2017: The Year in Programming Languages (infoworld.com)

InfoWorld writes that 2017 "presented a mixed bag of improvements to both long-established and newer programming languages." An anonymous reader quotes their report: Developers followed a soap opera over Java, with major disagreements over a modularization plan for standard Java and, in a surprising twist, Oracle washing its hands of the Java EE enterprise variant. Microsoft's TypeScript, meanwhile, has increased in popularity by making life easier for developers looking for an alternative to JavaScript. Microsoft also launched Q#, a language for quantum computing...

In web development, developers received a lot of help building with JavaScript itself or with JavaScript alternatives. Among the tools released in 2017 were: Google's Angular 5 JavaScript framework, released in November, featuring a build optimizer and supports progressive web apps and use of Material Design components... And React, the JavaScript UI library from Facebook, went to Version 16 in September, featuring a rewriting of the React core to boost responsiveness for complex applications...

TypeScript was not the only JavaScript alternative making waves this year. For web developers who would rather use Google's Go (Golang) language instead of JavaScript, the beta Joy compiler introduced in December promises to allow cross-compilation. Another language that offers compilation to JavaScript -- although it began on the JVM -- is Kotlin, which has experienced rising fortunes this year. It was boosted considerably by Google endorsing it in May for building Android applications, which has been chiefly the domain of Java...
2017 also saw the release of the long-awaited C++ 17.

Another 2017 memory: Eric Raymond admitting that he hates C++, and predicting that Go (but not Rust) will eventually replace C -- if not a new language like Cx.

Comments

Re: Microsoft sounds so innovative

[TheRaven64]

What do you like about Windows 10? I had to set it up for my mother and, while I've done some work with MSR and am quite impressed with some of the technology that they've put into it, the UI is terrible. A few examples:

• In the hour that I used it, I counted 7 different progress indicators. Consistency is one of the hallmarks of a good UI. Windows 10 fails spectacularly.
• There is a new 'settings' app, which has a different look and feel to control panel. Settings are either there, or in the control panel. You need to check both to discover which (try configuring a trackpad: the settings are split between the two).
• They have added a number of buttons that look like file icons, but expect a single click (because they're buttons, not file icons) and will trigger some action twice if you double click on them.
• One of the most important aspects of a good UI is discoverability: a user, exploring the UI, should be able to find all of the functionality of a program. The control panel's default UI assumes that you know exactly why you're there. You need to change the view to get an interface that lets you see all of the options.
• The search functionality is pretty unreliable for finding installed apps (though it will happily recommend apps from the store for you to buy).

It felt like GNOME or KDE back in the 1.x or pre-1 days, when there was no consistency and lots of known-bad UI decisions everywhere.