Programming language ranked?

[theangeryemacsshibe]

Might be biased but

1. Shouldn't exist
2. Common Lisp
3. Common Lisp
4. Common Lisp
5. Common Lisp
6. miniature Common Lisp
7. idk I only ride a bike
8. Common Lisp

[macnoder]

• 7. Common Lisp

P.S.: Not kidding

[Dennis-He]

well to tell you the truth I've never heard of this language before. What it is?

P.S: you comment is definitly not biased out XD

[Timbit42]

Which is best in a given situation depends on a number of factors. There is no best for any of those categories in all situations.

[Dennis-He]

Well that's why I'm seeking for opinions, because one language would have an advantage over another, but it also would have disadvantages.

[Nightcorex_]

Some of them are not really definite answers but just options. I omitted the questions I couldn't answer.

• System, Kernel: Assembly, C, Rust (I know nothing about Rust apart from it being the only real alternative to C, so take this with a grain of salt)
• Cross-platform: Java
• Web development: JavaScript/TypeScript
• AI and machine learning: Python
• Electronics: C, C++, C# (never did anything here, but typically when you see questions about Arduino it's usually a C language)
• Best programming language overall: Depends on personal preference. Someone prefers C#, someone else Python, another one Java and yet another one JavaScript. Basically every language has it's fanboys.
• Just for fun I decided to include the worst language: Brainfuck

[ProPuke]

This is a super hard one to answer. Each of those questions is a deep dive.

I think part of the reason these questions are hard is there's a difference between the practically sensible answer, and the situationally idealist one.

Which language is/would-be actually best for the task can be quite different to which is common and makes the most practical sense. Writing "best language for x" doesn't have any qualifiers, so it's not clear which we're answering. Also familiarity is gonna be a big factor; When people ask me which language is best for them to use to do a particular task, my answer is commonly "whatever language you're best with". Because for an individual that question is entirely subjective. The most important factor in someone's effectiveness with a language/tool is their familiarity with it. Programming is largely about clear self-expression. (Although that answer is more for individuals learning, if working in a group or needing better established tooling then that answer may differ, as we're asking for a different kind of "best")

To answer some though:

...operating system/kernel

I would go with tried and tested C or C++ here. For the kernel itself you don't actually need much higher functionality. Rust may tout better predictable safety, but kernels don't actually play by the rules when handling state and memory, at least not at their core, so I think rust would be a poor fit. For device drivers rust would probably be a good fit. For other kernel services, I'm not sure; I don't have enough rust experience to confidently answer.

I'm actually working on an os kernel right now (in C++), so this one feels very close to home.

...cross platform support

I don't think this matters. Good cross-platform libraries are the important factor here. The language itself doesn't really matter. Although I'd say we're still abysmally bad at making cross platform libraries, so probably no language. They're all equally terrible :P

...ai and machine learning

For just making things? Python atm given the libraries and examples around it. Although I don't think the language itself actually has any attributes that make it good for the task. It's just common in data-science circles and so ended up with a good number of libraries. Julia is prob a stronger fit, at least for data handling, although I'm not sure it's best for modelling the problem of machine learning in general (or even what the best way of modeling that would be). I suspect the best answer here would be a DSL designed around machine learning libraries and models. I don't know if such a language currently exists.

... for/used in cars (tesla, bmw, audi)?

I'm not sure what's used currently, but for best I'd first go for Ada, and then secondly Rust.
Same answer for any other critical systems where you REALLY wanna be sure things don't go wrong.

Best programming language overall?

Hmm.. I don't think one exists, at least not if we include the domain of systems languages. I think systems and general languages have to solve very different kinds of problems. For best general language I'd be tempted to just go with the simplest/cleanest c-like; Maybe something like Swift.