According to a recent HackerRank study, Go, Python, Scala, Kotlin, and Ruby are the top five languages programmers want to learn next. But which are the languages coders should not be looking to learn?
CodeMentor, a coding educating and marketplace platform, recently ranked which languages it claimed weren’t worth developers’ time anymore. The research was centered around three areas; community engagement, the job market, and growth in developers using it (and is not a critique on their usefulness or capabilities).
Dart
Poor Dart. According to CodeMentor, Google’s “other” language hits the bull’s eye as the worst language you can learn in 2018. Why? Although it has uses for mobile applications and IoT devices, it suffers from a lack of adoption amongst users, little engagement with those that do, and a dearth of companies actually using it (Google notwithstanding). While Google’s Go language is on the up, Dart misses the target completely.
CodeMentor Objective-C
An old classic. Objective-C is still in the top 20 of the Tiobe Index, but has fallen in popularity over the last five years. Once a mainstay of Apple’s operating systems, it has since been replaced by Swift. Its user base is declining, and while many companies will no doubt still feature Objective-C in their legacy stack, the veteran language could well be on its way out.
CodeMentor CoffeeScript
Created in 2009 to make JavaScript a bit more like Ruby or Python, CoffeeScript never really came close to usurping its inspiration, and has been slowly declining in popularity since.
CodeMentor Lua
Developed at the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, back in 1993, Lua is probably the most niche language on the list. Generally used for embedded systems or gaming due to its compact and interpreted nature, it isn’t so much in decline as likely to remain under the radar.
CodeMentor Erlang
Another veteran from the 1980s, Erlang is a child of its time. Although still used in real-time situations such as telecommuniications, banking, e-commerce, and instant messaging, it’s a difficult one to learn, especially compared to its younger rivals. Although it’s the 11th most popular language in HackerRank’s study, its popularity is much higher among programmers over 40 years old, and it is another language which is largely due for the Cobol-like “legacy upkeep” scrapheap.
CodeMentor Also read:
Which languages are developers planning to learn next?
Can Kotlin really overtake Java as the de facto Android programming language?
Emerging markets need to catch-up on high skill programming
InfoShot: Top 10 programming languages
Africa’s first programming language to teach kids code
This story, "Don’t bother learning these programming languages" was originally published by IDG Connect.