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Popular Programming Languages

Comments discuss and list the most mainstream and widely used programming languages like Java, Python, C++, JavaScript, Go, Rust, and C#, often recommending sticking to these for practicality and tooling.

📉 Falling 0.4x Programming Languages
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Activity Over Time

2007
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Top Contributors

pjmlp (198) mindcrime (21) oblio (18) vorg (16) mark_l_watson (12)

Keywords

MS PHP LOT e.g JS MATLAB ActionScript JVM SQL DSL java python ruby languages rust javascript java python python ruby js swift

Sample Comments

gilbetron • Sep 22, 2018 • View on HN

C/C++, Java, Javascript, and Python make up over 50% of language use. Just use those. Massive tooling around all of them.

dman • Nov 23, 2018 • View on HN

Thats why we have Java / Rust / Python / CSharp.

Zababa • Jan 19, 2022 • View on HN

Because there's already Java/C#/Go/Rust/C++ in that space.

jiggawatts • Jan 26, 2023 • View on HN

What programming languages are they using mostly?

sunqiang • Feb 12, 2012 • View on HN

don't know for sure, it might be C++, Java, and now they have Go.

EugeneOZ • Jan 14, 2016 • View on HN

All languages? Maybe Java, or JavaScript, PHP, C#, Go? Or just Rust and Python?

mlboss • Jun 5, 2025 • View on HN

You should be good as long as you use one of the mainstream languages: Python, JS, Java, C++, Golang, Ruby, Rust etc

bjz_ • Feb 24, 2014 • View on HN

Probably Java, C#, Ruby, Python. Perhaps C++ in some instances when it is used on the server.

LessDmesg • Nov 6, 2019 • View on HN

Java, Python. C++ if you are going to write high-performance code. C if embedded. Haskell for hobby programming. No other languages deserve much attention right now.

rsynnott • Nov 5, 2017 • View on HN

Java and Python, rapidly shifting to C++, iirc.