Which Programming Languages Are Facing Extinction? A Look at Perl, Ruby, VB.NET, Flash, and Object Pascal

Perl

Perl once enjoyed widespread use, but its relevance has sharply declined as developers migrate to newer languages like Perl 6; the original Perl is now rarely taught or used.

#!/usr/bin/perl
print "Content-type: text/html

";
print "Goodbye, world!
";

Modern Perl is mainly used for CGI scripts, but even that niche is shrinking, making it advisable to abandon the language.

Ruby

Ruby peaked around a decade ago and was beloved for its elegant syntax, yet many developers find it cumbersome compared to C‑style languages, and its popularity has waned, especially after major platforms like Twitter migrated away from Ruby on Rails.

puts 'Bye bye, Miss American Ruby! Drove my Chevy to the Levie…'
puts '2011 was the day that Ruby died, yeah…'

A factorial example demonstrates Ruby’s capabilities, but even with such examples the language’s usage continues to decline.

Visual Basic.NET

Visual Basic.NET evolved from the classic BASIC lineage but was eclipsed by C# as Microsoft’s flagship language; most developers now prefer C#, leaving VB.NET largely obsolete.

Imports System
Public Module modmain
    Sub Main()
        Console.WriteLine("Hello World using Visual Basic!")
    End Sub
End Module

The "Hello World" program can be easily changed to "Goodbye World," underscoring its interchangeable nature.

Adobe Flash and AIR

Flash and AIR are platforms that required Adobe’s ActionScript (an ECMAScript variant). With the rise of iOS and the decline of Flash support, developers shifted to JavaScript, causing Flash and AIR to fade away.

package {
    import flash.display.*;
    import flash.text.*;
    public class HelloWorld extends Sprite {
        private var greeting:TextField = new TextField();
        public function HelloWorld() {
            greeting.text = "Hello World!";
            greeting.x = 100;
            greeting.y = 100;
            addChild(greeting);
        }
    }
}

ActionScript code resembles JavaScript, using similar constructs such as var, function, and dot notation.

Delphi’s Object Pascal

Object Pascal, once a productive language for Windows development, survived through Delphi but lost prominence as Borland (later Embarcadero) emphasized C# and C++ support, leaving Pascal largely abandoned.

program HelloWorld;
begin
    writeln('You say goodbye.')
end.

The author notes that these observations reflect personal opinion and encourages respectful discussion.