Top 3 JVM languages Java Programmer Should Learn in 2018

Javin PaulFebruary 6th, 2018Last Updated: February 6th, 2018

1 173 3 minutes read

If you are a Java programmer and thinking to learn some more programming language to expand your knowledge and skill, but not sure which programming language to choose then you have come to the right place. In this article, I’ll share 3 JVM languages Java programmers can learn in 2018 and why you should learn them. Being a Polyglot developer is a good quality and often valued high on interviews. It also expands your thinking because different programming languages have different features which make certain things really easy.

Learning new language gives you the experience and knowledge to compare pros and cons of two programming languages, which essentially enable to write better code.

Most of the language I suggest Java developers learn is JVM based because they are easy to learn for Java programmers. They are related to Java in one or other way and that’s why they help the expand the mind of any Java developer.

Here is my list of three programming language Java developer should learn in 2018. Why I have included only 3 languages, why not 10 or 5?

Well, learning a new language is not that easy, it takes time and effort to learn a new programming language and even if you can learn just one that would be more than enough.

3. JVM languages Java Developer Should Learn

Scala

Scala has been around for quite some time now and when it first came it was touted as the best language to replace Java. Well, that didn’t happen especially after some functional programming features introduced in Java 8 e.g. lambdas and In past a couple of years, Scala has grown and many more companies and startups have started using it e.g. Uber, Sony, Amazon, Autodesk etc, which makes it one of the most sought skill.

Popular Scala frameworks like Play, Akka, Spark are also helping companies to adopt Scala for web development and Big Data solutions, no surprise, that Scala developers are paid more than 120K USD on average.

Kotlin

Kotlin was introduced in 2011 by JetBrains (maker of IntelliJ IDEA, PyCharm, and many other top IDEs) but not many programmers paid attention until Google announced it as the official language for Android Development on 2017 Google IO.

Like Groovy and Scala, Kotlin also runs on the JVM and compiles down to Java bytecode; you can start tinkering with Kotlin in an existing Java or Android project and everything will work just fine.

So, if you are interested in learning Android development and want to make your app safe from NullPointerException and want to give your function some purity, write some higher order function stuff or some functional programming stuff, then you should learn Kotlin in 2018.

Groovy

I have explored the Groovy landscape in 2017 and from that experience, I can say that every Java developer should learn Groovy. It really complements Java programming with its concise syntax and powerful programming features e.g. collection literals, def to define anything, multi-line strings.

After learning Groovy I realized that what I can do in 50 lines of code. It seriously reduced the lines of code to do something when you compare with Java and the best part of Groovy is that it is Java.

One reason for me learning groovy was Spock framework, a descriptive and specification based unit testing framework. It makes unit testing in Java much easier and also extends what JUnit offers.

That’s all about 3 programming languages Java developers can learn in 2018. If you want to move to functional programming side then Scala is the best choice. If you are interested in developing mobile games and apps then Kotlin will help you, and if you want to do scripting then Groovy is the great language. It helps a lot in unit testing and build automation stuff. Since Groovy compiles to Java, it effectively compliments the Java programming language.

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Thanks for reading this article so far. If you like these programming languages and see the value of learning them then please share this article with your friends and colleagues. If you have any questions or feedback then please drop a note.

Published on Java Code Geeks with permission by Javin Paul, partner at our JCG program. See the original article here: Top 3 JVM languages Java Programmer Should Learn in 2018

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