The Shape of Code

New programming languages are constantly being created, with most remaining unknown outside a small circle of friends. Every 5-10 years or so, a few of these languages break out to become fashionable to use. In the early 1980s, I was a fan of Pascal and had conversations with developers trying to figure out why they were fans of C. Yes, C was once the fashionable language to talk about. One of these languages went on to be used almost everywhere, while the other had the common fate of fading into obscurity.

Fashion serves a purpose. People, not just developers, enjoy experimenting, feel a need for self-expression, with a “fresh start” making them feel new and energized. Following fashion provides a means of fulfilling these desires. Developers who don’t need to earn a living using established languages are able to invest their time being part of the growing community of the current fashionable language.

Over the last 5-10 years Rust and Go were fashionable languages, with Julia being part of the trend vibe for a few years in the mid 2010s.

This last year, I have noticed a significant decline in articles extolling Go and meeting developers using it. In the last 6 months, I have seen a marked growth in criticism of Rust (very slow compilation speed in particular).

Fashion requires change and reinvention, because widespread use ruins its specialness. When Rust is no longer perceived to be fashionable (I think Go is already at this point), a new language will be ‘chosen’ to fill the void. Which languages are the likely candidates?

For some time, I have been telling people that my candidate language is Zig. My original whimsical reason was that very few programming languages have names starting with letters near the end of the alphabet (the preponderance of language names start with a letter near the beginning).

Experience has taught me that technical merits have little to do with language choice, clearly illustrated by the wide use of PHP and JavaScript.

A necessary condition for a language to become fashionable is that it be usable on the widely available software development platforms of the day (which is how PHP and JavaScript catapulted their user growth), another is that there be at least one core developer generally available to respond to user questions. The first condition provides something to use, and the second the basis for a welcoming community.

New languages are created on a regular basis by PhD students, but these implementations are a means to an end, i.e., publishing papers about some technique. There might be something to use, but rarely a welcoming community.

Andrew Kelley, the creator of Zig and president of the Zig foundation, quit his job in 2018 to work full-time on Zig. Andrew has put a lot of effort into building a community and raising funds to hire people.

Doing all the necessary things is not enough, there is luck and timing is important. The start date for Zig is four years after the start date for Rust. Not long enough for Rust to become unfashionable and need a replacement. However, seven years after leaving his job, Andrew is still working on Zig. Persistence is also an important success factor.

While I don’t actively follow Zig, I do visit sites where fringe languages are regularly discussed. Over the last six months, there has been a noticeable increase in Zig related discussions, and somebody has written a Zig book. Given that Zig related discussions are uncommon, this uptick may just be noise.

To me, Zig looks ready to go, and also has an appealing backstory (i.e., created by a lone developer working hard over many years) that contrasts with the Rust/Go perceived backstory (i.e., created in the bowls of an, not at the time, ‘evil’ corporation). I have not seen any other contenders for the next fashionable language.

Will LLMs cause fashionable languages to stop being a thing? Perhaps in the long term, or perhaps a new criterion for being fashionable will be not-known to LLMs. At the moment, developers are very aware of the failing of LLM code generation. In the short term, I think that fashionable languages will remain a thing.