Do you like to stay on top of the latest programming languages just to see if anything comes along that might make your job or your life easier? Many people who have jobs in IT, accounting, finance, securities trading, and engineering fields have a habit of scanning the big programming sites every so often just to stay informed. Here are 10 of the newer entries that might be of interest for working adults in a variety of career fields, from education and government, to finance/accounting and law.
Dart
If you’ve seen AdWords and AdSense then you’ve seen Dart in action. A creation of Google, Dart does have several non-company uses. However, it has not caught on outside of a very narrow group of users. Originally, the powers at Google had high hopes for Dart as a sort of substitute for JavaScript, but plans changed and Dart ended up on lists of uncommon programming languages.
MQL
The world’s most popular electronic trading platform, MetaTrader 4, uses its own special scripted language known as MQL4. Using it, individual traders can create expert advisors, which are automated systems based on any number of criteria. Likewise, users who know MQL language can even create their own scripts and custom indicators based on their personal style of trading. Understanding MQL puts almost unlimited power in the hands of anyone who prefers to use the MetaTrader 4 platform. In fact, the iconic MetaTrader 4 platform is currently used by more independent traders than any other platform available.
Erlang
Programming enthusiasts who enjoy working with the concept of concurrency are usually big fans of Erlang, which was created by the developers at Ericsson. It employs a very odd kind of syntax, which is likely the reason it’s not more popular than it is. However, it has notched one very admirable achievement, namely being the source of Facebook chat. Lots of other interesting apps have come out of Erlang, and it is available as an open source, so anyone can try it.
Haskell
Haskell is something of an oddball among oddballs. For instance, many people in the investment banking community love it. It was designed to be interesting, fun, novel, and quite powerful. It’s based on the concept of pure function. For that reason, its creators saw to it that it must be typed statically. Plus, it’s amazingly fast. If there’s such a thing as a cult film version of a programming language, Haskell is it.
Scratch
There is no standard syntax here, mainly because scratch was created with youngsters in mind. The target age of the developers was 8-16, which is why its main uses include animation and all kinds of games. Scratch emphasizes the visual and social aspects of programming, and is a product of MIT’s media lab.
Ada
Ada is a bit controversial among the programming community. For example, some IT enthusiasts refuse to use it, while others love the fact that it offers a slew of advantages like scale-up ability, abstraction of data, special semantics that allow users to hide information, a neutral methodology, and support in real time.
Groovy
Little used but beloved by those who have learned it, Groovy is one of the newer uncommon programming languages around. It resembles NewtonScript in many ways, but has its own quirks. Strong points include simplicity and an object model that is based on prototypes. There’s not much syntax so you can learn it in just an hour or so. Its fans claim that is it one of the best all-around options for general use.
Hack
There’s no compiling when you run Hack, which is one of its big attractions among those who use it. A Facebook creation, it works with HHVM and is actually considered an off-shoot or PHP. What’s it good for? Hack does one thing exceptionally well. It lets users build complicated websites in a matter of minutes. It uses dynamic coding and is still in the early stages of acceptance by a wide user base.
Racket
Racket wants to become a player in the realm of language implementation and creation. Based on Lisp-Scheme, Racket uses multiple paradigms and its guide is known for clarity. However, few people use it, which is something of a mystery.
Rust
If you like to do programming at the system level, want reliability, and prefer to focus on performance, memory safety, and related features, Rush is for you. It was created by Mozilla Research and is growing in popularity among people who enjoy having access to multiple client-server apps.