Readers, Welcome back to My Blog! Hope till yet you might have befriended the term-“Internet of Things”- if you are a regular visitor to my blog then absolutely YES! If you are new then well nothing to worry! I will help you out with it. I have written a lot about IoT in my previous posts. Now it’s the time to know Top 10 IoT programming languages and their uses. Before moving ahead with this post on most popular internet of things programming languages, let me replay those previous posts-depicting ‘What is Internet of Things?’ – For my new readers;
Go through:
Top 15 Most Popular IoT Platforms
Internet of things: Exactly what it is?
Technology linked humans with machines and humans with humans. Now it is turning towards machines. Seeing the pace at which it’s moving, it’s going to connect every machines of this planet very soon. Sounds too much optimistic? I know but it’s not a distant Reality too. If I can quote the projections of Gartner – a technology consulting firm, the number of IoT devices is going to reach till 21 Billion by 2020! Forget about 21 Billion! As per the latest data we received till August 2016, some other market research firms are also taking the projected data till 50 Billion!
Now if the IoT Devices market is going to heat up like that, then you can yourself imagine the demand for IoT skilled Developers! It is going to shoot up like anything! Approximately 10 Million IoT developers will be required to tap the projected internet of things growth till 2020.
With the advent of IoT, we are talking about connecting everything to humans so that this recent wave of technology can be better utilized to serve mankind in a bigger perspective. Home automation and wearables are very small targets for IoT. It will stretch to a limit where it can literally cover everything under the sky! But to reach there, it will require a whole stack of languages to embed so many things into the programs.
By 2020 we are going to connect billions of devices. Those Billions of devices will definitely need rock solid support from some powerful internet coding languages to realize our IoT dreams! As we have the option to go ahead with open source hardware along with software, sticking together with hardware components or supports is not required.
In the due course, we need to research for the most suitable programming languages used in IoT for successfully running IoT projects. There is n number of IoT programming languages in the market. Internet of things is a new thing, not only for us but also for developers and engineers. At least developers enjoy the close camaraderie with languages over the years. But still, before running into the new and challenging world of IoT, you need to place some languages in your armory and become familiar with the concepts of programming languages to better take the challenge!
Mind boggling task! Am I Right? But at-least you can take some quick inspirations and clues from the data derived from international online learning platforms like Udemy to know popular iot programming languages. After all it has trained millions and millions of professionals! If people are putting their hard earned money for learning some specific languages then they won’t go completely wrong! Alternatively you can draw some conclusions from GitHub Repositories. But it will throw thousands of results for a single search and it needs further scanning and research to reach on a definite conclusion. Nothing to bother, me and my team has done this homework for you all. Based on that, I can present here a list of popular languages used in IoT. Judging popular IoT programming languages for writing internet of things system’s code is not an easy task. Exactly that much tricky and mind boggling as settling for any hardware platform. Hope this list of internet programming languages and their uses can help you a bit.
Introduction to Internet Programming- List of Programming languages used in IoT
1) C PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE
C has a strong reason to be here. It has a very long history of embedded programming. When you will read into the minds of the industry experts then you will find that C is everywhere in Internet of things programming world. In fact in most of the IoT cases, C is the only viable option for IoT Coding. If you can remember, C was first invented to write code for telephone switches. So C is always a strong contender wherever embedded system development comes into picture.
C is a high level machine independent language that enables programmers to write codes, which are not dependent on any particular type of Computer. In embedded programming C is of great use and it has the power to accomplish difficult tasks. It is regarded as most helpful for IoT programming because it requires less processing power. Further it’s a basic programming language and has been the foundation for many other coding languages. C is one of the first programming languages, fastest in execution.
2) C++ PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE
C++ is the next contender in this list. It is an object oriented programming language developed by Bjarne Stroustrup. But little did he know at that time it will play such a huge role in the internet of things evolution! Actually C++ is an extension of C language -popular for low level projects; Whereas C++ goes ahead on the capabilities of C with some extra layers of classes, objects and data abstractions. C++ is required when the connected devices in the system has to perform tasks which demands lot of processing power. As a main IoT Language, C++ is more conducive for writing huge systems. It is one of the most trusted Internet programming languages used in iot coding. For writing large scale commercial applications C++ is the most preferred choice for programming languages used in IoT.
3) JAVA PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE
When it comes to programming embedded systems, java is the safest choice as it breaks all the barriers that are a part of C and C++. Java is a general purpose IoT programming language meant for writing codes for devices in the IoT systems where they have to calculate and interact more with each other.
The foremost compelling factor of going with java is that shows no inclinations towards hardware. Then what is the difference between C, C++ and Java. Actually C and C++ are ideal contenders when you have to write hardware specific code. Ideally no programmer will like to submit his code for a specific set of hardware. Doing so will throw his code in junk box after a certain period of time.
This is where Java comes into command. Object oriented nature of Java supports portability. It is least dependent on hardware. Despite being hardware independent, it has hardware support libraries which enable it to take control over deputed hardware parts in internet of things programming as and when required.
4) PYTHON PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE
For those who are beginners in IoT coding, Python is one of the best IoT programming languages as it is easiest and simple to learn. Nowadays it is being frequently used by developers for IoT coding. Python has edge over Java and C in terms of flexibility. Nowadays it is very often being discussed by IoT developers Community as compared to other IoT programming languages. It is also very helpful for web application developers.
Developers working on python have the flexibility to either submit it to compiler in run time or run through one of the several pre-compilers. That is why it is also called as interpreted language and object oriented high level IoT language. Later on the compact code can be further distributed. The main advantage of python is that the codes written in it are more readable, compact. It has some inherent power to succeed in embedded programming in respect to other IoT Pr0gramming Languages. Developers see python as a great IoT Programming platform on account of its inherent support for embedded programming.
5) JAVASCRIPT PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE
It’s better to not get confused between Java and JavaScript. They both are entirely different- java is full- fledged programming language whereas JavaScript is just a scripting language. Java has its own libraries whereas JavaScript share libraries of other languages. JavaScript has built in facilities for developing front web applications.
It can be very helpful in writing codes for internet of things devices and henceforth secures a comfortable position in this list of IoT programming languages. Its role can be very significant if you want to use Apache Server on a Raspberry Pi to collect data from a network of sensors based on Arduino.
6) GO PRGRAMMING LANGUAGE
Go can be another great contender for best IoT Programming languages. Well the reasons for it are multiple; Codes written in GO are safe, reliable, and easily maintainable. As compared to other IoT programming languages it’s a new one but rapidly growing. It supports various programming patterns like OOPs, scripting, functional programming. In fact it was designed with a purpose to cross over inefficiencies in the previous languages and to replace C.
It prompts the developers to undertake any pattern which can solve a challenge without imposing any due constraints. It provides quick build times. With GO you can easily write complete programs in very less time and further recapitulate on such programs to come out with excellent problem solving solutions.
7) PARASAIL PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE
Also called as Parallel Specification and Implementation language, was originally designed to write programs for multicore processors. You can also call it as the refined form of C++ and Java. The main intention behind designing parasail was to get over with the problems that come while working with multicore chips. The main advantage of working with parasail is that it cleaves the program into various smaller parts and henceforth increases the number of tasks that gets carried over parallely. So everything goes in parallel by default unless you instruct it otherwise. It also debugs on its own which makes the code safer.
It is a compiled and object oriented programming language- especially helpful in such scenarios when you need parallel embedding and processing.
8) B# PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE
If you are not comfortable going with high- level languages IoT Programming Languages then you can settle with B#. It’s a low level programming language, designed from ground- up to fit the requirements of very low power devices. It is much identical to C++ programming language, equipped with real- time control functions. It can be termed as the most efficient control language for embedded programming. It is most suitable for small and simple projects that live on embedded platforms.
9) NODE.JS PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE
As per the IoT Developer Survery 2015, conducted by Slideshare.net Node.Js is a very crucial IoT programming language. Somewhere around more than 24% developers are using it for programming smart things. Reasons are very clear- it’s very simple to learn, offers high productivity. It is standardized and event driven. Nowadays it is grabbing huge attention for programming hardware. For programming embedded devices and robotics it can be a good contender. Two good examples of projects of internet programming with Node.Js are NodeBots and Cylon. It is also being rated as the future of hardware programming. You can write and program a complete IoT device from starting till end in Node.Js programming language.
10) PHP PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE
PHP was mainly the darling of bloggers and website prototypers! There was a notion before that PHP and IoT can’t go well together. But it’s the other way. Surprisingly of late it has got a very good space in IoT programming. And it’s going much better than what you can imagine. In a recent survey done by Eclipse, somewhere approximately 12% developers are using PHP for developing internet of things devices. Nowadays with PHP, apps are being developed to use GPS Data from IoT device. So you can do a lot with PHP- from making coffee drinks machine to alarms when someone tries to intrude into your home!
Final Call- Which Programming language is best for Internet of things coding?
Difficult call!! Well the best options have been already placed above. Out of the above 10, C. C++, Java and Python are the most popular IoT Programming languages being used by the IoT Developers Community as it has been clearly mentioned above. And at-least for the further 5 years their position is not going to change!
But a lot depends on the kinds of challenges which you are going to solve in IoT. If your challenge is simple for e.g if you want to connect kid’s toys then any simple, basic language will be more than enough for it. In such a situation there is no point in going with C, C++ and Java. But say of you have to write for high level embedded devices then you have to rely on those same few names like, Java, C++.
Also a lot depends on the hardware platform and the processor with which you are going.
- For Raspberry Pi- Python
- For Arduino – Embedded C
- For Beeglebone- Java
For Embedded programming-C, C++, Java, Python
For Middleware & API programming – .Net, Node.Js, Python
For Front End Applications- HTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP
First question that you have to ask yourself is ‘what is the thing for which you are going to write the program’?
Safe thing would be learning multiple IoT Programming languages as overall system of Internet of things is complex, heterogeneous and requires diverse data types and structures. Readers, I tried my best to be fair, still if there are any important misses, please come out with your suggestions. And yes, if you think that this post is helpful, then please share it with others on FB, Twitter, g+ and LinkedIn.
Also Read:
IoT Platforms: Decoding the future of internet of things
May God Bless You!
Pingback: Top 10 IoT Programming Languages for Internet of Things Projects… – DevOps Infographics Resource Center – Programming and IT