At Genbeta we are not a survey firm like StackOverflow to be able to interview 80,000 developers about the best programming languages, but we do know developers with great experience in the Spanish market, and we can ask them to share with our readers the most interesting programming languages ??for this 2022.
We have spoken with several experts who have had the detail of explaining us thoroughly why they make these recommendations and for what profile of developers.
Specifically, we have interviewed José M. Alarcón, founder of campusMVP.es; with Brais Moure, mobile developer; with meri who is a product designer and also develops and is also part of Woman in Tech; with Txema Rodríguez who was a colleague at Genbeta DEV and is Android Team Lead at JobAndTalent, a Spanish unicorn; David Bonilla, who is the founder of Manfred; Manfred’s entire team; Pedro Gómez, Senior Software Engineer at GoodNotesApp; Jorge del Casar, Technical Lead at Sngular and Google Developer Expert at Web Technologies and Google Assistant; and Quique Fernández Guerra, Director of Engineering at PlainConcepts.
With all the valuable responses we received, we have selected it based on what your goal is with a programming language. It is not the same if you want to start programming, if you are interested in the mobile world or if your goal is to be an expert in development. As Quique Fernández Guerra, Director of Engineering at PlainConcepts, says, “we live in a time in which we can have an incredible number of languages ??(almost 700) and each one of them can be used for a specific situation, different problem or person.
In the following lines you will find information on which programming languages ??are ideal (to learn or to delve into them) according to your interests in the exciting world of programming:
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We start with meri who is a product designer although she also develops and is a member of Woman in Tech, she has worked in companies such as PyroStudios and Zinkia. She recalls that “the borders between design and front-end development have always been thin. And it’s very important to know how things work before thinking of a useful product.” She recommends “always” Javascript, HTML and CSS as gateways.
The reason is that it allows you to do a bit of everything: “front, back, mobile apps, there are some really cool engines to make games… and if you can do things more or less quickly” and thus avoid stress and great difficulties. “I think it’s a good entry point and it helps you figure out which part you like best: front, back, SRE.2“, Meri concludes.
On the other hand, José M. Alarcón, founder of campusMVP.es, an online training project for programmers in Spanish, also considers that for someone who wants to start in the world of development, his recommendation would go towards JavaScript (of course always accompanied by learning HTML and CSS well).
“The reason is that JavaScript is a relatively simple language despite all its peculiarities, but at the same time it is a multi-paradigm language (functional, imperative, object-oriented and event-oriented) so which, if learned properly, is a language that can give you a very solid base to later undertake the study of other languages ??and platforms”, according to Alarcón.
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In addition, at the same time, explains the creator of campusMVP.es, “it enables you to work in Front-End, something highly demanded in the labor market. Many Front-End developers learn JavaScript ” by ear” and make the mistake of learning a framework like React or Angular before learning the real fundamentals of JavaScript. This is something I don’t recommend and is a source of frustration and problems in the future.”
Brais Moure, as a mobile developer, also recommends JavaScript, “because after 9 years it is still the most used programming language, in demand, and one of the most versatile in terms of development possibilities (especially in frontend and web backend)”. This expert believes that learning from him along with certain famous frameworks will ensure you a professional career of value.
David Bonilla, who is the founder of Manfred, would also recommend JavaScript along with Java and – by far – C. “JavaScript —both on the front with frameworks like React, and on the back with Node— and Java because of their ubiquity and, above all, because of market demand. They are, by far, the most demanded by companies“, says Bonilla.
If he recommends C, it is because of the ability to work with “the iron” at a low level and the possibilities that this offers to developers and programmers.
Quique González says that for beginners he would recommend Google’s Blockly, “recommended to anyone without any knowledge in the world of programming, who wants to delve into logic and logarithmics without the need to learn code (at least for now) “.
And it is necessary to return to JavaScript (this language would almost deserve an entire article), because González also says that it is his favorite, because, in addition to being useful to start with, “with JavaScript you can do everything”, he states. And he refers to Apps, Frontend, IoT, Backend, Machine Learning,
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If you already know how to program, but are looking to go further to have more employment options, José M. Alarcón recommends different languages. On the one hand, he explains that “although Front-End development is always a good idea, I think it would be easier and more profitable for them to learn a framework of a development language demanded in companies and surely with greater similarity to what they already know” .
In that sense, the two best options according to Alarcón are the platform and the Java language or the .NET platform and the C# language. Java is more used in large companies, consultancies and the Administration
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For his part, the expert recalls that .NET is more popular and in demand in companies of all sizes. Both have great power and capacity, if their study is undertaken with a good plan and a good guide, they can be learned in a few months (relatively fast for the complexity that all this has today), and then they have a good job opportunity.
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Pedro Gómez, Senior Software Engineer at GoodNotesApp explains that there are differences depending on the task that has to be carried out for the final objective, if you want to make games I would surely start with C# and if you are more interested in the TypeScript web world“.
For data processing and analysis
Jorge del Casar, Technical Lead at Sngular and Google Developer Expert at Web Technologies and Google Assistant, talks about the appropriate languages ??for data processing and analysis. On the one hand, he recalls that Python, “will allow you to create from web services to more advanced data processing to solve problems with artificial intelligence.”
On the other hand, his bet is R, since with the growing boom in data processing, “this language can be your ally if you want to dedicate yourself to data science.” R is a language widely used by data analysts and also to create tables and graphs of large volumes of data as it makes tasks much easier.
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Brais Moure, as a mobile developer, recommends, at the same level, Swift and Kotlin, the languages ??behind native applications for Apple (iOS, iPadOS, macOS…) and Android environments, respectively. Although they are mainly used in mobile environments, both can be run on the main desktop operating systems, and allow working in environments as disparate as, for example, the server side or data science.
“Both are recently created and open source programming languages, with a low learning curve and direct support from Apple and Google. They incorporate totally current features and paradigms, they do not stop evolving month by month, and they have become in a very short time into worthy successors of its Objective-C and Java predecessors in mobile development environments,” says Moure.
Quique Fernández Guerra also adds that “if you want to be a developer or a traditional developer, making Apps or APIs, having in-depth knowledge of programming and delving into data or the cloud. I would recommend studying C# since it is used in .NET and working in the backend you are in the center of everything“.
This will force you, says Fernández, “to have to access the data, learn to deploy in different environments, serve data to the frontend and you will even be able to use some tools to create your own apps”.
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He recommends them “because today no one can deny the importance of mobile devices and the role they will continue to play at our side. Learn native programming languages, although there are multi-platform options such as Dart (which has nothing to do with Apple), they are a bet on the present and future, a sector that does not stop growing and looking for professionals.”
Recommendations for expert programmers
According to José M. Alarcón, for experienced developers “who are a little tired of the same thing and want to turn their professional career towards a field of enormous demand and potential, my recommendation would be to learn Machine Learning and the science of It is not a language, but a discipline, but it is dominated by a language: Python“.
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Anyway, Alarcón continues that “in this discipline almost the least important thing is the language, since the Machine Learning process, of making machines learn, is very different from the usual programming. It requires a change of mentality, and it puts a lot of emphasis on analysis and the quality of the information, so it’s not for everyone either, although almost anyone can learn if they put in the effort. Much more in demand than professionals, and it’s only going to get more in the coming years.”
Txema Rodríguez, who was a colleague at Genbeta DEV and is the Android Team Lead at JobAndTalent, wanted to give advice to those interested in being “a powerful full stack developer”. There is a strong trident for them and they are: Kotlin-Python-JavaScript.
Starting with Python, “it is the perfect first language to learn, since it is easy to use in powerful scripts and adds value from the first moment. In addition, it is the perfect complement for Data Science tasks or QA creating powerful scripts”. In his case, Txema Rodríguez learned it “long after Java and it forms part of my support stack for many day-to-day tasks that require automation or data analysis. It has a wide ecosystem of libraries and frameworks that range from web development to the most complex machine learning tasks.
Another bet by Rodríguez for those who want to be a “Full Stack Developer” is Kotlin because “it has the obvious advantage that it is a multi-platform language with the best of Java but has been able to adapt to the new time”. It is supported by Jetbrains and Google is the language recommended today on Android.
Since a few years ago Google will show its explicit support in Google IO 2017, almost all, if not all codelab, Google documentation is developed with Kotlin, according to Rodríguez’s words. Also, remember that “it has the advantage that it can be used in the backend: JVM frameworks as powerful as the Spring Framework have it as their reference language. And if we explore Kotlin further we find its cross-platform aspect for Android, iOS and Kotlin/JS, not forgetting that it is a functional language with wide support in the community.”
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And at this point, speaking of programmers looking for “a powerful full stack developer” we’re back to JavaScript again. For this professional “it is the multiplatform language that Java always wanted to be in its beginnings”. You can find JavaScript embedded in many devices. Its best known use is on the web but “it can be used on a server with NodeJS or devices such as televisions or even smart car interfaces.”
Recommend using it through a framework like JQuery. “To take out its full potential, you have to know all its internals. JavaScript is a language that has a long past but an indisputable future, constantly revised in its ECMAScript standard.” To extend its power, Typescript can be combined with JavaScript.
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From Manfred, the team of workers reminds us of something very interesting: “That a language is in its moment of hype or growth does not mean that it is a new language, far from it”. And they say this because right now we could consider that JavaScript, both in its front and back flavors, is in great health and the number of projects that opt ??for this technology does not stop growing.
For its part, Java remains a great choice, being a language that lives in its valley period. “It’s already an old rocker, but this doesn’t mean it’s dead, new Java projects keep starting up and the number of projects that have been done and need maintenance and extensions is gigantic.”
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From this company, the team also recommends Python, another language that is now more than 30 years old and is living, “surely, its best moment”. Many people continue to identify this language with the world of data, a language for analysis, but nothing is further from the truth, Python is increasingly used for backend applications and the demand for this type of professional does not stop. grow.