Choosing the Ideal Programming Language for Industrial IoT Solutions

RedMonk’s January 2015 Programming Language Ranking provides a snapshot of the industry’s most widely used languages:

1. JavaScript
2. Java
3. PHP
4. Python
5. C#
6. C++
7. Ruby
8. CSS
9. C
10. Objective‑C

As an industrial IoT developer, you’re likely familiar with several of these. The right choice depends on your application’s requirements, your team’s expertise, and the target hardware platform. Fortunately, you don’t need to abandon a preferred language to build scalable, interoperable IoT systems. RTI Connext DDS supports the vast majority of these languages, giving you design flexibility without sacrificing performance, reliability, or security.

Connext DDS offers native support for Java, C#, C++, and C. Experimental RTI integrations enable Python and JavaScript to stream data directly from the RTI DDS Databus. For web developers, the RTI Web Integration Service bridges PHP and CSS applications to Connext DDS, ensuring seamless connectivity across the stack.

RTI Connext DDS runs on the most common desktop and embedded operating systems—Linux, Windows, macOS, VxWorks, QNX, Integrity, LynxOS, AIX, and Solaris. It supports both x86/x64 desktop CPUs and embedded processors such as PowerPC and ARM.

A typical DDS‑based industrial IoT system may combine diverse hardware, operating systems, and languages.

By building on Connext DDS, you guarantee interoperability across heterogeneous environments. For example, a sensor powered by ARM7 hardware and firmware written in C running on an RTOS can publish data via Connext DDS Micro. That data can then be consumed by a Windows desktop application, a Java app on an Android tablet, and a C++ program on a hardened PowerPC board running VxWorks—all without language or platform friction.

In short, you can develop your industrial IoT application in any language you prefer, but selecting a connectivity framework that spans the entire stack—from edge to cloud—is crucial. RTI Connext DDS delivers unmatched language compatibility and end‑to‑end reliability across the full spectrum of industrial IoT platforms.