has the same package name, the compiler will automatically concatenate all of the files together during the compilation process.
Roman Scharkov
Top Pro

Supports 'modules' in the form of packages.

•••
Every Go source file contains a package line that indicates which package a file belongs to. If the name of the package is 'main', it indicates that this is a program that will be compiled into a binary. Otherwise, it will recognize that it is a package.
Monika
Endi Sukaj
Łukasz Jan Niemier
Top Con

No user defined generics

•••
This means that you can utilize strong typing only as long as you do not need a generic container like for example list. Only ways to deal with it is either code duplication or using interface{} which means that you lose strong typing.
Łukasz Jan Niemier
Top Con

Default package manager doesn't allow versioning of libraries

•••
This mean that when using go get we will always fetch HEAD of remote repo. There are however 3rd party solutions for that problem like repository hacks and managers that tries to mimic lock file.
IntellectualCerberus
Top Con

Performance slowdown because of indirect calls and garbage collection

•••
Practically no meaningful Go application can be written without indirect function calls and garbage collection, these are central to Go's core infrastructure. But these are major impediments to achieving good performance.
Paolo
Łukasz Jan Niemier
Top Con

Default package manager doesn't allow multiple versions of the same package to be used at once

•••
Default package manager fetch all packages to $GOPATH and use them across all projects which mean that 2 projects cannot use different versions of the same package. However 3rd party solutions exists. This has been solved with the dep tool and semver.
Łukasz Jan Niemier
Top Con

Initial setup of working environment is non trivial

•••
We need to set up some environment variables ($GOPATH and adjust$PATH at least). However in most cases it is one-time setup.
See 22 more Pros & ConsSee 22 more Pros & Cons

Rust

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Kristaps
Oleg Tsyba
Top Pro

Compiler prevents memory management and concurency mistakes

•••
Jeroen Bollen
Top Pro

Lifetime semantics have benefits in other languages

•••
When you are used to the lifetime semantics of Rust, you can easily use the knowledge to also better manage memory in other programming languages.
PleasantSirsir
Top Pro

Threads without data races

•••
Unique ownership system guarantees a mutable data to be owned and mutated by only one thread at a time, so there's no data race, and this guarantee is checked at compile time statically. Which means easy multi-threading. Of course, immutable data can be shared among multiple threads freely.
PleasantSirsir
Top Pro

Catch errors at compile-time

•••
Since Rust is statically typed, you can catch multiple errors during compile time. This is extremely helpful with debugging, especially compared with dynamically typed languages that may fail silently during runtime.
Kovah
Top Pro

Most popular programming language 2017

•••
Rust was the number one wanted programming lnguage in the 2017 Stack Overflow Developer Survey. (See https://stackoverflow.com/insights/survey/2017#most-loved-dreaded-and-wanted)
PleasantSirsir
Top Pro

Zero-cost futures or Async IO

•••
PleasantSirsir
Top Pro

Generics support

•••
You don't have to write same array and dictionary classes hundreds and thousands times for strong type check by compiler.
PleasantSirsir
Top Pro

Makes developers write optimal code

•••
Rust is a modern programming language written around systems. It was designed from the ground up this way. It's language design makes developers write optimal code almost all the time, meaning you don't have to fully know and understand the compiler's source code in order to optimize yo...
PleasantSirsir
Top Pro

Built-in concurrency

•••
Rust has built-in support for concurrency.
PleasantSirsir
Top Pro

Easy to write understandable code

•••
While not as verbose as Java, it still is much more verbose than languages like Go and Python. This means that the code is very explicit and easy to understand.
PleasantSirsir
Top Pro

Supports cross compilation for different architectures

•••
Since Rust 1.8 you can install additional versions of the standard library for different targets using rustup/multirust. For example: $ rustup target add x86_64-unknown-linux-musl Which then allows for: $ cargo build --target x86_64-unknown-linux-musl
PleasantSirsir
Top Pro

Support for macros

•••
When you identify a part of your code which gets repeated often, which you cannot abstract using functions or classes, you can use Rust's built-in Macros.
PleasantSirsir
Top Pro

Compiles to machine code allowing for extra efficiency

•••
Rust uses LLVM as a backend, among other things this allows Rust code to compile down to machine languages. This allows developers to write programs that run as efficiently as possible.
PleasantSirsir
Top Con

Hard to find learning resources or libraries

•••
Because it's still a relatively new language, Rust does not enjoy a following as large as other languages/environments. Rust development has also been rather volatile for a long time during the beginning of the development of the language adding to this issue. Because of the small community,...
michel perez
Top Con

Lifetimes can be tricky to learn

•••
See 13 more Pros & ConsSee 13 more Pros & Cons

TypeScript

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Gabriel Csollei
Top Pro

Polyfill for ES6 fat-arrow syntax

•••
Typescript implements the fat arrow syntax, which always maintains the current context for this and is a shorter/more convenient syntax than traditional function definition.
Gabriel Csollei
Top Pro

Strict superset of Javascript

•••
Every existing Javascript program is already a valid TypeScript program giving it the best support for existing libraries, which is particularly useful if you need to integrate with an existing Javascript code base.
Gabriel Csollei
Top Pro

Optional static typing

•••
Typescript has optional static typing with support for interfaces and generics, and intelligent type inference. It makes refactoring large codebases a breeze, and provides many more safeguards for creating stable code.
Gabriel Csollei
Top Con

Type checking not enforced by default

•••
You have to use compiler flags to make sure it catches flaws like usage of implicit any, etc.
Gabriel Csollei
Top Con

No support for dead code elimination

•••
Typescript compiler does not remove dead code from generated file(s), you have to use external tools to remove unused code after compilation. Which is harder to achieve, because Typescript compiler eliminated all type information.
Gabriel Csollei
Top Con

Too similar to Javascript

•••
Presents some advantages compared to Javascript, but because it is designed to be a superset of Javascript, it means all the bad parts of Javascript are still present.
See 4 more Pros & ConsSee 4 more Pros & Cons

Java

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Bruno Déry
Top Pro

Mature corporate multi-platform language

•••
Mário Barbosa
Top Pro

Pushes you to use pattern-oriented approaches

•••
Just by looking at the language's source code you can learn a lot and get good ideas as to how to develop your own approaches "the good way".
Laura Kyle
Chip Chipiik
Top Pro

Lots of well paid job opportunities

•••
gilch
Mário Barbosa
Top Pro

Documentation is excellent

•••
Alex
Luiz Barni
Mário Barbosa
Top Pro

Lots of libraries

•••
Laura Kyle
Chip Chipiik
Top Pro

Best virtual machine

•••
Proven, highly tuned and high performance multiplatform JVM.
Mário Barbosa
Top Pro

Strong typed language with an excellent compiler

•••
You always know that if it compiled then you won't have big surprises when running
Izem Lavrenti
أحمد حبنكة
Top Pro

Standard-based programming

•••
It's good to have standards for the many tasks needed to do in the web, this makes it easier for you to swap a library without changing much in your code.
Thaniell
Top Pro

Fantastic IDEs

•••
Because Java is statically typed, integrated development environments (IDEs) for Java can provide a lot more feedback on errors you will encounter. Java IDEs can give you specific errors in the location where they occur without having to run the code every time. This makes is faster to debug and le...
gilch
Top Pro

Huge community

•••
NeighborlyHapantali
Top Pro

Most commonly used language in industry

•••
Java is one of the most popular languages in industry, consistently ranking either first, or occasionally second (behind C or Javascript) in terms of usage. Polls (see sources below) show it to be consistently in high demand, particularly as measured by job board postings. This makes Java a great t...
NeighborlyHapantali
Top Pro

Massive amount of libraries and APIs

•••
Java has been around for such a long time that there have been tens of thousands of APIs and libraries written for almost anything you want to do.
NeighborlyHapantali
Top Pro

Platform Independent

•••
Because of the Java Virtual Machine, the Java programming language is supported wherever a JVM is installed.
NeighborlyHapantali
Top Pro

Consistent programming standards

•••
Most Java code follows very standardized coding styles. This means that when you're starting out, there are fewer questions about how you should implement something as the programming styles and patterns are well established and consistent. This consistent style means that it's often easier...
Izem Lavrenti
أحمد حبنكة
Top Pro

Novel ideas

•••
Chip Chipiik
Top Con

Can be hard to choose right stack (frameworks) for beginner

•••
Ole Kristian Sandum
Top Con

Bloated

•••
For the sake of your code's correctness, you had better write (or have your IDE generate) getters and setters for data fields you expose. And for the sake of safety you should definitely add null-assertions to all non-null method parameters. You also have to catch or rethrow/redeclare all check...
Endi Sukaj
Bruno Déry
Top Con

A bit overkill for smaller projects and junior developers

•••
Aubrey
Ole Kristian Sandum
Top Con

Slow to evolve

•••
Java, which is probably the industry's biggest language and platform, is notorious for being slow to evolve. Many useful features, concepts and ideas that the majority of the languages out there have already used for years, are yet to be implemented (or even considered) in Java. Language feat...
Ole Kristian Sandum
Top Con

No top-level functions

•••
Sometimes the appropriate abstraction is just a function. In Java everything happens within a class. If all you want is simply a function, then you first need a class. This class should act as a container or a namespace for your function. Therefore it should not be instantiated, so you should make...
See 18 more Pros & ConsSee 18 more Pros & Cons

Clojure

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Kristaps
Adrian Clepcea
Top Pro

Can use all the libraries from the huge JVM ecosystem

•••
You can easily import Java libraries and use them in your program.
Paolo
Adrian Clepcea
Cezar Jenkins
Top Pro

Easy concurrency

•••
Uses channels and STM (Software Transactional Memory). That means you no longer need to fear all the locks and deadlocks from the standard concurrency model.
Paolo
michel perez
Top Pro

Compiles to Javascript

•••
michel perez
Top Pro

Simplicity

•••
Yoshiyuki
InterestingAm-heh
Top Pro

No C/Java syntax

•••
This is refreshing.
InterestingAm-heh
Top Pro

Great tool used in automating, configuring and managing dependencies available

•••
Leiningen is a very useful tool for Clojure developers. It helps wiht automation, configuration and dependency management. It's basically a must for every Clojure project.
InterestingAm-heh
Top Pro

Rich Hickey

•••
The creator is so awesome, he's a feature. Just look up his talks and see why.
InterestingAm-heh
Top Pro

Cross platform

•••
Clojure compiles to JVM bytecode and runs inside the JVM. This means that applications written in Clojure are cross-platform out of the box.
InterestingAm-heh
Top Pro

Huge ecosystem of libraries to work with

•••
There's a very large ecosystem of high-quality Clojure libraries which developers can use. One example is Incanter. It's a great data analytics library and a very powerful tool for dealing with matrices, datasets and csv files.
InterestingAm-heh
Top Pro

Tries to solve problems as simply as possible

•••
Simplicity is one of the pillars on which Clojure is built. Clojure tries to solve many problems in software development as simply as possible. Instead of building complex interfaces, objects or factories, it uses immutability and simple data structures.
InterestingAm-heh
Top Pro

Minimal syntax

•••
Being a LISP, programs are simple: they're just functions and data. That it doesn't get bogged down with syntax or the loftier FP concepts like monads makes it one of most approachable functional languages for beginners.
InterestingAm-heh
Top Pro

Immutability is the default

•••
Clojure programmers are highly encouraged to use immutable data in their code. Therefore, most data will be immutable by default. State change is handled by functions (for transformations) and atoms (an abstraction that encapsulates the idea of some entity having an identity).
Cezar Jenkins
Top Con

Requires the JVM

•••
Robert McAlery
Top Con

Lack of static type safety

•••
Problems that could have been easily detected at compile time show up a run-time, which is terrible for back-end development.
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Haskell

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Ole Kristian Sandum
Top Pro

Safe

•••
The strong type system makes Haskell a safe language to use
Ole Kristian Sandum
Top Pro

Purely functional

•••
Being purely functional, there are no side effects in Haskell. As such it is easier to reason about an application written in Haskell.
Ole Kristian Sandum
Top Pro

High level

•••
Haskell is a very high level language, having tons of abstractions out of the box, making it perfect for backend development.
Endi Sukaj
Mark Polyakov
Top Pro

Very fast

•••
Most web frameworks and servers for Haskell are way faster than even the fastest interpreted languages, such as Node.js.
Ole Kristian Sandum
Top Con

Requires a shift in thinking

•••
If you are coming from an imperative background with little to no experience with functional programming, using Haskell may require some effort in shifting the way you think and reason about software.
Kristaps
HelpfulAstghik
Top Con

Performance

•••
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C#

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Ray
Top Pro

Best language for Windows programs

•••
C# is clearly the best choice for Windows programs. The .NET framework contains everything you need to build great-looking apps, without having to learn the confusing Win32 API or download a ton of external libraries. C# can also be used to build Windows 8's "modern" apps.
Ray
Top Pro

Awesome IDE for Windows

•••
On Windows, Visual Studio is the recommended C# IDE. It provides a very flexible GUI that you can rearrange the way you want and many useful features such as refactorings (rename a variable, extract some code into a method, ...) and code formatting (you can pick exactly how you want the code to be...
Ray
Top Pro

With ASP CORE a good language to learn

•••
With CORE you are no longer just limited to Windows, so a language worth learning.
Ray
Top Pro

Great introduction to object-oriented programming

•••
Object-oriented programming is the most widely-used paradigm. C# offers support for common OOP features such as classes, methods and fields, plus some features not found in competing languages like properties, events and static classes. C# code is much more readable thanks to the syntactic sugar...
Ray
Top Pro

Supports some functional features

•••
C# is primarily object-oriented, but it also supports some features typically found in functional languages such as lambdas, delegates and anonymous classes. Methods can be treated like any other object, and the Linq query system operates on monads with lazy evaluation (though it hides this with a...
Ray
Top Pro

Great language for Unity game engine

•••
Unity provides a selection of programming languages depending on preference or knowledge - C#, JS, Boo and UnityScript. C# is arguably the most powerful with better syntax and stronger language structure. It allows using script files without attaching them to any game object (classes, methods insi...
Ray
Top Pro

Very high demand in the industry.

•••
Ray
Top Pro

Incredibly Well-Engineered Language

•••
Where other languages invoke the feeling of being a product of organic growth over time, C# just feels like an incredibly well-designed language where everything has its purpose and almost nothing is non-essential.
Ray
Top Pro

Supported on many platforms

•••
C# can be used for Windows apps, Linux apps, OS X apps, Windows 8 "modern" apps, websites, games, iPhone apps, Android apps, Windows Phone apps, and more. If you want to create a cross-platform application, you can share most of the code and write one GUI for each platform.
Ray
Top Pro

.NET is a great toolbox

•••
C# runs on top of the .NET framework, which provides many libraries containing classes used for common tasks such as connecting to the Internet, displaying a window or editing files. Unlike many other languages, you don't have to pick between a handful of libraries for every small task you want...
Ray
Top Pro

Can mix high and low level programming

•••
You can code at the high level without worrying about pointers and memory management, but if you so choose you can switch to lower level programming with direct memory management and pointer manipulation (though you need to compile to specifically allow this).
Ray
Top Con

Dependecy on IDE

•••
Most people learn and depend on VisualStudio to write C#. The result is people learn how to use an IDE and not the concepts or fundamentals of good programming. This isn't necessarily a knock on the language itself, but it is frustratingly difficult to do things in C# when not using VS.
Ray
Top Con

Often-used products in most C# development environments get expensive

•••
The majority of the C# development community uses Microsoft products which are not all free and open-source. As you get into the enterprise level of some of these products and subscriptions, the expense is multiple factors of 10 greater. While you can use a fully open-source and free C# environme...
Ray
Top Con

Too easy to write multithreading apps that are buggy

•••
Many web frameworks or GUI libraries will push novice users to writing multithreaded code, which leads to frustrating race condition bugs. Other languages with multithreading push users towards safe constructs, like passing messages and immutable or synchronized containers. But in C# the data stru...
Ray
Top Con

Complex syntax

•••
Too many syntactic constructs to learn before it becomes usable.
Ray
Top Con

Lacks standard-library support for immutable data structures

•••
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JavaScript

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Cosmo Myzrail Gorynych
Top Pro

Rich module ecosystem

•••
The npm client is bundled with node.js. It allows developers to quickly install ready-made modules, which vary from utility functions to complete blogging platforms.
deepak kumar
Top Pro

Large community base

•••
Even though server side JS has not been around for long, it has a very large group of users using it and thus you will be able to get help easily.
Kovah
Top Pro

A very popular newcomer

•••
With Node.js becoming a popular used runtime environment for developing a diverse variety of server tools and applications JavaScript as it's underlying language becomes more popular too.
Cosmo Myzrail Gorynych
Endi Sukaj
Alex Daubricourt
Top Pro

Beautiful syntax

•••
JS itself is a multi-paradigm language that gives you an ability to use functional, object-oriented programming, etc. The syntax isn't strict with punctuation; it may look like a C language or python-ish. Latest versions of language are filled with syntax sugar, borrowed from best programming p...
ProudIlabrat
Top Pro

Great tools for development

•••
Flow, JSHint/ESLint, Babel, npm, etc.
ProudIlabrat
Top Pro

JSON is native to JS

•••
JSON is arguably a "must-learn". With JS, that's one less additional syntax to learn.
ProudIlabrat
Top Pro

C-like syntax

•••
After learning Javascript, you will feel at home in other languages as C-like syntax is very common.
ProudIlabrat
Top Pro

Required for web development

•••
If you are looking to create web projects, you will have to learn Javascript in order to develop the client side code. If you learn the foundations of programming in JavaScript you can reapply that education later in building web applications.
Mark Polyakov
Top Pro

Concise

•••
JS code is usually quite small compared to other languages, especially with ES6 syntax.
Cosmo Myzrail Gorynych
Top Con

Not suitable for complex computations

•••
Heavy calculations and big data processing kills JavaSript's speed and server availability. It is perfect for building real-time apps with high number of connections, though, as well as for regular apps which don't require complex data processing.
HumbleCelaeno
Top Con

Difficult to find the real cause of an error

•••
timlyo
Top Con

Churning ecosystem

•••
New JavaScript packages are common, and the most popular setp can change very quickly. What a beginner learns now is likely to be out of date very quickly.
Robert McAlery
Top Con

Lack of static type safety

•••
JavaScript simply lacks the static type checking that is necessary to build reliable and high performance systems. Problems that could have been easily detected at compile time show up a run-time, which is terrible for back-end development.
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Ruby

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Chloe Montanez
Łukasz Pająk
Top Pro

Code is clean

•••
Even when you see it after 6 months, you'll still understand it.
Endi Sukaj
أحمد حبنكة
Top Pro

Outstanding ecosystem

•••
Because of the large and engaged community you can almost find a library for everything you need.
Izem Lavrenti
أحمد حبنكة
Top Con

Not the fastest around

•••
Ruby did make a long way in terms of performance(and expected to go further in version 3) but there are still more performant alternatives(nodejs,java,etc).
Robert McAlery
Top Con

Lack of static type safety

•••
Problems that could have been easily detected at compile time show up a run-time, which is terrible for back-end development.
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Scala

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AuthenticBuchis
Chloe Montanez
Top Pro

Concurrency done the right way.

•••
With Akka & Akka Streams
AuthenticBuchis
Top Pro

Strictly typed + type inference

•••
Easy refactoring with compile-time validation of refactoring results. Plus many other obvious advantages of strictly typed languages. Common disadvantage of strictly typed languages is verbosity, Scala addresses it with different ways, like type inference.
AuthenticBuchis
Top Pro

Very concise

•••
Kristaps
SpontaneousPhaenna
Top Pro

Good choice of web frameworks

•••
Chloe Montanez
ElectronWill
Top Pro

Best of functional and object-oriented programming

•••
PerseveringMarzyana
Top Pro

Mature

•••
Latest Scala versions have maintained source level compatibility. It exists since 2004.
Francisco
PerseveringMarzyana
Top Pro

Many libraries

•••
It has all Java libs and Scala libs. For example, it has many Scala specific JSON parsers, HTTP client libs, etc.
Francisco
PerseveringMarzyana
Top Pro

Good IDE and tools

•••
Like, for example IntelliJ IDEA, Scala IDE.
PerseveringMarzyana
Top Con

Slow compilation

•••
With Dotty, the new Scala compiler I hope it will improve
Chloe Montanez
SincereDionysus
Top Con

Horrendous unreadable code easily ensues

•••
Scala is the new Perl. It offers a massive enticing rope to hang you and your colleagues with write-only code.
Chloe Montanez
gilch
Top Con

Complicated type system

•••
It lacks an elegant algebraic type system onto Java's half-baked object-oriented generic types. The result is daunting.
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Kotlin

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Kristaps
HelpfulAstghik
Top Pro

Literally a better Java

•••
Integrates into existing ecosystems seamlessly, has the support of JetBrains and Google etc, is a node killer on vert.x.
SmartAnitunTabu
Top Pro

Low-risk adoption for existing Java codebases

•••
Since it has such a good interoperability with Java, Java libraries, and Java tools. It can be adopted for an existing Java codebase at little to no cost. The codebase can be converted from Java to Kotlin little by little without ever disrupting the functionality of the application itself.
SmartAnitunTabu
Top Pro

Does not impose a particular philosophy of programming

•••
It's not overly OOP like Java and it does not enforce strict functional paradigms either.
SmartAnitunTabu
Top Pro

Is built to solve industrial problems

•••
Kotlin has been designed and built by developers who have an industrial background and not an academic one. As such, it tries to solve issues mostly found in industrial settings. For example, the Kotlin type system helps developers avoid null pointer exceptions. Reasearch languages usually do not h...
SmartAnitunTabu
Top Pro

Easy adoption for existing Java programmers

•••
Kotlin runs on the JVM and Java interoperability has been one of the main objectives since the language was born. It runs everywhere Java does; web servers, mobile devices (Android), and desktop applications. It also works with all the major tools in the Java ecosystem like Eclipse, IntelliJ, Mave...
SmartAnitunTabu
Top Pro

Easy to learn if you have prior programming experience

•••
Kotlin's syntax is extremely easy to understand. The language can be picked up in a few hours just by reading the language reference.
SmartAnitunTabu
Top Pro

No runtime overhead

•••
The standard library is relatively small and tight. It mostly consists of focused extensions of the Java standard library and as such adds no additional runtime overhead to existing Java projects.
SmartAnitunTabu
Top Pro

Great tooling support

•••
Since Kotlin is made by Jetbrains (the developers of IntelliJ IDEA) so it stands to reason that the IntelliJ support for Kotlin is also great. Besides that, Kotlin also works well with existing Java tools such as Eclipse, Maven, Gradle, Android Studio, etc...
SpontaneousPhaenna
Top Con

Too young, many child problems

•••
Jake Gage
Top Con

Immature

•••
See 8 more Pros & ConsSee 8 more Pros & Cons

F#

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Robert McAlery
Top Pro

Runs on the CLR

•••
Since F# runs on the Common Language Runtime or CLR, it has access to the entire .NET Framework, as well as libraries written in other .NET languages such as C#, VB.NET, and C++/CLI. Other .NET languages can easily consume libraries written in F#.
Robert McAlery
Top Pro

Simple and concise syntax

•••
Based on ML, the syntax is terse and to the point. It's easy to learn even for those with no previous programming experience.
Robert McAlery
Top Pro

Immutable by default

•••
Removes a whole class of potentially hard to find errors. Immutability applies to all data types including collections such as lists and maps.
Robert McAlery
Top Pro

Native support for Algebraic Data Types

•••
As with Haskell and OCaml, F#'s support for Algebraic Data Types enables concise and intuitive data structure constructs.
Robert McAlery
Top Pro

Natively supported by Visual Studio

•••
This is a .Net language natively supported by Visual Studio. Though it is not as tooled up as C# the support is still substantial. VS solutions can have a mix of C#, VB.NET and F# projects.
Robert McAlery
Top Pro

Non-nullable reference types

•••
Improves system reliability by eliminating null reference exceptions. Native F# types cannot be null, which eliminates a whole class of hard to find bugs.
Robert McAlery
Top Pro

Built-in REPL

•••
Even though F# is a statically typed language, it still supports a REPL. Makes it easy to write scripts and explore the language.
Robert McAlery
Top Pro

Pattern Matching

•••
Pattern matching is a mechanism for checking a value against a pattern. A successful match can also deconstruct a value into its constituent parts. Can be applied to primitive types, algebraic data types and lists.
Robert McAlery
Top Pro

Units of Measure

•••
Units of Measure in are a type of metadata that can be associated with values. For instance the NASA Mars Climate Orbiter crashing due to a mix-up between metric and imperial units would have been prevented by using Units of Measure.
Robert McAlery
Top Pro

F# Agents

•••
Agents are used to write concurrent applications based on message passing. The agents are lightweight, and do not block threads while waiting for a message. As a result, it is possible to use hundreds of thousands of agents in a single application.
Robert McAlery
Top Pro

Query Expressions

•••
Query expressions are very similar to LINQ queries but have better integration with the F# environment. Unlike LINQ, query expressions allow user defined query operators to be defined, effectively extending the query syntax.
Robert McAlery
Top Pro

Computation Expressions

•••
Computation Expressions, also known as Monads in other languages, are an advanced F# feature that provides a means to model different ways of programming that are often difficult to do using standard programming techniques. By using Computation Expressions, F# was able to add async capabilities in...
Robert McAlery
Top Pro

Type Providers

•••
Type Providers plug into the F# compiler and covert external structured or semi-structured data into a set of types, properties and methods that can be used by the F# type system. A wide variety of TPs exist, ranging from a simple CSV reader to one allowing access to R programming language librari...
Robert McAlery
Top Pro

Employs Hindley–Milner type inference

•••
Even though it's statically typed, F# doesn't require explicit type declarations. Type declarations can still be used when it enhances readability.
WhiteLilac
HumorousEpimetheus
Top Con

Has no ad-hoc polymorphism (á la Type Classes)

•••
You have generics, you have interfaces, you have inheritance, you have a lot of things at your disposal but you don't have Type Classes. They can be emulated using some clever constructs but there's nothing like having the real thing.
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Haxe

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PHP

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Kovah
Top Pro

Widely used for websites

•••
PHP is the quasi-standard for backends for web applications and used by most of all websites. Many popular CMS are built with PHP, e.g. Wordpress, Drupal and Joomla.
Belle
John Coonrod
Top Pro

Huge community of practice

•••
Whatever challenge you face, you can Google it and find existing code that solves it. Well supported packages, objects, and methods exist for data manipulation, graphic generation, file handling and connecting with diverse APIs.
Luiz Barni
Laura Kyle
Saleh Movahedi
Top Pro

A lot of good frameworks for it

•••
Like Laravel, Zend, Symfony...
Monika
Luiz Barni
Top Pro

PHP is constantly being improved

•••
A huge community contribute to the language. PHP7 is faster than some versions of Java, Python, Perl, et cetera.
John Coonrod
Top Pro

Tight and easy integration with HTML

•••
Unlike some languages, PHP is designed to work as part of an HTML file, and moving in and out of straight HTML and PHP is simple and seamless. If you're familiar with HTML, adding simple PHP gives you access to creating dynamic pages and sessions very easy. You have easy and logical access to h...
Endi Sukaj
Kovah
Top Pro

Thousands of tutorials and courses to get you started quickly

•••
There are thousands of tutorials available and most online course providers offer PHP courses too. Learning the language will not fail because of missing reading.
Luiz Barni
Top Pro

Runs JavaScript through PHPV8

•••
Yes, PHP can run a React app directly from itself.
Luiz Barni
Top Pro

One of the most common languages

•••
According to the 2015 Stack Overflow Developer Survey (26,086 people surveyed), PHP was the 5th most popular/used language at 29.7%.
Peter Carter
Top Con

Very slow compared to alternatives

•••
Compared to alternatives like Exilir and Go-lang, which provide comparable functionality, even the latest versions of PHP are vastly slower than their competitors. The difference is so significant that it has the potential to bottleneck even modestly sized applications and lead to highly significa...
Peter Carter
Top Con

Often awkward setup

•••
PHP setup can be awkward and differ significantly on different platforms in ways that are not always entirely justifiable. Often old versions of PHP (5.6) will conflict with newer versions (7.x) when working with legacy installations, and configuration of php-fpm when working with nginx can be over...
Paolo
TheDude
Top Con

A big patchwork

•••
Each new version adds a patch to this improvised language. It always gets better, but you can still see the patches everywhere.
Robert McAlery
Top Con

Lack of static type safety

•••
The lack of strong static type checking means that simple problems that could have been easily detected at compile time are detected at run time. Clearly that's a disastrous problem for back-end software development.
John Coonrod
Endi Sukaj
Trimalchio Pertinax
Top Con

Ugly syntax

•••
The naming of string and numerical functions is awkward, frequently inconsistent and impossible to memorize - you will always need a handy cheat sheet.
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Pharo

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Delphi

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Paolo
Top Pro

Rapid Application Development (RAD) is truly possible

•••
The VCL and FMX frameworks for GUI building allow the developer to focus on the business logic with minimum effort required for the user interface.
Paolo
Top Pro

Able to deliver SEX (single executable applications)

•••
Paolo
Top Pro

Single code base to create Windows, iOS, Mac OS and Android app

•••
Know any negative aspects of this option?
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362 Community Recommendations

Jake Gage
Javier Miguel
Радик Ильин
gilch
Eugene A. Simonenko
Travis Rigg
Kovah
0xREDev
Endri Siswanto
Trimalchio Pertinax
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Roman Scharkov
Roman
Contributor for a month
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305
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Golang
Recommended a month ago
Go provides a very simple mental modal to solve a relatively complex computer programming problem, that is concurrency. Goroutines make asynchronous, non-blocking and highly concurrent code much easier to write and read. Unlike in many other languages running on top of an event loop, like JavaScript for ex...
Pro
 Large community
Pro
 The go compiler compiles binaries instantly — as fast as a scripting language interpreter
Pro
 Supports splitting source code into multiple files
Pro
 Great language for building networking services
Pro
 Supports packages properly
Pro
 Simple infrastructure and tooling
Pro
 Support of OOP and duck typing
Pro
 Supports 'modules' in the form of packages.
Pro
 Provides tools for automatically formatting code for your entire software project
Pro
 Great team working behind it
Pro
 Exceptionally simple and scalable multithreaded and concurrent programming
Pro
 Great runtime performance
Pro
 The final package contains everything you need to run it
Pro
 It is supported on all the mainline operating systems and supports cross-compilation
Pro
 Strong static type system
Pro
 Green threads and channels built-in
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Elias Van Ootegem
Elias
Contributor for 7 months
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Golang
Recommended 2 days ago
As Backend is growing more and more towards containerised micro-services, Golang definitely has got a bright future ahead of it. Having a clean, simple language with the X-platform portability of "ye olde C", and the design team that is focussing the development with networking in mind just makes s...
Pro
 Large community
Pro
 Built-in unit testing
Pro
 The go compiler compiles binaries instantly — as fast as a scripting language interpreter
Pro
 Great language for building networking services
Pro
 Supports packages properly
Pro
 Simple infrastructure and tooling
Pro
 Provides tools for automatically formatting code for your entire software project
Pro
 Great team working behind it
Pro
 Easy to install and configure; simple to compile software
Pro
 Great runtime performance
Pro
 The final package contains everything you need to run it
Pro
 It is supported on all the mainline operating systems and supports cross-compilation
Pro
 Strong static type system
Pro
 High level programming language
Pro
 Green threads and channels built-in
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zou ying
zou
Contributor for 5 months
5
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430
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Golang
Recommended a month ago
Support multiple cores naturally. Highlight feature of goroutine(corroutine), channel. Wonderful golang ecosystem.
Pro
 Large community
Pro
 Built-in unit testing
Pro
 Supports splitting source code into multiple files
Pro
 Great language for building networking services
Pro
 Supports packages properly
Pro
 Provides tools for automatically formatting code for your entire software project
Pro
 Great team working behind it
Pro
 Exceptionally simple and scalable multithreaded and concurrent programming
Pro
 Great runtime performance
Pro
 It is supported on all the mainline operating systems and supports cross-compilation
Pro
 High level programming language
Pro
 Green threads and channels built-in
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Abioye Bankole
Abioye
Contributor for 7 months
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Java
Recommended 3 days ago
I have used Java for more than 18 years and its concept of object-oriented programming makes code management a worthwhile activity.
Pro
 Pushes you to use pattern-oriented approaches
Con
 Can be hard to choose right stack (frameworks) for beginner
Pro
 Lots of well paid job opportunities
Pro
 Documentation is excellent
Con
 A bit overkill for smaller projects and junior developers
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Joao Gilberto Magalhaes (JG)
Joao
Contributor for 3 years
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PHP
Recommended 7 days ago
A lot of tools for CI/CD environment
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InterestingAm-heh
InterestingAm-heh
Contributor for 2 months
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180
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Clojure
Recommended 2 months ago
Truly the best general-purpose language, it has great language design and all the functionality you could wish for with back-end development. For free you get front-end thrown in too, thanks to Clojurescript an d Garden CSS.
Pro
 Rich Hickey
Pro
 No C/Java syntax
Pro
 Great tool used in automating, configuring and managing dependencies available
Pro
 Huge ecosystem of libraries to work with
Pro
 Cross platform
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 Immutability is the default
Pro
 Minimal syntax
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 Tries to solve problems as simply as possible
Pro
 Easy concurrency
Pro
 Can use all the libraries from the huge JVM ecosystem
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 Simplicity
Pro
 Compiles to Javascript
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PerseveringMarzyana
PerseveringMarzyana
Contributor for 14 days
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40
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Scala
Recommended 14 days ago
A lot of powerful libraries, concise syntax, good IDE and tools.
Pro
 Strictly typed + type inference
Pro
 Best of functional and object-oriented programming
Pro
 Good choice of web frameworks
Pro
 Very concise
Pro
 Concurrency done the right way.
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Santosh chaudhary
Santosh
Contributor for 2 months
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0
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Java
Recommended 2 months ago
Java is the future.
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Dave Jensen
Dave
Contributor for 2 years
19
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Golang
Recommended 5 months ago
Early on in our project we moved from Node.js to Golang. The big concern was that we were losing our expertise in Javascript for something new. After a few weeks on go those conerns went away. The simplicity of the language and the culture of writing simple code hooked us almost instantly. As already experie...
Pro
 Large community
Pro
 Great runtime performance
Con
 Default package manager doesn't allow versioning of libraries
Pro
 High level programming language
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Currently displaying 9 out of 362 total recommendations.
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