Do you know your Java from your HTML and your C++ from your Scala? The software world is littered with programming languages, each with unique uses and functions.

Make sure you keep your skills up-to-date with these 5 niche languages:

1. Julia 

A dynamic language with extensive mathematical capabilities, Julia is not only claimed to be faster than Python but is also easy to learn. It’s high-level, high-performing and dynamic, with syntax similar to other technical computing environments, e.g. Python. It’s widely believed that Julia will be making a major impact in the future. 

Uses?

Scientific and numerical computing, statistical programming and analytics. 

2. Rust

The Rust Programming language was launched in 2014 by Mozilla. Although initially Rust wasn’t highly successful, this year the number of users has soared and its popularity is expected to continue on a steep incline. Now used by the likes of Samsung as an upgrade from C and C++, it’s becoming the go-to choice for more and more programmers every day.  

Uses?

Resource management and memory safety.

3. Hack

Hack is the product of another of the tech-world giants, Facebook. The social media giant has completely backed Hack, updating their entire codebase from PHP. With 1.2 billion users worldwide, Hack has clearly shown that it can handle serious traffic. Facebook has also ‘open sourced’ the language, making it accessible to all. 

Uses? 

Building complex websites and software very quickly. 

4. Golang

Google Go, or Golang was created by Google for building back-end servers and has already been adopted by huge names such as the BBC, Dropbox and Netflix. Its advantages are its consistent behaviour across platforms and it’s minimalistic language – making it very easy to read and make sense of.

Uses? 

Networking, distributed functions or services.

5. Dart 

Also originally developed by Google, this language is very closely linked to JavaScript, making it easy to learn for developers with backgrounds in Java, C# and JavaScript itself. Although Google announced that it would be focussing on the Dart-to-JavaScript compiler, huge volumes of Dart code are still being written on a daily basis. 

Uses? 

For web, server and mobile applications, and for IoT devices.  

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