The new year is around the corner and everyone is making new year resolution to use new year better than this, as a web developer we should keep us updated and on the cutting edge of tech and trends in our community. Python, Node.JS, Ionic 2, VR / AR and AI are some of the languages, frameworks & tools which I think will be great to learn in coming year.
Python
One of the first thing you should consider to learn Python programming language, Python can be easy to pick up whether you’re a first-time programmer or you’re experienced with other languages. Python is powerful, fast plays well with others & runs everywhere.
Main reason I am recommending it because Python has been used in most of Internet of things (IOT) & AI projects, like Raspberry Pi and Arduino and it’s my guts feeling that Internet of things is going to be huge in next year.
Learning Resource for Python
Node.js
Modern apps are very front end heavy, everyone is buildings SPAs and you already know the language which is used in the frontend is JavaScript, It will be great if you could use the same knowledge to write your server backend. Node.js has been around for more than 3 years and it’s improved over the time, we have seen a flood of frameworks Like ExpressJS, Sail.js & Meteor (Full Stack Node.js Framework) are available on this platform.
Learning Resource for Node.js
Ionic 2
Ionic uses Angular & Cordova to build a hybrid mobile app, If you already know the Angular 2 you can easily learn it, you can build a full featured hybrid mobile app using your current knowledge of front end stack. You might think is it good to build a mobile app in hybrid technology? It’s perfect! Ionic 2 has the benefit of developing once, and deploy on most popular iOS, Android & Windows platforms. The big players like Amazone & Uber are built on the hybrid stack. you can check all kinds of app build on ionic 2 on their showcase page.
Learning Resource for Ionic 2
Virtual Reality & Augmented Reality
Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) have been around for a while, but now is the great time to start developing VR apps. Facebook (Oculus Rift), Google (Daydream) and Microsoft (Windows Holographic) are the platforms which are opened for developers like you. VR headsets still face challenges like eliminating nausea and offering compelling use cases outside of gaming, but they are getting there. A lot of people find Unity3D for development because it is a much easier place.
Learning Resource for VR & AR
Artificial Intelligence
Mark Zuckerberg has built Jarvis, an Artificial Intelligence System to automate most of the home appliances. Jarvis uses Speech Recognition and Face recognition technology, It can do turning off lights and playing music etc using IOT. It’s hight time to use AI and Machine Learning to new domains. there are a lot of open source projects like Google’s Tensor Flow and Microsoft’s Cognitive Toolkit, although Machine Learning is a very math-heavy topic but there are lots of framework available which have done the heavy lifting for you. AI is being used in many places, for the starter you should try some chat bots, they are fun and there are a lot of excellent libraries (ConvNetJS, nlp_compromise, TextBlob) and services (wit.ai, api.ai) that can help build your own chat boats.
Learning Resource for AI
This is what I think of now what’s needed to learn in 2017, I will keep updating this list as we all know there is always something new every day in the development field. Please comment what you think is most important thing to pick up in 2017.