Why do some languages become fashionable and others are somehow forgotten? Firstly, the change of technologies. For example, at the time of the MS DOS operating system, which was based on 16-bit Intel processors, the languages Turbo C and Turbo Pascal were very popular. And Assembler programmers were the elite. However because we don’t use these outdated processors and MS DOS, the languages are no longer useful. Although I, for example, still like them a lot.
Another situation with the language Delphi, which was an extension of Turbo Pascal, and which was very popular at the time of the first 32-bit Windows, but could not compete with other programming languages, including from Microsoft, which developed more actively.
It could also be a victory in the competition of two similar languages, such as Microsoft’s JScript for web browsers and JavaScript, originally introduced by Netscape. JavaScript has become popular due to greater openness and support from a large number of developer companies.
C and C++ languages have long been popular due to the opinion of the high efficiency of programs written in them. In general, this is the case. However, gradually other programming languages began to gain popularity not only for the efficiency of execution, but also for the ease of learning, writing and maintaining programs, which cannot be said with certainty about C++.
For its great capabilities and flexibility, C++ requires programmer discipline and programming culture, otherwise, as programmers joke, it can turn from a language for writing programs into a language for writing bugs.
Despite the proclaimed standard of C and C++ languages, programs written for compilers of different companies are rarely completely compatible in source code. This feature must also be considered when studying it.
One of the competitors of C++, the language C# (read ‘C sharp’) appeared and became popular with the advent of the new technology from Microsoft – .Net.
The TypeScript language gained popularity as an answer to the problem of difficult to support programs written in JavaScript, a language which itself is quite popular.
Of today’s popular languages Python is worth mentioning because of the comparative ease of learning, openness, and the possibility of using it in various subject areas such as the web, artificial intelligence, computer games.
Almost every programming language has its own group of fans, although popularity today does not mean popularity in the near future, or that a popular language will necessarily be useful to you. In general, the choice is always up to you.