It is not always viable to foresee a programming languages’ apparently imminent demise. There was a time when Apple rolled out Swift. So in 2014, there were analysts who whispered that it would seemingly get eaten away into the market-share of its forerunner, Objective-C. However, to surprise anyone, Swift had a way of hanging on, languages often powered by clusters of hardcore users and legacy applications come around one way or the other.
To forecast which programming languages are about to be doomed, it feels a bit morbid, so now we’re going to focus on something diverse and positive if we may say: Which programming languages continue to hold on, regardless of constant forecasts that they’re headed for the dark pits of the dead tech.
PHP
It has become quite a common practice where you stumble upon several articles about how PHP is finally breathing its last. Many analysts are sparing their energies in bashing and criticizing PHP.
Surrounded by rumors still, PHP still sticks around at higher rankings according to the TIOBE’s Index of programming languages, as well as the RedMonk rankings. PHP is used in so many core applications, at so many major companies such as Facebook, that it’s not going to fade away soon.
R
R is amongst programming languages used by data analysts and academics for years. It was thought to be overthrown by Python under several predictions. The reason is that it became extremely popular in several niche programming contexts, which included data analytics and machine learning as well.
A few years ago, a survey was conducted which showed that Python practiced between the analytics professionals grew from 53% to 69%. The usage of R was reduced to nearly one-third during that period.
Believe it or not but R made a massive comeback. As per TIOBE index ranking stats, R stayed at the position 20th past year but the language has gracefully earned the 8th position this year. A well R comprises of its own niche and enjoys a unique place, separate from the significance of Python and JavaScript as a generalist language.
COBOL
In recent times, when the world witnessed the recession and experienced shutdown, multiple companies including the government offices began imploring COBOL experts. Why the sudden surge? The sudden shift of databases required from mainframes onto more modern systems required experts. The needed technologists skilled in COBOL to deal with unexpected spikes in the usage of the data.
The situation highlighted the fact that several major institutions such as banks, still depend on COBOL for some of their essential systems. Moreover, the demand and significance of the language cannot be overlooked anytime soon.
To sum it up, COBOL is one programming language that will be staying around forever, but it’s not going away anytime soon too. According to another popular analysis, those who specialize in COBOL-related jobs have a very good chance of earning more than adequate these times.
Objective-C
Many of us are aware, when Apple executives unveil Swift a few years ago, its new-and-improved language for building macOS and iOS apps, many predicted that usage of Objective-C would soon fade away. The prediction that everybody made was easy and imminent for many people.
To break the ice, something different happened. Objective-C refused to perish.
From that time forward, this language has been able to uphold a fairly high position on programming-language rankings such as displayed in RedMonk and TIOBE. This 35-year old language has somehow recently seen some downfall in recent months.
The core reason behind this unanticipated longevity is a decades’ worth of legacy code to maintain and to manage it effectively is a big part of that. Several resources are utilized and adequate time is required to rewrite and update an app. Besides, many developers simply prefer to work with a language they are more comfortable and familiar with and they’ve always practiced it.
In due course, the usage of Objective-C may tumble to zero.
FYI
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