Languages

100 languages with comparable profiles: what they are for, who made them, what you write in them and how they really look.

• Python Versatile, readable language; king of AI, data science and automation.
• JavaScript The language of the web. Runs in every browser and on the server too.
• Java Robust and cross-platform: "write once, run anywhere".
• C The systems language par excellence. The foundation of nearly everything else.
• C++ C with objects and much more. Raw power for games and engines.
• C# Microsoft's modern language. Powerful for web, games and desktop.
• TypeScript JavaScript with types. Scales big projects without losing your mind.
• Rust Memory safety without a garbage collector. Developers' favorite.
• Go Simple, fast and concurrent. Designed by Google for the cloud.
• PHP The web veteran. Still powers a huge chunk of the internet.
• Swift Apple's modern language for iOS, macOS and its entire ecosystem.
• Kotlin Modern, concise Java. The official language for Android.
• R Statistics and data visualization in their purest form.
• SQL The language of databases. Essential for any data developer.
• Ruby Elegant and focused on programmer happiness.
• Scala Fuses functional and object-oriented programming on the JVM.
• Haskell Pure functional programming. Academic, elegant and mathematical.
• Lua Lightweight and embeddable. King of game scripting.
• Perl The Swiss Army knife of text processing and administration.
• Assembly The language closest to the hardware. Raw CPU instructions.
• MATLAB Numerical and matrix computing for engineering and science.
• Dart Flutter's language for cross-platform apps from a single codebase.
• Fortran The grandfather of high-level languages. Still reigns in scientific computing.
• Elixir Functional, concurrent and fault-tolerant on Erlang's VM.
• Bash / Shell The language of the terminal. Glues commands and automates the system.
• Prolog Logic programming. You describe facts and rules, not steps.
• Scratch Block-based programming. The gateway to learning to code.
• COBOL The banking veteran. Still moves trillions in legacy systems.
• Julia Fast as C, easy as Python: high-performance scientific computing.
• Objective-C Apple's historic language, the predecessor of Swift on iOS and macOS.
• Erlang Massive concurrency and fault tolerance for systems that can't go down.
• Clojure A modern Lisp on the JVM: functional, concise and immutable.
• F# Pragmatic functional programming in the .NET ecosystem.
• Visual Basic Simple and visual: it brought Windows programming to millions.
• Groovy Dynamic scripting on the JVM, the engine behind Gradle and Jenkins.
• Pascal Clear and structured: it taught generations how to program.
• Lisp The grandfather of functional languages and symbolic AI.
• Solidity The language of smart contracts on Ethereum and blockchain.
• Zig A modern successor to C: simple, fast and with no hidden behavior.
• Nim Efficient like C, expressive like Python: compiles to native C.
• Crystal Ruby's syntax with C's speed and static typing.
• OCaml Functional, fast and safe: a favorite in academia and finance.
• Ada Extreme reliability and safety for critical systems and avionics.
• Smalltalk Pure object orientation: everything is an object.
• GDScript The Godot engine's language for building video games.
• PowerShell Windows' modern terminal: object-based automation.
• Scheme A minimalist, elegant Lisp, a star of computer-science teaching.
• ABAP SAP's enterprise language that powers large corporations.
• Haxe A language that compiles to many others: web, games and mobile.
• Elm Pure functional for frontend, with no runtime errors.
• Racket A Lisp for building languages and teaching programming.
• CoffeeScript Syntactic sugar for JavaScript, concise and readable.
• D C++'s power with a cleaner, more modern syntax.
• V A simple, fast language inspired by Go, with no dependencies.
• Vala Modern syntax for building GNOME desktop applications.
• Hack Meta's evolution of PHP, with static typing.
• Raku Perl's successor: expressive, powerful and multi-paradigm.
• Tcl A simple scripting language, easy to embed, with a GUI (Tk).
• AWK Line-by-line text and data processing in a single command.
• Standard ML A classic functional language with a pioneering type system and inference.
• Gleam Functional, typed and friendly on Erlang's virtual machine.
• VHDL Describes digital circuits and hardware (FPGAs, chips).
• Verilog Describes digital hardware, with C-like syntax.
• Apex Salesforce's language for customizing its CRM platform.
• ActionScript Adobe Flash's language, king of the animated web of the 2000s.
• Eiffel Object-oriented with "design by contract" for reliable software.
• Forth A tiny, extensible stack language for embedded systems.
• APL Mathematical array notation with special symbols.
• Wolfram Language Mathematica's language: knowledge and symbolic computation.
• SAS Enterprise statistical analysis in regulated industries.
• Idris Functional with dependent types: types prove your code.
• Coq A proof assistant to verify mathematics and software.
• Lean A language and proof assistant that mathematicians love.
• Pony Safe, lock-free actors for high-performance concurrency.
• Chapel Productive parallel computing for supercomputers.
• PL/SQL SQL's procedural extension in Oracle databases.
• Batch The classic Windows console scripts (.bat).
• AppleScript Automates tasks and apps on macOS with natural language.
• AutoHotkey Automation, macros and keyboard shortcuts on Windows.
• Logo The turtle that taught generations of kids to program.
• BASIC The language that brought programming into homes.
• ALGOL The grandfather of modern structured languages.
• Simula The first object-oriented language in history.
• PL/I IBM's ambitious language for science and business at once.
• RPG The IBM systems veteran for business reporting.
• PostScript The language that describes pages for printers and PDF.
• WebAssembly Near-native code that runs in the browser at high speed.
• GLSL Programs the graphics card to create visual effects (shaders).
• HLSL DirectX's shader language for games on Windows.
• CUDA Massively parallel computing on NVIDIA GPUs (key in AI).
• Vyper Secure smart contracts with Python-like syntax.
• Move Treats digital assets as resources that can't be duplicated.
• Cairo A language for zero-knowledge (ZK) proofs on blockchain.
• Red A tiny full-stack language, from the system to the GUI.
• Factor A concatenative stack language with a very interactive environment.
• Io Minimalist and prototype-based: everything is messages.
• Odin A modern alternative to C, aimed at games and performance.
• Hare A minimalist, stable systems language, an alternative to C.
• Mojo C's speed with Python's syntax, built for AI.
• Carbon Google's experiment as a possible successor to C++.