[Cialug] Programming languages: next 10 yrs

[Nicolai]

Hey all,

What are your thoughts on programming languages in the next 10 years?
What will be the big winners and losers?  What's the trajectory of the
ecosystem?

I've been learning Go recently.  I like it a lot and think it will be my
default language now.  First I rewrote some simple C tools in Go, then
my password manager (also previously in C), next is something bigger.  Like
several other languages, Go has a bright future.

Python is nice, but other languages with safety features (like Rust and
Go) are getting big and they are also MUCH faster.  Given its slowness,
and combined with the awkward handling of Python2 to Python3, I think
Python will contract a bit.

With Perl it's past time to SELL SELL SELL!  That ship has sailed.

I hope Rust succeeds but I personally don't like the syntax.

IMO C is the most beautiful language.  I've also come to believe that
programming languages are like shoes: they can be beautiful or
comfortable, or neither, but never both.  C is beautiful but unsafe.
Rust is safe but heinous (okay I said it).  Go is safe but kinda
plainly, similar to Python.

C will be with us for a long time.  Maybe/hopefully C programmers
will begin to code more cautiously, making use of strl{cpy,cat},
OpenBSD pledge(), avoiding malloc, initializing variables, etc. to
reduce problems and create a sort of memory safety that's a lot better
than nothing.

Nicolai