Edit Reading

Back to List

Basic Information

Title

Please enter a title.

URL

Please enter a valid URL.

Date

カテゴリID

画像ファイル名

統計情報

単語数: 1145語

読了回数: 0回

作成日: 2023/09/15 13:26

更新日: 2025/12/08 23:36

本文

9 Programming Languages That Are Heading for Extinction
Sahil Kapoor
8 hours ago

R is losing its footing in the programming world of data analytics and is unlikely to climb higher in ranking.
Visual Basic is no longer favored by Microsoft and is being replaced by Visual Basic .NET for developing Windows apps.
Haskell, while once a popular functional programming language, has dwindling interest due to slow response time and competition from Go and Python.
Technology constantly evolves, and the programming languages that we use are no exception. With the growing popularity of artificial intelligence and how it governs the use of these languages, there’s an even greater focus on which ones will be with us in the future, and which won’t.

Versatile programming languages, including Python, Java, and JavaScript, are ruling the roost, while others are more niche and seem to be falling out of favor.

Since change is the only constant, you should move away from these nine languages, which probably won’t be major players any time soon.

1. R

The R programming language came rushing in with an intent to conquer the programming world of data analytics. With a booming span of many years, it's recently begun to lose its footing to the Python programming language.

As a programming language, R offers a variety of valuable features to coders, but it’s currently low down in the pecking order. It ranks in 18th position in the TIOBE index, and it’s unlikely to climb any higher.

Despite this, the language is still in use and you can install R on your Mac or Windows computer if you want to try it out.

2. Visual Basic

Visual Basic is an old language, having arrived on Windows machines in 1991. But it looks like Microsoft's programming language is unlikely to relive its glory days.

Since Microsoft no longer favors Visual Basic, its death is pretty much inevitable. Visual Basic .NET, another object-oriented programming language, has largely taken its place, and you should familiarize yourself with it if you’re interested in developing Windows apps.

You might think that Visual Basic .NET will suffer the same consequences as its predecessor, but Microsoft doesn’t look like pulling its support any time soon. After all, Visual Basic .NET is the primary element behind the Windows ecosystem.

3. Haskell

Haskell has its best years behind it, which is a shame; many programmers wish they knew how to code in this glorious, functional programming language. The language became a go-to, as many people began to code large financial programs using its native monads and algebraic data types.

Borrowing elements from Miranda, Clean, HOPE, and a few other languages, Haskell had lots to offer. However, its slow response time made it an unpopular choice among developers. This inefficiency probably led to dwindling interest which has resulted in a lack of recent updates; the last relevant one was nine years ago.

Haskell has also suffered in comparison with more relevant, flexible languages like Go and Python, which continued to challenge the language from the 2000s with their strength and utility. After all, Go programming has reclaimed its position in the TIOBE index for a reason.

4. Visual Basic Applications

Visual Basic for Applications, commonly known as VBA, is an excellent automation language that the MS Office suite of products uses. From automating Excel tasks to creating MS Word and PowerPoint documents, there’s a lot VBA and its macros can help you accomplish.

If you believe the rumors, Microsoft might replace VBA with JavaScript, given its popularity and flexibility.

So when might Microsoft phase out its programming language?

Considering that many organizations rely on the VBA model to automate their repetitive tasks, it may not be for some time. Problems with the JavaScript API and Microsoft integration may mean the language will hang around for some time yet, but it’s very much a one-trick pony.

5. Fortran

Fortran (Formula Translation), a 62-year-old programming language is, surprisingly, still going. Its usage might have decreased over the years, but it continues to outlive some of its peer languages.

However, Fortran is obscure, to say the least. You will probably rely heavily on this IBM-developed language if you are into numerical computations or scientific models. You might use it for tasks like numerical weather predictions, computational physics, and computational fluid dynamics.

Despite its limited usage, it has a rock-solid base, and it might be a while before Fortran developers wash their hands of this language completely.

6. COBOL

Common Business-Oriented Language, or COBOL, dominated programming in the 1960s, along with three other languages: ALGOL, LISP, and FORTRAN. Developed as a language for creating a division between business and scientific computing, it's died a natural death.

It offered minimal integration with other languages and exerted little influence on developers. Its low profile has made this language niche, despite its associated federal and governmental requirements. It's safe to say that only a handful of developers master COBOL.

7. Perl

Despite being a general-purpose programming language, Perl was particularly popular for web development, network programming, text manipulation, and GUI development.

It consists of two language variants: Perl 5 and Perl 6 (Raku). On the whole, Perl offers a lot of versatility and boasts an excellent feature set. However, all this comes at the cost of higher CPU usage and memory requirements.

The competition is slowly eroding Perl's usage share of the market, as developers turn to more accessible, efficient web development alternatives.

8. ActionScript
A close relative of the ever-famous JavaScript, ActionScript is Adobe's version of ECMAScript. Since it's native to Adobe's tools, you won't really find it anywhere other than Adobe Flash.

ActionScript was an object-oriented language commonly used for making Flash apps interactive. With the decline of Flash and all its associated versions, there has also been a decline in ActionScript's usage over the years.

However, once Apple decided to remove support for Flash on its iOS devices, the writing was on the wall for ActionScript too.

9. Pascal

Created in 1970 by Niklaus Wirth, Pascal captures the essence of ALGOL-60. Since it was a procedural language, Pascal served as an excellent learning tool for budding programmers.

Slowly and steadily, Pascal rose through the ranks, but it never offered anything new to the programming world. While the language failed to really evolve, its successors were quite innovative.

Pascal led to Turbo Pascal, Object Pascal, and Delphi, a visual, object-oriented language that overshadowed its predecessor.

Programming Languages Slated to Die Sooner or Later
Developers use a variety of programming languages these days, as no one language can serve all purposes. With constant evolution, languages come and go as requirements become more complex, and demands change.

The languages listed here suffered the consequences of competition, and usually failed to provide modern, relevant features. With the advent of time, slowly and steadily, better languages took over, pushing the others into their graves.

本文を入力してください。

メモ

メモ・感想

キャンセル

Edit Reading

Basic Information

統計情報

本文

メモ

Send Report