What programming skills will last?

Any ideas on how to figure out what programming bits will last and which will go obsolete in the next decade?

Seems like C++ will be around for some time to come. Can't really get rid of Assembly even if it's not as useful to general audience anymore. I'm guessing that Java will be on its way out before too long. Flash might be going? What about DirectX? WPF? C#? Etc.?

 

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To be honest it's the actual Syntax of programming that continues, even if programming languages become obsolete and no longer used, as long as you've learnt how to structure your programming and utilise the core components of a language it's very easy to pick up or adapt previous programmed code to other languages.

Incidentally "Flash" isn't a programming language, it's a third-party plug-in that happens to run an interpreter for a language called "Action-script" initially meant for coding animation.

DirectX also isn't a programming language, it's a Consortium effort to build a Driver library originally meant to create compatibility between programs/operating system and hardware. The drivers are usually written in a variation of C (Obviously more likely C# now)

Python has been in greater use than previous years.
Java also has become more used in the environment it was initially designed for "Mobile phones".

 

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Ive been using Java for quite sometime so will fight from that corner as that is what I know best. As mentioned, it is finally fulfilling it's intended use in the mobile arena,
but it is also in household appliances. It's also widespread and deeply entrenched in the back-end servers of the enterprise market.
With the advent of the 'cloud' and Java's RIA frameworks I'd hazard a guess that it will be around for quite some time.GWT, for example is not going anywhere, their app engine
runs Java and python and maybe others, but I'm not certain. Look also at the CMS frameworks like Liferay, uPortal and others and their client-side capabilities with AJAX.

In these webcentric times, I'd bet on Java to last another decade and some. It has a vibrant academic base. In Sweden, for example, it is taught in almost every university at some stage in CS.
It has competition with .NET and others, but the JVM already allows you to run python, ruby, scala, groovy...
In summation, dont count Java out just yet - even if it's current steward is a door knob.

Moving on, C and it's family of languages are still needed... Im not so sure about the adoption rate of Objective C - even though it flourishes behind the walled garden of Jobs.

Programming languages dont seem to come and go as fast as the hardware they run on..they just adapt. So I can only guess that the top 3 will still be useful in time to come ie. Java, C/C++, .NET

I know someone will take issue to this post, but im only trying to stay within reason without mentioning every language out there.

 

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For the record, .NET is not a programming language; it is a programming environment. It translates a lot of programming languages that have evolved from older versions, like (C# an evolved combination of C++ and Java), or you can program in C++, Visual Basic, etc. using the .NET framework. In ASP pages, you can use java-scripts to interact with the client-side.
I currently use Visual Studio 2010 at work, and program in C# which is the one I feel most comfortable with, due to experience I guess. But this is just a matter of taste; all languages in .NET use the same Framework (pre-defined libraries which you can expand).

Programming skills are independent on the syntax, but they are a result of the aptitude of the professional for algorithmic thinking.

 

Logic.

 

I think that's about as good a answer as you'll get.When recruiting entry-level applicants for example, I know some companies will ask them to solve a particular problem and the good ones are those who reach for a pen and paper first instead of wanting to see what IDE is on the PC in front of them.

 

assembly language. if you can do that, you can program in any language. everything compiles down to assembly language in the end.