Compare Popular Imperative Programming Languages

Imperative programming, a paradigm that utilizes statements to alter a program's state, encompasses various popular languages. This section categorizes popular¹²³ imperative programming languages, comparing their robustness(bug preventation) and effectiveness(facilitating development).

Language	Robustness	Effectiveness
JavaScript	Moderate	High
Python	High	High
TypeScript	High	High
Java	High	Moderate
C#	High	High
C++	Moderate	Moderate
PHP	Moderate	Moderate
C	Low	Low
Go	High	High

In contrast, declarative programming, typified by languages like HTML, CSS, and SQL, follows a different paradigm that expresses computational logic without detailing control flow. However, this analysis will not cover declarative languages, as they are specialized and diverse in their objectives, with no two languages serving identical purposes.

Robustness

The [robustness]⁴ of a programming language can be influenced by its approach to error prevention and handling.

Bug Prevention

Typing System and Typographical Error Prevention

• 👍 Static Typing enforces type consistency at compile time. This system helps catch typographical errors early in the development cycle by ensuring that variables and functions adhere to declared types, leading to a more robust and error-resistant codebase. The compiler performs extensive checks for syntax, type correctness, and other potential issues, significantly reducing the risk of typographical errors causing runtime errors.
• 👎 Dynamic Typing determines types at runtime, which provides flexibility in coding but increases the risk of typographical errors. These languages rely on runtime checks, which means that errors, including those from typographical mistakes, are detected when the code is executed. This can lead to runtime exceptions if variable names or functions are incorrectly spelled.

Language	Typing System
JavaScript	Dynamic
Python	Dynamic
TypeScript	Static
Java	Static
C#	Static
C++	Static
PHP	Dynamic
C	Static
Go	Static

Testing

Discusses approaches like unit testing and test-driven development (TDD).

Unit testing

Test-driven development (TDD)

Programming language support

Presents a comparative overview of language features such as strong typing, memory safety, bounds checking, null safety, and concurrency primitives.

Language	Strong Typing	Memory Safety	Bounds Checking	Null Safety	Concurrency Primitives
JavaScript	No	Yes	Runtime	No	Limited
Python	No	Yes	Runtime	No	Yes
TypeScript	Yes	Yes	Runtime	Yes**	Limited
Java	Yes	Yes	Runtime	Yes***	Yes
C#	Yes	Yes	Runtime	Yes***	Yes
C++	Yes	No	Runtime	No	No
PHP	No	Yes	Runtime	No	Yes
C	Yes	No	Not standardly enforced	No	No
Go	Yes	Yes	Runtime	No	Yes

• Strong Typing:

• Prevents implicit conversions between incompatible types, reducing runtime errors due to unexpected type coercions.

• Memory Safety:

  • Languages with built-in automatic memory management like garbage collection, ownership or automatic reference counting (ARC)that helps prevent common memory safety issues. C++ and C do not have built-in automatic memory management, making them prone to memory safety issues without careful management(like using smart pointers).

• Bounds Checking:

• Bounds checking is a crucial safety mechanism that prevents programs from accessing memory outside the allocated bounds of an array or similar data structures. This feature is essential for avoiding buffer overflows, a common source of security vulnerabilities and program crashes. Runtime checking will prevent buffer overflows but not automtically prevent crashes, this will work of the developer, or using language that have compile time checks like Rust. C does not provide built-in bounds checking, relying on manual checks by the developer or third-party tools for any form of bounds checking.

• Null Safety:

  • TypeScript (Yes**): TypeScript incorporates null safety features like optional chaining (?.) and nullish coalescing (??), enhancing safety around null and undefined. However, these are compile-time checks.
  • Java and C# (Yes***): Both languages have introduced features to address null safety, such as nullable reference types in C# 8.0 and Optional in Java, but require explicit adoption in code.

• Concurrency Primitives:

  • "Limited" in JavaScript and TypeScript refers to the event loop model and async/await syntax, which are not traditional concurrency models but can handle asynchronous operations. Python, Java, C#, PHP, and Go offer more explicit concurrency support through various constructs like threads, async/await, goroutines, etc.

Bug Types

Resourcing

Uninitialized Variables

Presents how each language handles potential resource management issues.

Language	Uninitialized Variables
JavaScript	Forbidden
Python	Forbidden
TypeScript	Forbidden
Java	Forbidden
C#	Forbidden
C++	Allowed
PHP	Forbidden
C	Allowed
Go	Forbidden

• Languages Marked "Forbidden": For these languages, variables are either automatically initialized to a default value (e.g., 0 for integers, false for booleans, null/nil for object references) or the language requires explicit initialization at the point of declaration. This behavior prevents the use of uninitialized variables, thereby avoiding undefined behavior related to such use.

• Languages Marked "Allowed" (C and C++): These languages allow variables, especially local variables within functions, to be declared without being initialized. Using these uninitialized variables can result in undefined behavior, as their initial values are indeterminate and can contain any bit pattern.

Resource leaks

Language	Resource Management Mechanism
JavaScript	Manual management
Python	with statement for context management
TypeScript	Manual management
Java	try-with-resources for automatic resource management
C#	IDisposable interface with using statement for automatic resource management
C++	RAII (Resource Acquisition Is Initialization) for automatic resource management
PHP	Manual management
C	Manual management
Go	defer statement for scheduling cleanup operations

Effectiveness

Evaluates languages based on their versatility in various programming paradigms.

Flexibility and Generality

The ability to use the language in a wide variety of programming paradigms and domains. A highly expressive language can elegantly solve problems across different areas without needing to resort to awkward or verbose constructs.

Language/Paradigm	Object-oriented programming	Functional programming	Concurrent computing
JavaScript	Yes 5	Yes [^2]	Partial [^3]
Python	Yes [^4]	Yes [^5]	Yes [^6]
TypeScript	Yes [^7]	Yes 6	Partial [^3]
Java	Yes [^9]	Yes [^10]	Yes [^11]
C#	Yes [^12]	Yes [^13]	Yes [^14]
C++	Yes [^15]	Yes [^16]	Yes [^17]
PHP	Yes [^18]	Yes [^19]	Partial [^3]
C	No [^20]	No [^21]	Partial [^3]
Go	Yes [^22]	Yes [^23]	Yes [^24]
Kotlin	Yes	Yes	Yes

Power of Abstractions

The capability to define and use complex abstractions that accurately model real-world or conceptual entities. This includes features like higher-order functions, generics, and metaprogramming.

Language Features

Specific constructs provided by the language that contribute to its expressiveness, such as pattern matching, type inference, functional programming constructs, and concise error handling mechanisms.

Typing Discipline

Language/Typing	Duck/Nominative/Structural	Manifest/Inferred
JavaScript	Duck [^27]	Inferred [^28]
Python	Duck [^31]	Inferred [^32]
TypeScript	Duck and Structural [^35]	Manifest and Inferred [^36]
Java	Nominative [^39]	Manifest [^40]
C#	Nominative [^43]	Partially Inferred [^44]
C++	Nominative [^47]	Partially Inferred [^48]
PHP	Nominative [^51]	Inferred [^52]
C	Nominative [^55]	Manifest [^56]
Go	Nominative and Structural [^59]	Inferred [^60]

Features

Language	Error Handling	Collection Manipulation	Composition with delegation
JavaScript	Exception	Yes	mixins and traits
Python	Exception	Yes	mixins
TypeScript	Exception	Yes	mixins
Java	Exception	Yes	interfaces default methods7
C#	Exception	Yes	default interface methods8
C++	Exception	Yes	mixins using template
PHP	Exception	No	traits
C	No	Yes	No
Go	Error	Yes	Embedding

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Footnotes and References:

Footnotes

1. Stack Overflow 2023 Developer Survey: Most popular technologies by Professional Developers ↩

2. Github The state of the Octoverse 2023: The most popular programming languages ↩

3. TIOBE Index ↩

4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_bug ↩

5. ECMAScript® 2023 Language Specification: Overview ↩

6. https://www.typescriptlang.org/docs/handbook/typescript-in-5-minutes-func.html ↩

7. https://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/java/IandI/defaultmethods.html ↩

8. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/csharp/language-reference/proposals/csharp-8.0/default-interface-methods ↩