Los 10 lenguajes de programación más sustentables-IT Patagonia

The 10 most sustainable programming languages

Did you know that IT sector electricity demand will grow by 501 TP3T by 2030 and that 751 TP3T of this increase is expected to come from data centers and networks which will increase CO2 emissions?

This is what the study reports Digital economy and climate impact, from the Schneider Electric Sustainability Research Institute and notes the importance of Achieving efficiency in the technology industry to mitigate emissions.

For its part, from Green Software Foundation They expect that by 2030 the IT industry will consume up to 20% of total electricity production.

This context, coupled with the increase in environmental awareness and the concerns of organizations and individuals about global warming, act as the Key driving forces of the global corporate sustainability software market, which is expected to grow at a 15% CAGR until 2028.

That is why using sustainable programming languages for the green software development becomes increasingly imperative.

In this article we present the most sustainable programming languages and how their use contributes to improve energy efficiency and reduce the carbon footprint.

What is sustainable code?

Sustainable code is developed with a long-term vision, taking into account not only its current functionality and efficiency, but also its future maintainability and adaptability.

This implies write clear and readable code, following good practice principles such as modularity, reuse and adequate documentation.

In parallel, a well-structured and commented code makes it easier for other developers to understand and modify, which Reduce the risk of errors and improve team collaboration.

Additionally, sustainable code focuses on resource efficiency and minimizing the environmental impact of software.

This includes the optimization of algorithms that allow reducing the consumption of energy and computational resources, and the Responsible use of hardware and cloud services.

In this sense, we can say that programming languages are considered sustainable when They allow the creation of efficient software, in terms of resource and energy consumption..

What are the most sustainable programming languages?

The most sustainable programming languages are generally characterized by their energy efficiency and ability to reduce the carbon footprint.

The study Energy Efficiency across Programming Languages – How Does Energy, Time, and Memory Relate?, authored by researchers from the Universidade do Minho, the Nova University of Lisbon and the Universidade de Coimbra, established a Top 10 most sustainable programming languages.

Before beginning to mention the sustainability characteristics of each of the ten programming languages that occupy the top positions in the ranking, it is important to highlight that The top five languages that require the least energy and time to execute solutions are:

C (57J, 2019ms)
Rust (59J, 2103ms)
C++ (77J, 3155ms)
Ada (98J, 3740ms)
Java (114J , 3821ms)

Of these, only Java is not compiled.

On the other hand, The five languages that require the least amount of memory space (on average) to run solutions are:

Pascal (66 Mb)
Go (69 Mb)
C (77 Mb)
Fortran (82 Mb)
C++ (88Mb)

These are all compiled languages.

Taking the selection of Portuguese researchers as a reference, we carried out an analysis based on various sources, on the sustainable characteristics of each of the languages included in the top 10 on the list.

We add a bonus track to the list: Cobol, the most widely used programming language in financial institutions and other industries that manage large volumes of data on mainframe infrastructures.

La sustentabilidad del lenguaje C se basa en su eficiencia, portabilidad y robustez. — The sustainability of the C language is based on its efficiency, portability and robustness.

Top 10 most sustainable programming languages

1. C

The sustainability of the C language is based on its efficiency, portability and robustness. Three characteristics that have ensured its relevance and continued use since its creation.

The C programming language is very efficient and offers the ability to handle all aspects of CPU instructions, and its code offers a clear structure that makes it easy to create applications quickly and powerfully.

On the other hand, the language C is hardware independent, so it can be migrated to other systems. In addition, It has simple data structures with direct translation to machine language, which generates excellent performance.

Among its features associated with sustainability, its efficiency in making direct calls to the operating system and the use of compiled language, which is effectively coupled with assembly language, stand out.

Likewise, its ability to be executed on any type of software or hardware, and good management that guarantees the exchange, consultation, storage and updating of data. Not to mention the elements it has, such as bitwise operators, pure pointers or keywords such as volatile or static, with which you can have a better understanding about the best way to write efficient code,

Finally, the wide adoption of C and its standard ISO/IEC 9899 (its most well-known and used versions are C89/C90, C99, C11 and C18), They guarantee portability of code between different compilers and platforms, which ensures that applications developed with this language can run in a variety of environments without the need for extensive modifications.

2. Rust

Combines the performance and resource efficiency of systems programming languages like C with the memory safety of languages like Java.

Rust also enables servers to respond to requests much more efficiently, which reduces the number of servers needed and reduces energy usage.

From the Rust community, refer to three main characteristics of language, which are associated with sustainability:

Performance

It is a language incredibly fast and memory efficient. With no runtime or garbage collector, it can support performance-critical services, run on embedded devices, and collaborate with other languages easily.

Reliability

Its rich type system and ownership model ensure memory and thread safety and allow many kinds of bugs to be eliminated, which are reported at compile time.

Productivity

It has very complete documentation, an accessible compiler with useful error messages, and tools such as an integrated package and project manager, advanced multi-editor support with auto-completion and type inspections, an auto-formatter, and more.

3. C++

The C++ language is of great importance to the software industry because of its efficiency, flexibility, portability and support for object-oriented programming.

The sustainability of C++ is due to several reasons, among which the following stand out:

His ability to generate highly optimized and efficient code, which contributes to a more responsible use of hardware resources. A fundamental aspect for applications that require high performance and low energy consumption.

The Extensive existing code base and its ongoing evolution through standards such as C++11, C++14, C++17 and more recent ones, which ensure that the language remains relevant and adaptable to new technological needs.

4. Ada

It is a multipurpose, object-oriented programming language. It was designed with security in mind, and with a philosophy aimed at reducing common and difficult-to-discover errors.

It is based on a Very strong typing and runtime checks (disableable for performance reasons).

Ada is considered a sustainable programming language due to its design oriented towards high integrity and security, which significantly reduces the possibility of errors and failures in critical systems.

5. Java

Java is a programming language that provides versatility, efficiency and wide applicability across various platforms and devices.

It is precisely your Focus on portability and long-term efficiency, which characterizes them as sustainable.

Java's ability to write code once and run it on any platform with a JVM reduces the need to rewrite and adapt applications for different environments, which save time and resources.

Additionally, automatic memory management through garbage collection Minimize memory leaks and optimize resource usage, which is crucial to maintaining efficient, energy-efficient applications.

Java also benefits from a active global community and a continuous development cycle, which ensures that the language and its tools evolve to meet the changing needs of the technology industry, promote sustainable development practices, and maintain their relevance over time.

Java es uno de los lenguajes más sustentables, por su enfoque en la portabilidad y eficiencia a largo plazo. — Java is one of the most sustainable languages, due to its focus on portability and long-term efficiency.

6. Pascal

Its use requires the development of well-organized programs, written clearly and relatively error-free.

That is why the Pascal's main features are related to sustainability: clarity in writing, legibility, speed of execution and efficient use of computer resources (especially memory).

7. Chapel

Chapel is a programming language designed for productive parallel computing on large-scale systems.

His design and implementation take portability into account. And, by simplifying the complexity of parallel programming, Reduces the time and resources required to develop high-performance applications, resulting in lower consumption of energy and computational resources.

8. Lisp

Lisp, an acronym for “LISt Processing”, is a programming language that was designed for a easy manipulation of data strings.

It allows the creation of highly adaptable and extensible programs, which facilitates maintenance and evolution of software over time.

On the other hand, modularity and code reuse are fundamental principles in Lisp, which contribute to the creation of robust and efficient applications.

Its focus on functional programming promotes writing clean, side-effect-free code, allowing improving readability and reducing error proneness.

9. Ocalm

OCaml It is an industrial-grade functional programming language with emphasis on expressiveness and security.

OCaml's lightweight yet highly expressive type system catches more errors at compile time, while garbage collection lets you focus on application logic rather than memory management.

This feature is interesting in terms of sustainability.

In addition, OCaml offers a Excellent runtime performance, without compromising the developer experienceThe bytecode compiler generates small, highly portable executables with amazing speed; and the native code compiler produces highly efficient machine code.

10. Fortran

Fortran It was designed to perform computationally demanding science and engineering calculations.

Its ability to optimize performance enables more efficient use of hardware, which is essential in scientific applications requiring intensive data processing.

Al emplear lenguajes que optimizan el uso de CPU y memoria se puede disminuir el consumo energético de los data centers. — By using languages that optimize CPU and memory usage, energy consumption in data centers can be reduced.

Bonus track: Cobol

Cobol's ability to handle large volumes of transactions and its stability make applications built with this language Durable and reliable.

Cobol is considered one of the sustainable programming languages for several reasons.

These include: their longevity and durability, their efficient use of resources and low consumption, their reliability and stability, and the minimization of errors.

Also for its compatibility with legacy systems, integration with existing infrastructure, optimization for massive transactions, efficiency in transaction processing, and code reuse.

Conclusion

Increasing the use of sustainable programming languages is crucial to reducing the environmental impact of the technology industry, which consumes large amounts of energy and generates a significant carbon footprint.

By using languages that optimize the use of resources such as CPU and memory, you can Reduce data center energy consumption and extend hardware life, in addition to reducing electronic waste.

Also, sustainable programming languages promote the Creating stable and efficient systems, which minimize the need for constant upgrades and replacements and generate long-term resource savings and cost reduction.

In an increasingly digital world, adopting sustainable programming practices is essential to supporting environmental and economic sustainability.

At the same time, organizations are finding it increasingly difficult to achieve the agility needed to accelerate the development of new digital products and services.