MomentumSI provides updated recommendations on programming languages.

1. MomentumSI Programming Language
Recommendations
2013 – Q4
November 17, 2013

2. This Report…
 For the last 16 years, MomentumSI has provided guidance to
start-ups, ISV’s and enterprise organization on their use of
technology.
 MomentumSI is a provider of both consulting and engineering
services. As “doers” we understand what works – and what
doesn’t.
 This presentation reflects our position on software
development, specific to the use of programming languages.
 Readers should note that the ‘language of choice’ will change
over time and with the problem at hand.
November 17, 2013

3. Recommendations
Avoid
Perl
VB.Net
ASP
PHP
Cobol
Lisp
Tcl
November 17, 2013
Risk Averse
Use Only
Java
C
C++
C#
Special case
Recommended
requires approval
Eiffel
Scala
Haskell
Objective-C
Closure
Groovy
JavaScript
Go
Ruby
Python

4. Java moves to ‘Risk Averse’
 Java is one of the most commonly used programming languages
today and has a tremendous ecosystem.
 It remains a viable choice for organizations who have lots of
programs written in it, and skilled people.
 To some extent, Java has become a victim of it’s own success
 Has had to innovate new features while largely retaining backward
compatibility
 Major new changes have come in the form of add-on’s or frameworks that
are written in Java, but have little to do with the Java language itself
 Where Java is ‘one size fits all’, languages like Go and JavaScript are being
used for mainstream uses cases, with specialized capabilities.
November 17, 2013

5. GoLang moves to Recommended
 Go is a modern language from Google, started in 2007 when invented by
heavyweights Rob Pike and Ken Thompson.
 Originally targeted multi-site/cloud server work, though now provides extensive
client and mobile support.
 It resembles the ‘C’ language in terms of speed and power, but removes most of
the dangers while taking influences from the history of other languages (e.g.,
Python, Ruby, Java, C++).
 It is highly supportive of multi-project, collaborative work via multi-site remote import
 Many modern projects have taken to it: e.g., Docker, Packer, Juju, Flynn
(Docker PaaS), Cloud Foundry, etc.
 Great built-in features:
 Concurrency/multi-core support is a fundamental part of the language:
 Goroutines; channels, select, etc.
 Go programs are a single, static, native executables; Dependencies resolve early,
not late; Rollback = "run the previous binary.”
 Code formatting (gofmt); Easy concurrency; Multi-core, High performance; Built-in
Profiling Web frameworks (net/http) etc.
November 17, 2013

6. JavaScript moves to Recommended
 Long overdue, we’re moving JavaScript to recommended status
 JavaScript on the client is producing compelling interactive user
experiences
 JavaScript on the server-side has matured. Recent innovations
include:
 Google V8 JavaScript Engine has significantly increase performance
 Node.JS makes server side development easier / faster
 Multiple JavaScript UI frameworks have overtaken features that were
previously only available in Flash/Flex
 Commercial support of Node.JS from StrongLoop
November 17, 2013

7. Contact
MomentumSI provides consulting and implementation
services for:
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Software development
Architecture guidance
Cloud adoption / migration
DevOps & Continuous Delivery
Big Data
Contact: Sales@MomentumSI.com
November 17, 2013