Ask HN: What is the go-to programming language in your industry and why?

2 points by vishalontheline 286 days ago | 6 comments

There are trendy languages and there are workhorse languages.

Back in 2010, the trendy language was Ruby. Many companies were built on Ruby. Yet, PHP programmers were the silent majority. More recently, Rust, Elixir, Zig, Kotlin, TypeScript and others have been getting a lot of attention. Yet, in my industry - web development - PHP may still be king of the hill on the server, and JavaScript on the client.

My guess as to why this is - they became big first and were "good enough" - and no one's rocking the boat by introducing big changes on a regular basis.

My research shows that in aviation, Ada is still huge. In banking, Cobol. In automotive, C/C++. In embedded, it's C/C++. In data science, Python. In enterprise systems, Java. But, I don't know the "why", although I can guess.

Yet, if you were to browse Hacker News, you'd be lead to believe that the new kids on the block are absolutely crushing it.

I think Rust might be the go-to language for Crypto companies, but I don't know for sure.

It's difficult to separate signal from noise. So, that begs the question: in your industry, what languages and tools are dominant? Why? What's the penetration of newer languages like - is anyone losing sleep that their bread and butter is going to go out of style? How about No-Code tools? have they taken over?

Thank you!

dagw 286 days ago |

Civil engineering uses a lot of C#, mainly since it is the main language for writing plugins and extension for most of the big software packages. Python is probably a close second.

For what it's worth I know several people in various roles at various aviation companies big and small, and everybody uses C++. Second most common language is probably Matlab for simulation and modelling. While a lot of Ada code exists I've never heard of anyone writing new Ada code.

GhosT078 286 days ago | |

I write or test new Ada code everyday at my current $DAYJOB. I used to do the same at an avionics company. I expect this to continue since its the best language for this type of software (high-integrity, embedded, real-time, in use for decades).

SilverElfin 286 days ago | |

Is there a lot of programming in civil engineering? I would have imagined a lot of it is about using ready made software (from auto desk or whoever). I don’t know that much about either (civil engineering or programming) so I am just guessing here.

dagw 286 days ago | | |

Is there a lot of programming in civil engineering?

Most civil engineers don't do a lot of programming, but virtually all civil engineering companies have people on staff that program. Mostly for developing custom and project specific tools and plugins for the software they use.

AnimalMuppet 286 days ago |

C++. (I'm in embedded systems.)

Why C++? Because 20 years ago, when the ancestor project started, that was what you used for embedded systems. A new project isn't new - it's a spin on previous versions/products, and it wants to use all that existing code. Nobody has taken the time/spent the money to rewrite it in anything else, so it remains C++.

ost-ing 286 days ago |

Embedded developer here, I focus on audio hardware and robotics. Although C/++ is still dominate Rust is becoming more and more popular. I now specialise in embedded Rust, with a fallback to C/++. C++ is fine, but I prefer the modern language feats, safety guarantees, toolchains, package management etc of Rust.