So what would a perfect programming language look like? I’d say: start with the best parts of C and the best parts of Python. Indentation for blocks by default, { } only for special circumstances.

Dubbed Julia, it provides an early glimpse into what programming languages might look like in the not-too-distant future. Today's languages were each designed with different goals in mind.

We aggregated data from nine rankings to produce the ZDNET Index of Programming Language Popularity. Here's which languages came out on top and what to make of this information.

This is dummy code, but a function in Objective-C looks like this. Even if you’ve never programmed in your life, you can sort-of, kind-of, understand what the engineer is telling the computer to do: ...

Dubbed Julia, it provides an early glimpse into what programming languages might look like in the not-too-distant future. Today's languages were each designed with different goals in mind.

C differs from other programming languages, like Python, in that you need to compile programs before you can run them. You’ll typically do this in C using the command “make”.

Algorithmic programmers (especially the C/C++/C# variety) will look at HTML and SQL and decry them as not real languages. That's because they don't have typical algorithmic programming features.

That said, languages like Ruby handle this elegantly enough, and the perfect language terminates statements with parentheses anyway, more elegant tools from a more civilized age and all. More ...