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Aaron Schlesinger
Aaron Schlesinger

Posted on • Originally published at arschles.com on

Emerging Languages

My history with programming languages and frameworks is approximately this:

  • I started my career writing PHP 3
    • ... then prototype.js to go along with it on the frontend!
  • Then I wrote C/C++ (Boost forever!)
  • Then I discovered Java, Scala, Objective-C, Perl, Python, Clojure and Haskell all at once
  • Then I ditched it all for Go

Oh, and throw some JQuery / Backbone.js, and then React in there.

I've been pretty focused on Go for a while and was missing learning new languages. @bketelsen introduced me to Nim and then I wanted more. So between my curiousity and his endless list of cool new tech, I've been checking out a few languages.

Here they are, along with my summaries of them:

  • Elixir - Ruby with less monkey patching but more macros
  • Rust - C++ with more bullets to shoot yourself in the foot with, but less foot
  • Crystal - Compile Ruby to machine code. And now you can use all the cores!
  • Ballerina - Kinda like Metaparticle, except it's a language
  • Swift - Objective C and Scala had a baby, and you can compile it on the LLVM
    • I know this isn't exactly "emerging" since there are probably thousands of Mac and iOS apps out there in Swift, but the language is emerging on the server side. Stay tuned!
  • Elm - Javascript if it was written on purpose

Ok, I know it seems like I'm pretty sarcastic about all these languages, but I'm legitimately excited about everything I wrote above! Plus, there's some truth to all of it...

My biggest challenge now is to find something "real" to build with either of them. If you have any ideas, write them in the comments!

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