Predictions for the Future of Programming Future in 2030

On May 2019, I wrote my predictions for the future of programming in 2025 . Let’s evaluate my predictions now before talking about my predictions for programming in 2030.

evaluation of my 2025 predictions for programming 🔗

Today is the last day of 2024, and tomorrow is the 1st day of the year 2025, Happy New Year to you ALL. I know, there is almost a year for my predictions to become true but I choose not to wait. I’d like to add a paragraph update to show my state of my predictions at the end of year 2025 too.

predicted the increase of Go language usage as an alternative to NodeJS 🔗

I predict that software developers will use Go language instead of Node JS for backend engineering.

This prediction came true. You’ll watch too many companies and popular tech youtubers using Go and talking about it. For example:

• Theo : I am coming around to Go
• web dev cody: why I’m learning Go
• PrimeAgen: why I use Golang in 2024
• we switched from Python to Go

Too many reasons why Go language is getting popular in the backend space. For example, Go is winning in popular benchmarks like these:

• Go winning against Python : Go (Golang) vs Python Performance Benchmark
• Go winning against FastAPI (a Python web framework) : Python (FastAPI) vs Go (Golang) Performance Benchmark
• Go wins despite the optimizations to the FastAPI application codebase: Python (FastAPI) vs Go (Golang) (Round 2) Performance Benchmark
• Go wins against Django (a Python framework) : Django (Python) vs Go (Golang) : Performance (Latency - Throughput - Saturation - Availability)
• Go wins against Node JS : Node.js vs Go (Golang) : Performance (Latency - Throughput - Saturation - Availability)
• Go wins despite the optimization in the Node app code : Go (Golang) vs Node.js: Performance (Latency - Throughput - Saturation - Availability)
• Fiber (a Go web framework) wins against C# .NET : .NET (C#) vs. Fiber (Go) : Performance (Latency - Throughput - Saturation - Availability)
• Go does NOT win against Bun JS (a JS runtime written in Zig) : Go (Golang) vs. Bun: Performance (Latency - Throughput - Saturation - Availability)

predicted that PHP will still be used in small projects and blogs 🔗

Yes. PHP, Laravel the web framework, and WordPress the CMS are being used vastly by small to medium projects, and especially for blogs. But other CMSes and SSGs are increasing in popularity especially among software engineers. For example, many tech blogs are written in Hugo the famous static site generator.

predicted the use of design after automatically being converted into code 🔗

No. Frontend developers still need to write the webpages in frontend technologies such as React JS and Vue JS. No mass use of automatic conversion of UI design into code reached till now (Dec 31, 2024). But there are some plugins/extensions for Figma to export the design as webpage code. I think it needs more time to get good enough for mass/public use to be the common practice.

predicted that Flutter will compete against PHP in web space 🔗

No. Flutter framework usage to create web apps is too little. It does not reach the level of competition of PHP web world. PHP has Laravel and WordPress, and they’re huge.

predicted the presence of many complex web apps using WebAssembly like Photoshop 🔗

In the near future, We’ll see web apps that are strong and complex like Photoshop run as a web app by leveraging WebAssembly (WAsm), likely using languages like Go or Rust.

Yes. Many web apps are created leveraging WebAssembly. Here are some examples:

• photopea : the alternative to Photoshop.
• SVG OMG : SVG image editor and compressor.
• Squoosh app : the image converter and compressor created by Google.
• photoshop : the Photoshop itself.
• Figma : the famous UI / UX designing tool.
• Photon is a high-performance image processing library in WebAssembly that runs both natively and on the web.
• Discourse : Faster (and smaller) uploads in Discourse with Rust, WebAssembly and MozJPEG.
• Zoom on Web : WebAssembly SIMD, WebTransport, and WebCodecs.
• Google Meet : Background Features in Google Meet, Powered by Web ML.
• In-browser transcoding of video files with FFmpeg and WebAssembly
• MasterShot : in-browser video editor.
• Speeding Up Webamp’s Music Visualizer with WebAssembly
• Speeding Up the Webcola Graph Viz Library with Rust + WebAssembly
• Realtime Audio Analyzer Demo

You can find an up-to-date list of web apps leveraing WebAssembly in this awesome list on Github .

predicted that Rust will be used instead of C++ for device drivers 🔗

Software engineers will use Rust language instead of C++ to write device drivers.

Yes. Many popular projects switched from C++ to Rust, or written in Rust instead of C++ programming language. These projects prefered Rust for its ownership model which ensure no data races.

Examples of projects using Rust instead of C++ :

• fish shell : from 100% C++ into 100% Rust.
• WalletCore’s Migration from C++ to Rust
• DropBox: Rewriting our sync engine in Rust
• Rust in Linux kernel

.. and many more projects, but above them all the contribution in building device drivers in the Linux kernel.

predicted the increase of Flutter usage in mobile app development 🔗

Mobile app developers will build their apps in Flutter using Dart language instead of the native languages. But the complex apps will be written in native languages which are Kotlin for Android, and Swift for iOS and iPadOS.

Yes. That is happening. 28% of the iOS apps in the app store is written in Flutter according to this FlutterInProduction Live stream .

predicted that most programming languages to develop for AI / ML 🔗

Most programming languages will contribute and develop for AI / ML as a means to develop and contribute to the AI evolution and increase of capabilities and merits of the language, but Python will stand as the defacto standard for AI / ML development. Python will face a competition against languages such as Go and Swift, but will stand as the top language for artificial intelligence and machine learning.

That didn’t happen. Most programming languages integrated the tools and platforms of AI / ML for consuming not development.

Go language did not compete in AI / ML development yet.

On the contrary, Swift language support in Tensorflow project is deprecated. Currently, tensorflow supports Python, in addition to bindings to C, Java, and Go languages according to the official website .

An unexpected thing happened. New programming languages targeting Python lovers, Rust enthusiasts, and AI/ML at the same time. Mojo language is written in Pythonic syntax, with a backend better optimized than LLVM, by LLVM creators, with techniques to eliminate data races similar to Rust, as a superset of Python. It seems too good to be true, and it is. There is a catch, of course, but I am not interested enough to try and find it.

My predictions for programming in 2030 🔗

Predicting the future is one of the hardest things in life. But I am trying my best, relying on two basic heuristics to maintain sane predictions. Here are the two heuristics:

• Laws of nature, and common heuristics: for example; the easiest will be popular among people because humans are lazy by heuristic nature.
• What happened will happen again: assume that nothing will radically change, because the change is hard for people.

I try to predict the future because that will help me decide which way I’ll go in work. Predicting the future makes your decisions easier to make. If the predictions are right, your decisions will be beneficial. That’s why I spend some time to follow up with tech events and analyze the scientific laws that rule these changes in the software development field. This helps me understand the potential of each new idea, concept, and technology. Detecting the vision and direction of evolution in the tech space is a great asset in your predictions and decision making. This is me trying to analyze and predict the future, to help myself make better decisions.

Here is what I predict will happen in the software development in 2030.

Go will be as fast as C and Rust in code execution time 🔗

There are two indicators which help me predict that the code written in Go will be as fast as C and Rust in execution. They are:

• Go development team is focusing on evolving the standard library into a better v2.
• Google developed V8 engine for Chrome browser that made javascript run faster then ever; which made javascript a viable language for server-side / backend later.

Thinking of those 2 indicators made me predict that Go code will execute faster in the near future, as the Go team perfecting the codebase of Go and its stdlib. Go is already fast enough, but that push will make its performance greater.

Go will be the defacto standard in backend development in entreprise and medium-size companies 🔗

After all the enhancements and evolution that will occur in the next few years, Go will reach a level that makes it the defacto standard to develop backend, cloud, and server-side projects in medium and large companies.

Android apps will be written in Flutter more than Kotlin or Java 🔗

I predict that Flutter will be used significantly more than Kotlin and Java to develop Android apps in 2030. That’s because Flutter development team is focusing on perfecting the framework. They announced that they’ll experiment with making it possible to use Android native ABIs directly from Dart code in this FlutterInProduction live stream . After they already developed Impeller engine which is used instead of Skia rendering engine on iOS and Vulkan enabled Android devices (modern Android phones). Impeller makes apps run smoother and faster.

If the experiment of calling Android native ABIs directly from Flutter succeed or not, it still is a good thing as it is the vision and direction of the Flutter leaders. Their vision is great and will make Flutter live and prosper more and more. Fixing the common pain points in Flutter will guide its success. I see Flutter as defacto standard in Android app development thanks to the vision of the Flutter team I see.

Use UI design after automatic conversion into code 🔗

This prediction is one of my 2025 predictions which were not come true. I predict it again for 2030 but with a fundamental difference. I am not predicting a Figma plugin/extension to convert design into code. I predict a system similar to low-code solutions that has two-way transparent abstraction over code. I may try to accomplish this myself.

Web apps built on WebAssembly will increase more 🔗

Building complex web apps on WebAssembly instead of creating for Windows, Mac, or Linux will be the direction for big software companies. The web will have useful creative complex apps instead of just landing pages, posts, videos, and images.

Zig language will get more popular and usage more than Rust 🔗

Zig language will compete against Rust in developing device drivers; which is the place Rust got in the Linux kernel. Zig will succeed in the performance critical areas and security critical areas.

In fact, I predicted that Zig will succeed, in general, without specifying a date. I predicted that on June 17th 2022 in a post titled “ Zig will succeed ”.

Rust will continue to get more popular despite the hot competition 🔗

Rust will continue to rise and be used because of its ability to stimulate the mind, show programmer’s ego, get developers excited to work and show off.

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