Choosing a programming language is one of the most important decisions in system development. It can affect the speed, quality, performance, and maintainability of your software. But how can you pick a language that can scale with future growth, without compromising on your current needs and preferences? Here are some factors to consider when making this choice.
The first factor is how well the language suits your project's domain, requirements, and goals. You want a language that can express your logic clearly, handle your data efficiently, and support your desired features and functionalities. For example, if you are developing a web application, you might prefer a language that has a rich set of frameworks, libraries, and tools for web development, such as Ruby, Python, or JavaScript. If you are working on a data-intensive or scientific project, you might opt for a language that has strong support for numerical computation, data analysis, and visualization, such as R, MATLAB, or Julia.
Also take in consideration current languages used in a company. Choosing a completely different language will require extensive training for current employees or hiring of new employees. Which will not only cost more but also will require a lot of time which is more valuable asset.
Taking into account the proficiency of your development team when selecting a programming language. Opting for a language that aligns with the team's existing skill set can minimize the learning curve and expedite the development process.
In my opinion one important factor that I can not see it here is how your language is dealing with modern cloud systems, one of the most aspect of each language is the memory management, how your language is going to feet in cloud systems ? how your language is going to manage the memory aspects ? how much trouble do you have when you want to do async features and stuff ? for example if you use rust you dont need to be worry about race conditions, or if you use golang you have stack growing feature and green threads and ... if you know upfront , your app is going to sit on cloud systems, for sure you need to consider a light weight and modular solutions which can scale up easily and of course do not waste your time on learning curves
The second factor is how well the language can scale with your project's growth in terms of complexity, size, and users. You want a language that can handle increasing demands for performance, reliability, and security, without requiring too much effort or resources. For example, if you expect your project to have high concurrency, you might favor a language that has built-in features for parallelism, concurrency, and distributed computing, such as Erlang, Go, or Scala. If you anticipate your project to have frequent changes and updates, you might lean towards a language that has a dynamic, flexible, and expressive syntax, such as Lisp, Clojure, or Elixir.
I strongly disagree. Firstly use language you are more proficient in. If you have great Java skills write in Java at first. You can always scale after. There are really few cases when you really need specific language, and trust me you will know when you need one. And about frequent changes, it doesn't depend on language it depends on architecture and skills.
The chosen example of concurrency is interesting to me as a PHP developer. PHP doesn't have async capabilities, but that hasn't stopped people from building it - you can check out ReactPHP and Swoole. Both add an event loop and async utilities similar to javascript. So if a language has a missing native feature, someone has probably built it. It might be worth checking before you discount a language.
The third factor is how popular the language is among the developer community and the industry. You want a language that has a large and active user base, a robust and mature ecosystem, and a high and stable demand in the market. For example, if you want to leverage the collective knowledge and experience of other developers, you might choose a language that has a lot of online resources, documentation, tutorials, and forums, such as Java, C#, or PHP. If you want to increase your employability and career prospects, you might select a language that has a high ranking and salary in the job market, such as Swift, Kotlin, or Rust.
Being able to use the latest (or still in use) languages/frameworks is what lands you a stable career. There's a reason as to why it's popular in the first place. No point learning a language solely just for its language like esoteric languages that have no real world personal benefit or productivity output.
The fourth factor is how easy or hard the language is to learn and master. You want a language that has a simple, consistent, and intuitive syntax, a logical and coherent design, and a clear and comprehensive documentation. For example, if you are a beginner or a self-taught developer, you might appreciate a language that has a low entry barrier, a gentle learning curve, and a friendly and supportive community, such as Python, Ruby, or JavaScript. If you are an experienced or a professional developer, you might enjoy a language that has a high level of abstraction, a powerful and elegant style, and a challenging and rewarding complexity, such as Haskell, Scala, or F#.
Some languages have a very steep learning curve and it makes it worse that there aren't enough guides online for free such as on YouTube. This makes it exponentially harder as you would be essentially figuring out many things on your own. If it's not of urgency, try choosing a language that has a large community where you can learn from positively!
The fifth factor is how compatible the language is with your existing or potential tools, platforms, and systems. You want a language that can integrate seamlessly with your preferred development environment, your chosen operating system, and your target deployment environment. For example, if you are using a specific IDE, editor, or debugger, you might look for a language that has a good support and integration for that tool, such as C# for Visual Studio, Java for Eclipse, or Python for PyCharm. If you are developing for a specific platform or system, you might opt for a language that has a native or cross-platform compatibility for that platform or system, such as Swift for iOS, Kotlin for Android, or C++ for Windows.
There aren't many incompatibilities to consider for most languages. At most, the biggest barrier I've faced is the lack of official images for some languages on linux, such as PHP, and that was years ago. Even then, Docker has somewhat made that a moot point (at least on linux and windows). The industry shift towards microservices means you largely don't have to worry about manually installing language binaries. Even editors aren't all that purpose-built anymore as they've shifted to using plug-in architectures that can add support for different languages as needed. The stuff jetbrains puts out is still leagues nicer than VS Code, but I think you can largely use whatever IDE you want on your machine.
The sixth and final factor is your personal preference and taste. You want a language that you enjoy using, that matches your personality and style, and that inspires your creativity and productivity. For example, if you are a pragmatic and practical developer, you might gravitate towards a language that has a proven and reliable track record, a solid and stable foundation, and a straightforward and efficient approach, such as C, Java, or C#. If you are an adventurous and experimental developer, you might be drawn to a language that has a novel and innovative edge, a cutting and bleeding technology, and a fun and expressive flair, such as Ruby, Elixir, or Rust.
Choosing a programming language that scales with future growth is not an easy task. It requires a careful and balanced evaluation of multiple factors, as well as a personal and subjective judgment. There is no one-size-fits-all solution, and the best choice depends on your project's context, your goals, and your preferences. However, by considering these six factors, you can make a more informed and rational decision that can help you achieve your system development outcomes.
After all that's being said, it all comes down to personal preference. Many web developers out there still strongly prefer PHP as the base and then only use something like React as add-ons. However we must realise that our personal preference will one day shoot ourselves in the foot, we must learn and know when to adopt something that's better than our own personal belief when the time comes in order to ensure that a project/product is up to date and is easily maintable (future proof).
History. Where has a language left its mark? For example, not many people are looking for lua developers. Yet it's the modding language of choice for many games, including World of Warcraft. Warframe, a pretty big live-service game, uses an in-house C++ engine with lua embedded into it. If you're looking to get into game development, it's not a bad language to know. Additionally, people will tell you COBOL and FORTRAN are dead. Yet many financial institutions are still running them to handle trillions of dollars in transactions *a day*. LAPACK, the gold standard for linear algebra, is written in FORTRAN. This wouldn't really be a relevant fact by itself, but both MATLAB and Numpy rely on LAPACK. If you like math, they're not bad to know.
Language doesn’t matter in terms of growth if your architectural decisions are solid from the beginning. This said, object oriented languages like Java are often chosen for their “scalability”, or rather ‘the ability to grow alongside poor design’; this is only a correct choice if your growth directly correlates to increased revenue. Often these languages have an increasing hardware demand that will be proportional to this growth, thus making these options less than preferable for projects whose intent is not to generate profit. All languages can be scalable if your decisions in software design and architecture are consistent and scalable in themselves.