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What are some alternatives to C?
Java, JavaScript, PHP, Python, and HTML5 are the most popular alternatives and competitors to C. "Great libraries" is the primary reason why developers choose Java.
Java
A concurrent, class-based, object-oriented, language specifically designed to have as few implementation dependencies as possible
Why people like Java:
- Great libraries
- Widely used
- Excellent tooling
- Huge amount of documentation available
JavaScript
Lightweight, interpreted, object-oriented language with first-class functions
Why people like JavaScript:
- Can be used on frontend/backend
- It's everywhere
- Lots of great frameworks
- Fast
PHP
A popular general-purpose scripting language that is especially suited to web development
Why people like PHP:
- Large community
- Open source
- Easy deployment
- Great frameworks
Python
A clear and powerful object-oriented programming language, comparable to Perl, Ruby, Scheme, or Java.
Why people like Python:
- Great libraries
- Readable code
- Beautiful code
- Rapid development
HTML5
5th major revision of the core language of the World Wide Web
Why people like HTML5:
- New doctype
- Local storage
- Canvas
- Semantic header and footer
ES6
The next version of JavaScript
Why people like ES6:
- ES6 code is shorter than traditional JS
- Module System Standardized
- Extremly compact
- Destructuring Assignment
Ruby
A dynamic, interpreted, open source programming language with a focus on simplicity and productivity
Why people like Ruby:
- Programme friendly
- Quick to develop
- Great community
- Productivity
C#
Simple, general-purpose, object-oriented programming language for the .NET platform
Why people like C#:
- Cool syntax
- Great lambda support
- Great generics support
- Language integrated query (linq)
Markdown
Text-to-HTML conversion tool/syntax for web writers, by John Gruber
Why people like Markdown:
- Easy formatting
- Widely adopted
- Intuitive
- Github integration
Go
An open source programming language that makes it easy to build simple, reliable, and efficient software
Why people like Go:
- High-performance
- Simple, minimal syntax
- Fun to write
- Easy concurrency support via goroutines
Swift
An innovative new programming language for Cocoa and Cocoa Touch.
Why people like Swift:
- Ios
- Elegant
- Not Objective-C
- Backed by apple
Objective-C
The primary programming language you use when writing software for OS X and iOS
Why people like Objective-C:
- Ios
- Xcode
- Backed by apple
- Osx
Scala
A pure-bred object-oriented language that runs on the JVM
Why people like Scala:
- Static typing
- Jvm
- Pattern-matching
- Scala is fun
C++
Has imperative, object-oriented and generic programming features, while also providing the facilities for low level memory manipulation
Why people like C++:
- Performance
- Control over memory allocation
- Cross-platform
- Fast
CoffeeScript
Unfancy JavaScript
Why people like CoffeeScript:
- Easy to read
- Faster to write
- Syntactic sugar
- Elegant
Kotlin
Statically typed Programming Language targeting JVM and JavaScript
Why people like Kotlin:
- Interoperable with Java
- Functional Programming support
- Backed by JetBrains
- Official Android support
Elixir
Dynamic, functional language designed for building scalable and maintainable applications
Why people like Elixir:
- Concurrency
- Functional
- Erlang vm
- Great documentation
CSS 3
The latest evolution of the Cascading Style Sheets language
R
A language and environment for statistical computing and graphics
Why people like R:
- Data analysis
- Graphics and data visualization
- Free
- Great community
Rust
A safe, concurrent, practical language
Why people like Rust:
- Guaranteed memory safety
- Fast
- Open source
- Minimal runtime
Perl
Highly capable, feature-rich programming language with over 26 years of development
Why people like Perl:
- Lots of libraries
- Open source
- Text processing
- Powerful
Clojure
A dynamic programming language that targets the Java Virtual Machine
Why people like Clojure:
- It is a lisp
- Concise syntax
- Persistent data structures
- Concurrency
Groovy
A dynamic language for the Java platform
Why people like Groovy:
- Java platform
- Much more productive than java
- Concise and readable
- Very little code needed for complex tasks
HAML
HTML Abstraction Markup Language - A Markup Haiku
Why people like HAML:
- Clean and simple
- No html open/close tags
- Easier to write than ERB
- Forces clean and readable code
Haskell
An advanced purely-functional programming language
Why people like Haskell:
- Purely-functional programming
- Statically typed
- Type-safe
- Open source
ASP.NET
An open source web framework for building modern web apps and services with .NET
Erlang
A programming language used to build massively scalable soft real-time systems with requirements on high availability
Why people like Erlang:
- Real time, distributed applications
- Concurrency Support
- Fault tolerance
- Soft real-time
Lua
Powerful, fast, lightweight, embeddable scripting language
Why people like Lua:
- Fast learning curve
- Very easy to embed in C programs
- Efficient memory usage
- Open source
Dart
A new web programming language with libraries, a virtual machine, and tools
Why people like Dart:
- Backed by Google
- Twice the speed of Javascript
- Scalable
- Great tools
Elm
A type inferred, functional reactive language that compiles to HTML, CSS, and JavaScript
Why people like Elm:
- Code stays clean
- Great type system
- No Runtime Exceptions
- Fun
GNU Bash
Functional improvements over sh for both programming and interactive use
Why people like GNU Bash:
- Customizable
- Powerful scripting language
- Cross platform
- Widely adopted
MATLAB
A high-level language and interactive environment for numerical computation, visualization, and programming
Why people like MATLAB:
- Simulink
- Functions, statements, plots, directory navigation easy
- S-Functions
- Solve invertible matrix
F#
Strongly-typed, functional-first programming language for writing simple code to solve complex problems
Why people like F#:
- Pattern-matching
- Makes programming fun again
- Type providers
- Frictionless
Visual Basic
Modern, high-level, multi-paradigm, general-purpose programming language for building apps using Visual Studio and the .NET Framework
Why people like Visual Basic:
- XML Literals
PowerShell
A task automation and configuration management framework
Crystal
Fast as C, slick as Ruby
Why people like Crystal:
- Compiles to efficient native code
- Ruby inspired syntax
- Performance oriented - C-like speeds
- Gem-like packages, called Shards
ClojureScript
A Clojure compiler targeting JavaScript
Why people like ClojureScript:
- Functional and stable
Julia
A high-level, high-performance dynamic programming language for technical computing
Why people like Julia:
- Multiple Dispatch
- Lisp-like Macros
- Designed for parallelism and distributed computation
- Fast Performance and Easy Experimentation
Java EE
The standard in community-driven enterprise software
JRuby
A high performance, stable, fully threaded Java implementation of the Ruby programming language
Why people like JRuby:
- Java
- Faster than Ruby
- JVM
- Deploy as executable jay
Zsh (Z shell)
An extended Bourne shell with a large number of improvements
Common Lisp
The modern, multi-paradigm, high-performance, compiled, ANSI-standardized descendant of the long-running family of Lisp programming languages
Why people like Common Lisp:
- Flexibility
- High-performance
- Comfortable: garbage collection, closures, macros, REPL
- Lisp
D
Modern convenience. Modeling power. Native efficiency.
Why people like D:
- Compile-time function execution
- Makes functional programming style easier
- Productive
- Powerful static function to avoid macro
Arc
A dialect of the Lisp programming language developed by Paul Graham and Robert Morris
Hack
A programming language for HHVM that interoperates seamlessly with PHP
Why people like Hack:
- Interoperates seamlessly with php
- Open source
- Backed by facebook
- HHVM
YAML
A straightforward machine parsable data serialization format designed for human readability and interaction