Top programming languages used in IoT

In recent times, the Internet of Things is now a popular domain in the developer community. According to research by Statista, there are 6.21 million developers working in IoT. Today, the Internet of Things (IoT) is very much a reality with smart thermostats, connected cars, and smart home hubs like Amazon Echo (that uses multiple languages like Node.js, Java, and Python). If you bring it down to the basics, “smart things” are using a lot of the same languages that are used by applications on your personal computers and mobile devices.

According to the survey of developers conducted by the Eclipse Foundation, the top four languages for building IoT solutions are as follows:

• Java 
• C
• JavaScript
• Python
• Go

These languages are more or less the same when it comes to desktop apps, mobile apps, and servers. So it might seem like there’s no difference other than smart objects are like little computers. Although this is sort of true, there are some significant differences when it comes to all the things that make up IoT.

Java

Java is an object-oriented language, and there are very few hardware dependencies built into the compiler, which makes it incredibly portable.

The biggest concern in IoT is security; with the Generic Connection Framework 8 (GCF 8), the Access Point API in Java provides the latest security standards and the highest levels of networked encryption and authentication which ensure data privacy.

All the object references in Java are implicit pointers which cannot be manipulated by application code. This automatically rules out the potential risk of memory access violations which can inevitably cause an application to stop all of a sudden.

Connectivity at the application level of the IoT system is also easily handled in Java with a comprehensive set of APIs, both standard and freely available through open source projects.

C

C, the language that was first developed to program telephone switches, is a reliable and reasonable choice for embedded system development. It is impressive because of its proximity to machine language.

It is a procedural language and the code is compiled and not interpreted. The code written in C is more reliable and scalable, and processor independence makes it a strong contender for IoT development. Because C is not platform independent, it enables IoT developers for code reuse, which can run on most of the systems.With the help of pointers, accessing and modifying addresses is easy in C.

Javascript

JavaScript is a scripting language with syntax similar to C. Initially, it was mainly used to create web pages, but now JavaScript is widely used in web servers, mobile apps, and IoT systems. JavaScript is good at event-driven applications; this allows every device to listen to various other events and respond to the concerned events. It has a garbage collector which eliminates freeing up of memory.

In your project, if you want to use the Apache server on a Raspberry Pi to collect data from a network of Arduino-based sensors, JavaScript would be good to start with.

Python

The language, which was developed during a holiday break, went on to become the most preferred language for web development and started gaining popularity in embedded controls and IoT. Python is an interpreted language which can be either submitted for runtime compilation or run through one of the several pre-compilers so that compact executable code may be distributed.

The greatest benefit that Python offers to developers is readability with elegant syntax, without compromising on the size. Python’s clean syntax is apt for database arrangement. If your app requires data to be arranged in a database format and use tables for data control, Python is the best choice.

Python supports a huge number of libraries and modules, so you can get more stuff done with less code. It’s handy in more powerful edge devices, gateways, and also the cloud.

Go

Go is an open source programming language developed at Google. It combines the benefits of compiled language that is performance and security with that of a speed of dynamic language.

It supports concurrent input, output, and processing on many different channels. Coordination of an entire fleet of sensors and actuators is possible when used correctly. The biggest risk is that the different channels don't necessarily know about one another. If a programmer isn't careful enough, a system could behave unpredictably because of a lack of coordination between channels.

In GO, gathering and sending data to various sensors and actuators is made easy by adding explicit hash table type.

The biggest advantage of GO is its ability to sort an entire network of sensors and making use of related IoT programming related devices. Go is now available on a wide variety of processors and platforms.

To find the perfect fit in the IoT industry, it is vital to understand the current market trends and price your services accordingly.