Windows XP: No IE9 for you

Microsoft becomes first major browser maker to drop support for world's most popular OS

Microsoft's new browser, Internet Explorer 9 (IE9), will not run on Windows XP, now or when the software eventually ships, the company confirmed Tuesday.

The move makes Microsoft the first major browser developer to drop support for XP, the world's most popular operating system, in a future release.

Although Microsoft excluded Windows XP from the list for the IE9 developer preview, it sidestepped the question about which versions of Windows the final browser would support. In an IE9 FAQ, for example, Microsoft responded, "It's too early to talk about features of the Internet Explorer 9 Beta" to the query, "Will Internet Explorer 9 run on Windows XP?"
dialog box
This dialog box pops up during attempts to install IE9 Platform Preview on Windows XP.

That caused some users to demand a straight answer. "Please tell whether the final version will run on Windows XP SP3 or not," said someone identified as "eXPerience" in a comment to a blog post by Dean Hachamovich, Microsoft's general manager for the IE team. "If not, please be clear about it. Really, enough is enough of keeping users in the lurch about Windows XP support."

Others bashed Microsoft on the assumption that IE9 would never run on XP. "Dropping Windows XP support is one of the worst decisions ever taken by [the] IE team, probably even worse than disbanding the IE team back in the IE6 days," claimed an anonymous commenter.

Microsoft had offered up broad hints that IE9 was not in Windows XP's future, however. Tuesday, a company spokeswoman said the new browser needs a "modern operating system," a phrase that hasn't been paired with Window XP for years. "Internet Explorer 9 requires the modern graphics and security underpinnings that have come since 2001," she added, clearly referring to XP, which appeared that year.

Windows XP's inability to run the Platform Preview or the final browser stems from, IE9's graphics hardware acceleration, which relies on the Direct2D and DirectWrite DirectX APIs (applications programming interfaces). Support for those APIs is built into Windows 7, and was added to Vista and Windows Server 2008 last October, but cannot be extended to Windows XP.

Some users worried that by halting browser development for Windows XP, Microsoft would repeat a current problem, getting customers to ditch IE6 for a newer version. "Those who choose to stay with XP will be forced to [then] stay forever on IE8, which will become the new IE6," said a user named Danny Gibbons in a comment on Hachamovich's blog.

Tough, said Sheri McLeish, Forrester Research's browser analyst. "This is the stick to get off XP," she said. Windows XP users will solve the browser problem themselves when they upgrade, as most eventually will, to Windows 7. "What are they going to do, go to Linux or run XP forever?" she asked.

Still, IE9's inability to run on Windows XP will prevent it from becoming widespread until the nearly-nine-year-old OS loses significant share to Windows 7. According to Web metrics company NetApplications' most recent data, if IE9 was released today, it would be able to run on just over a quarter -- 27% -- of all Windows machines.

No other major browser maker has announced plans to stop supporting Windows XP, but several have dropped other operating systems or platforms. Last month, for instance, Mozilla said it would not support Apple's Mac OS X 10.4, known as "Tiger," in future upgrades to Firefox. Google's Chrome for the Mac, meanwhile, only runs on Intel-based Macs, not on the older PowerPC-based machines that were discontinued in 2006.

The IE9 Platform Preview can be downloaded from Microsoft's site. It requires Windows 7, Vista SP2, Windows Server 2008 or Windows 2008 R2.

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Surface Pro 3 'notebook' reaches retail today

Microsoft today kicked off sales of the Surface Pro 3, the 2-in-1 touted by the company as a notebook replacement.

The it's-a-table-it's-a-notebook, which was unveiled one month ago, is currently available in two models, both powered by a dual-core Intel Core i5 processor, the same used in 2013's Surface Pro 2.

For $999, customers get a Surface Pro 3 equipped with 128GB of storage space; the 256GB configuration costs $1,299. Those models are now available in Microsoft's own retail stores and its online e-market for American and Canadian customers, as well as at partner retailers. Best Buy, for example, started selling the Surface Pro 3 in its U.S. brick-and-mortar and online stores on Friday, as did Tiger Direct, an online-only retailer.

Microsoft has pledged to start selling the Surface Pro 3 in 26 additional markets -- including Australia, China, France, Germany, Japan, Spain and the U.K. -- by the end of August.

Best Buy also launched a nine-day trade-in deal that hands customers a gift card -- minimum value of $50 -- in exchange for a working tablet. The card can be applied toward the purchase of Surface Pro 3. According to Best Buy's exchange calculator, the retailer will give $387 for a 128GB Surface Pro 2 and $217 for a working Surface 2, the tablet powered by the beleaguered Windows RT operating system.

Other Surface Pro 3 configurations will be available for sale on Aug. 1, Microsoft said Friday. Previously, the Redmond, Wash. firm had set the launch of those models as simply sometime that month.

Slated to reach retail in six weeks are the $799 Surface Pro 3 with 64GB of storage, powered by a dual-core Intel Core i3 CPU, and two running a dual-core i7 processor, one with 256GB of storage priced at $1,599 and the top-of-the-line tablet with 512GB for $1,949.

New orders for the two now-available models will be shipped June 30, according to the Microsoft online store. The $199.99 docking station, which Microsoft also trumpeted last month, will be available Aug. 15 in the U.S. and Canada.

None of the Surface Pro 3 prices include a cover keyboard, which Microsoft mandates to make good on its claim that the device can replace a laptop. The Surface Pro Type Cover costs $129.99, pushing the out-of-pocket price of the 128GB configuration to $1,129.

That price is 13% to 26% higher than a corresponding MacBook Air, the notebook that Microsoft has incessantly used in its comparisons: A 13.3-in. MacBook Air with 128GB of flash storage lists for $999, while the 11.6-in. MacBook Air -- closer in screen size to the 12-in. Surface Pro 3 -- with the same amount of storage space runs $899.

For Bob O'Donnell, principal analyst at Technalysis Research, the Surface Pro 3 has been "a nice device." O'Donnell, like many analysts and some members of the media, has had a Surface Pro 3 since the May 20 launch event.

"I like the bigger touchpad, the bigger screen, and the aspect ratio [of the screen] is better," said O'Donnell. "All in all, it's a nice product."

Two configurations of the Surface Pro 3 went on sale Friday, at prices of $999 and $1,299 sans cover keyboard. (Image: Microsoft.)

Not perfect, though. O'Donnell's biggest beef was that Microsoft keeps selling the cover keyboard as an extra, when that keyboard is absolutely necessary to make good on the firm's claims. "They should have bundled the keyboard," O'Donnell said. "They're trying to position it as a tablet. It's not a tablet, it's a notebook."

O'Donnell estimated that he's used the Surface Pro 3 as a notebook 95% of the time, as a tablet just 5% of the time. He uses his go-to system, a Dell XPS 12 -- the screen revolves to lay flat on the keyboard for tablet-esque tasks -- in the same 95-5 fashion.

"The best way to view and think about the Surface Pro 3 is as the evolution of the notebook," said O'Donnell. "This is how notebooks are headed."

Surface Pro 3 tablets and accessories can be ordered from Microsoft's e-store.

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The World's Best (and Worst) IT Cities to Work and Play

Despite all the economic and political strife in the world, the globe-trotting techie still has opportunities for working at home and abroad -- and even take in an adventure! For every hot spot, however, there's an evil twin nearby. Here are some cities that should tickle the traveling bone of IT pros, as well as cities in the same country to steer clear of.

Brazil's Best: Sao Paulo
Sao Paulo is a city on high-tech's fast track, specifically the emerging area known as Brooklin. Who's in Sao Paulo? AT&T, Microsoft, Samsung, Oracle, Hewlett-Packard, to name a few. Sao Paulo's favorite tech son is Mike Krieger, co-founder of Instagram, the picture-sharing app that Facebook just bought for $1 billion.

Brazil's Worst: Sao Paulo Slums
You don't have to venture far from the booming central city of Sao Paulo to find the worst places. Sao Paulo has some of the largest slum populations in South America. We're talking shanty towns made of cardboard and wood and the occasional concrete wall. It's a tale of two cities.

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Germany's Best: Munich
Here are some cool stats about Munich: It's the third largest city in Germany, plays host to many large companies (BMW, Siemens, Allianz) and has one of the largest communities of programmers. Even better, Munich has a buzzing nightlife and is well-known for its breweries and tasty white sausage.

Germany's Worst: East Berlin in the '80s
We're going back in time before President Ronald Reagan told Russian leader Mikhail Gorbachev to "tear down this wall." The Berlin Wall, built in 1961, became a symbol of communism. Living in East Berlin up until the late '80s was an oppressive, Orwellian experience. Thankfully they tore down that wall in '89.

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France's Best: Paris
Paris is one of the great cities in the world and should be on the short-list for job destinations. There is so much to do: spending leisure time in a cafe, gazing at the Eiffel Tower, touring the cathedral of Notre-Dame. Of course, we're not all that sure about the technology scene. Our guess is it's a bit insulated, given the many years France spent pushing its own version of the Internet, called Minitel.

France's Worst: Rest of France
Quick, name another major city in France you'd want to visit.

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China's Best: Beijing
No global list would be complete without a city in China, which is well on its way to becoming the country capital of the world. The tech capital in China is Beijing, home to a wealth of tech talent, venture capital and the acclaimed Tsinghua University. If Beijing isn't your thing, try Hong Kong. A couple of years ago, Forbes called Hong Kong China's next tech hub.

China's Worst: Linfen
A few years ago, CIO.com put together a slideshow of the Worst Cities to Work in IT: International Edition. Guess what city topped the list? Answer: the coal-producing center of Linfen, China. Combine coal, air and people, and you get one of the most polluted cities in the world.

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England's Best: London
London's calling! This is the place to be if you're looking for tech work abroad. Check out London's major tech locale, Tech City/Silicon Roundabout. "Despite our investors being in Silicon Valley, I came here because all of our customers have a strong presence in London," says American ex-pat Rob Fitzpatrick, founder of startup FounderCentric.

England's Worst: Nottingham
A few years ago, think tank Reform ranked Nottingham as the most crime-ridden major city in England and Wales. Apparently, the evil Sheriff of Nottingham got the last laugh on Robin Hood. Most recently, a dozen men and two youths were sentenced for rioting last summer, which included firebombing a police station. And you thought Sherwood Forest was dangerous.

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UAE's Worst: Dubai
Then there's the ugly side of Dubai. Despite its modern wonders, Dubai is steeped in cultural tradition. American expatriates can land in jail for all sorts of minor transgressions: kissing or holding hands in public, swearing or making rude gestures, driving with any amount of alcohol, wearing revealing clothing at places other than the beach, etc. Be careful, techies

UAE's Best: Dubai
Dubai is the world's richest dream destination rising out of the desert. You can venture onto a man-made island in the shape of a palm tree, snow ski in a hotel while the sun beats down outside, and work in some of the most modern facilities. We hear the nightlife is pretty exciting, too.

Dubai's tech scene, Internet City, is the largest information and communication technology business park in the Middle East.

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Ireland's Worst: Belfast
The Belfast "Good Friday" agreement of 1998 ended the Troubles in Northern Ireland, yet there are still occasional outbreaks of violence. Most folks will tell you Belfast is perfectly safe, citing low crime rates and friendly people. Then again, Belfast is the birth place of the Titanic. How much bad luck can one place have?

Ireland's Best: Dublin
Earlier this year, Microsoft began investing an additional $130 million in its data center in Dublin. Computer training schools have also popped up. Dublin is fast becoming one of the most exciting tech pubs, errr, hubs. Great, now we're craving a pint of Guinness.

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United States' Worst: Middle of the Hatfield-McCoy Feud
If you watched the History Channel's recent "Hatfields & McCoys" miniseries starring Kevin Costner and Bill Paxton, you'll know that the Tug Fork off the Big Sandy River separating West Virginia and Kentucky isn't the safest place to be. You can get shot just for having the wrong name.

United States' Best: Silicon Valley
Let's start with the homefront. If you're a techie who wants to be in the center of the high-tech universe, there's only one place to be: Silicon Valley. It's the home to Apple, Google, Facebook, Oracle, Intel, and where venture capitalists along Sand Hill Road fuel great ideas. Oh, there's also a nice little city to the north called San Francisco.

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Australia's Best: Sydney
Sydney and Melbourne are the two largest cities for IT in Australia. Actually, they're the only cities in Australia. (Just joking, mate!) We're going with Sydney because of its hot tech startup scene, venture capital, good bars, and lots of cool architecture. Check out Sydney's Super Digital Precinct. Sydney is to software what Melbourne is to bio-tech.

Australia's Worst: Great Barrier Reef
The Great Barrier Reef is a SCUBA diver's paradise -- that is, until the man in the white suit shows up. When this happens, you don't want to be anywhere near the water. News reports of swimmers getting attacked by great white sharks in the Great Barrier Reef are becoming more common.

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IT power grab: Should you be a Machiavellian manager?

Ready to toss aside that meek service mentality and step up your game? Several savvy CIOs explain how to grasp the reins of IT power.

Two recent works from leading analyst firms throw down the gauntlet to CIOs: Once IT leaders fully embrace the power they hold in the enterprise, they can stop taking orders and start giving advice.

Gartner's contribution is an e-book from analyst Tina Nunno, The Wolf in CIO's Clothing: A Machiavellian Strategy for Successful IT Leadership, summarized in this Gartner release.

Forrester's contribution is a report from research director Khalid Kark and researcher Andrew Smith, The Disruptive CIO: CIOs Must Master Business Agility, An Offensive Posture And Customer Obsession.

These analysts have a common thread to their advice: Years of striving for IT/business alignment have resulted in a service provider mentality within IT, one that casts the business as the customer who's always right. These pundits say this strategy is destined to fail, and exhort CIOs to grasp the reins of leadership instead.

The question is how? NiccolA2 Machiavelli, the 15th century politician and writer, endorsed manipulation and political intrigue to gain advantage -- tactics deemed counter-productive by the CIOs interviewed for this story. Nevertheless, those same IT leaders embrace the idea of grasping power and wielding it -- and even of being disruptive when the situation calls for it. Consider this the CIO's guide to the new rules of power.

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IT Gifts for your Mother on Mother's Day

Find a Mother's Day gift with a techie vibe

Mother’s Day is coming up, and we’ve found Twenty Five gifts inspired by tech, science and math for geek-minded matriarchs.

Tablet stand
For sleek tablet viewing on the go, Rain Design’s iSlider pocket stand ($49.90 via Amazon) is lightweight and portable. The base slides out of its aluminum casing and can be adjusted to the user’s preferred viewing angle.

iPad kitchen stand
The Smart Tools for iPad set ($199.95) from Williams-Sonoma gives a tablet its own place in the kitchen so you can watch cooking shows, browse for recipes, or video chat while you’re cooking. The Kitchen Stand supports a tablet horizontally or vertically in four different positions. The three-piece set also includes a Bluetooth speaker that nests under the Kitchen Stand and a removable Screen Shield to protect the screen from splatters.

Hidden heart mug
Show some heart with a ceramic cup that reveals a heart shape when it’s filled. The Hidden Heart Espresso Cup ($35) is made by Daniel Chamberlin, who has a shop on 3D printing company Shapeways.

3D-printed bag
The 3D-printed Geometric Urban Code Bag 01 has an architectural quality, like a city façade. Best suited for holding documents, it has a slot for a phone and detachable handles. It’s available from Geometric, a storefront on Shapeways, in nylon plastic ($535.82).

Leafy phone case
Christopher Beikmann is the artist behind Da Vince Case. His vibrant Green Leaf set ($44.95) includes a zippered wristlet and a matching iPhone case. The artwork, titled “Leaf of Knowledge,” is by Beikmann, who makes and ships the cases from his studio outside of Denver.

Vessel pendant
Plenty of jewelry makers are inspired by natural forms and complex geometries, but I’m partial to the interpretations by design shop Nervous System. The founders are Jessica Rosenkrantz (who holds degrees in biology and architecture from MIT and Harvard Graduate School of Design) and Jesse Louis-Rosenberg (who majored in mathematics at MIT). The crescent-shaped Vessel pendant ($39.99 for the 3D-printed nylon version) was inspired by the formation of veins in leaves.

Lineage art
After studying his own family history, graphic designer Michael Allen started making customized family trees that have a fresh, modern vibe. The Lineage style (pictured; $50) shows four generations, and you can choose from a number of color combinations. More styles are available at Allen’s Etsy shop, ModernTrees.

Astronomer’s cuff
For all those period she pleased you at nighttime, check out this cuff bracelet ($18) inscribed with a line from a poem by 19th century British poet Sarah Williams (and often attributed to Galileo), “I have loved the stars too fondly to be fearful of the night.” The author of the brass bracelet is Kelley DeLaney from Etsy shop StarryBasementCo.

Portable power
If mom needs power on the go, Anker has her covered. Anker’s second-generation Astro portable external battery ($29.99 via Amazon) packs 6000mAh of power into a candy-bar shaped pack, and the even tinier Astro Mini ($19.99 via Amazon) slips easily into a bag or pocket.

Pillow places
A map can make mom think of a special place -- a former home, a favorite vacation spot, a place she wants to visit. Etsy shop My Bearded Pigeon renders maps on pillow covers. Pictured is a vintage map of Pittsburgh ($52.54), printed on organic cotton. The owners of My Bearded Pigeon, Cath and her husband Neil, live on the east coast of Australia.

High-tech cooking app
Is mom intrigued by the math, science and physics of cooking? If the six-volume, $446 "Modernist Cuisine" set is too much cookbook, check out another option from techie author Nathan Myhrvold, who was Microsoft's first CTO. “Modernist Cuisine at Home” is geared for home cooks, and it’s available in hardcover ($106.55) and app form (the ebook is $79.99; individual chapters are $4.99).

Modern birdhouse
Add a modern touch to mom’s backyard with a handcrafted birdhouse from Etsy shop Twig & Timber of Seattle. Choose from the Modern Craftsman style (pictured; $70) or a number of minimalist alternatives. Each structure is individually handcrafted.

DNA print
This made-to-order watercolor painting ($25) is inspired by the genome of Haemophilus influenza, a bacterium, and the colored bars in the circular genome represent potential protein-coding regions. The artist, Sandra Cullito, is inspired by the simplicity of the circle and the complexity of genomics. She runs an Etsy shop and is based in Rosaryville, Md.

Star pendants
Choose two birthdays -- such as a mother and her child’s birthdays -- and Dyo will combine the constellations from their astrological signs to create a pendant. The Dyo jewelry line is an offshoot of Matter.io, a 3-D printing start-up launched by MIT graduates Dylan Reid and Greg Tao. The starscape pendants are available in brass ($75) or silver ($100) via The Grommet.

Smart planter
Increase mom’s odds of gardening success with Smartpot from Click & Grow. Battery-operated sensors and software measure soil conditions and control the supply of water. Smartpot with Basil (pictured, $79.95) is one option; starter kits with strawberry, chili pepper, mini tomato and other plants are also available.

Science beaker terrarium
A trio of glass Erlenmeyer flasks, planted with Dicranum mood moss, makes for a cool terrarium ($59) for a science-loving mom. The tapered shape of the flasks keeps moisture inside and reduces the need for frequent watering, says Patricia the creator and owner of Etsy shop Doodle Birdie Terrariums, based in Eagan, Minn.

Smart air conditioner
Help mom keep cool this summer with a smart air conditioner that raises the bar on design. The Aros window unit from Quirky can “learn” from mom’s budget, location and schedule to automatically maintain her ideal temperature without going over budget. Plus it can be controlled from a mobile device using the Wink app. It’s available for pre-order on Amazon ($300).

It’s in the mail
Is mom nostalgic for the old days of handwritten correspondence? Give her an iPad case made out of upcycled mail bags ($55 from Uncommon Goods). The inside of the canvas cases is lined with ultrasuede to protect devices from scratches.

Hand-quilted city map
They’re pricey, but stunning. City quilts from Haptic Lab are hand-stitched to depict cities around the world. Pictured is Washington, D.C. ($450).

Geometric heart
A heart-shaped hanging mobile ($93) is a modern take on a Finnish tradition. It’s called a Himmeli, from the Swedish word “himmel,” meaning sky or heaven, according to designer Melissa of Etsy shop Hruskaa. She’s based in Grand Rapids, Mich., and specializes in Scandinavian-inspired designs.

Compass necklace
Even when you’re far from home, mom can look in your direction with a functional compass necklace ($26) from JustBeDesigns, an Etsy shop run by Bianca Fleischman in Pawling, N.Y.

Reusable glass cup
Appeal to mom’s earth-loving side with Joco, a reusable glass cup that’s durable, lightweight, and perfect for savoring a cup of coffee. Each Joco cup comes with a silicone thermal sleeve and a lid for splash-free sipping. The 12-ounce cups ($24.95) are available in many colors via The Grommet.

Architectural mug
Adam Nathaniel Furman, an artist and designer based in London, was inspired by Gothic fan vaults to create his ceramic Fan mug ($62.62 via Shapeways). “… the great gift of the morning brew is elevated to positively ecclesiastical heights in its own inverted cathedral,” writes the artist.

Moon pendant
Give your mom the moon with a bronze-infused stainless steel pendant ($55 via Shapeways), designed with visible print lines and a rough feel for topographic effect. The 3D-modeler and designer, Urbano Rodriguez, is based in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Jane Eyre book scarf
Help mom get wrapped up in a great tome with a book scarf from Storiarts, a line of wearable literature created by designer Tori Tissell. My personal favorite is the Jane Eyre book scarf (pictured; $42). There are plenty of other literary classics to choose from, including Pride and Prejudice and Sherlock Holmes. You can also opt for fingerless gloves, pillow covers and t-shirts. (If mom is more of a Mystery Science Theater 3000 kind of gal, check out this scarf.)

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Windows 8.1 Update 1 does keyboard and mouse proud

Deploying Windows 8.1 with Update 1 makes more sense for business machines with no touch screen
The latest release of Windows 8.1 adds new mouse and keyboard controls plus other features that make it a much better choice for businesses that don’t want to spring for touch-screen computers and whose end users crave the familiarity of traditional Windows navigation. There are a string of small changes that make the operating system much friendlier to those used to Windows 7 or something earlier. Here are a few of these new features.

More apps on the Desktop taskbar
One thing mouse-and-keyboard users miss a lot in Windows 8.1 is use of the traditional Desktop view and all its functionality. Here you see the newly updated Desktop. Note the aqua mountain-skyline with sun icon in the taskbar, which denotes the Photo app. It is a Metro app (now known as a Windows Store app), and in the previous version of Windows 8.1 such apps could not be pinned to the task bar. Now they can, making them easier to find for traditional Windows users who use the Desktop as their center of operations. The taskbar displays both pinned apps and all open apps.

Power button on the Start screen
Turning off Windows 8.1 PCs has been more complicated than it needs to be – click to reveal the charms bar, click to choose power, and click to choose Shut Down. Now with the latest update on the Windows Start screen there’s a power button. Click on it and choose Shut Down. This eliminates one step and makes it easier for anyone looking for the power button to find it.

Search icon on the Start screen
Searching a Windows 8.1 computer requires simply typing the search query while the Start screen is displayed, but this isn’t intuitive to traditional desktop users. To help them out, Microsoft has added the magnifying-glass search icon to the start page. (You can see it in the previous slide.) Right clicking on it reveals the Search window as shown in this screen capture.

Hidden title bar
A title bar and an X-to-close button appear at the top of the screen in Windows Store apps when the cursor is moved off the top edge of the display. They look much as they do in traditional desktop apps. Clicking on the X button closes the app; right clicking on the icon in the upper left reveals options to split the screen with another app on either the left or right half of the screen, minimizing the app or closing it. Similarly, the taskbar jumps up when the cursor runs off the bottom of the screen.

Dialog box to modify tiles
Right clicking on application tiles as they appear on the Start screen reveals a dialog box with options including pinning or unpinning the app, uninstalling it or changing the properties of the tile itself. All these functions are possible using touch commands or left-mouse clicks, but they’re neither obvious nor intuitive to keyboard and mouse users new to Windows 8.1.

Popup for essential device info
Date, time, battery life and network connectivity are all standard parts of the traditional Windows Desktop, but were lacking on the Windows 8.1 Start screen. In fact there was no simple way to gather all that information. With Windows 8.1 Update 1 this information appears to the left on the Start screen whenever the hidden charms bar is exposed by running the mouse into the upper or lower right-hand corners.

Boot to desktop
If the machine running Windows 8.1 Update 1 doesn’t have a touch screen, it will automatically boot to the Desktop, so no more having to click in the bottom left corner or finding the Desktop tile to click on.

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Beyond the usual suspects: 10 hot programming languages on the rise

From Ceylon to Egison, these 10 languages tackle tough programming problems in unique and increasingly popular ways

Beyond the usual suspects: 10 programming languages on the rise
The sheer number and diversity of programming languages in use today is immense. For better or worse, however, most organizations settle on a small subset, the usual suspects, to tackle whatever programming problem comes their way. Java, C++, JavaScript, PHP, Ruby -- time and again, developers shoehorn code to do the best they can with the tried and true.

Some problems require new approaches and new tools. Here are 10 programming languages gaining significant traction for newfound, newly created, or reimagined utility. They run the gamut from general purpose to highly specific, and have roots that range from Lisp to Java, but each could have meaningful impact on modern programming as it evolves.

Ceylon 1.0.0
Resembles: Java (but it isn't a version of it)
License: Apache v2
What's it all about: Once upon a time developers at Red Hat got together and said, "Man, Java would be great if only it didn't do this, and if only it did do that." Several wish lists later, Ceylon was born. The language runs on the JVM and Node.js, while doing away with many of Java's more notorious pain points. Instead of XML, it uses a JSON-like declarative syntax for tree-structured data, and it features static typing, a module system, and support for some structures that don't exist in Java, such as sequence, intersection, and union types.

Clojure 1.6
Resembles: Lisp
License: Eclipse Public License 1.0
What's it all about: One way to think about Clojure is that it's Lisp for the JVM, given that it runs on the JVM and has full access to Java's frameworks and libraries. Clojure's creators advertise the language as a tool for functional programming that is also designed for concurrency -- in other words, well-suited to multicore or widely distributed applications. InfoWorld's Andy Oliver looked at Clojure in the context of Ruby and Ceylon, and he felt it best suited for programmers coming from a math or science background. But with the functional programming paradigm on the rise, Clojure deserves a closer look beyond computational science.

Egison 3.3.3
Resembles: Lisp
License: MIT
What's it all about: Egison is a functional language aimed at performing pattern matches against a range of data types. Egison's creator, Satoshi Egi, claims that pattern matching in existing programming languages is supported only when the data is stored in a structured form like a list. Egison was designed to allow pattern matches to be expressed in different ways based on data types (for lists vs. sets); to handle nonlinear patterns, such as multiple occurrences of the same variable in a pattern; and to create functions that both receive and return patterns.

Groovy 2.2
Resembles: Java
License: Apache License 2.0
What's it all about: Call it "Java plus," since Groovy is essentially a syntactical extension of Java that runs on the JVM and can make use of Java library classes. But Groovy bristles with features not found in Java natively: static and dynamic typing, mainly, but also operator overloading, native regular expression support, and -- my favorite -- a "?" operator to allow for the safe checking of null objects without wrapping expressions in tons of syntactic sugar. It's also found uptake with some fairly big names: LinkedIn and Wired have used Groovy (and Grails, a Groovy Web framework) for their websites, and major IDEs like Eclipse and IntelliJ now support it.

Hack 1.0
Resembles: PHP
License: PHP/Zend licenses
What's it all about: Facebook had already created its own runtime for PHP, known as HHVM -- so why not go a step further and fork PHP itself? Hack, Facebook's new spin-off language, keeps PHP's rapid development cycle and ease of use, adds static object typing and lambda expressions, and was written in OCaml for safety and durability. Much existing PHP code will run in Hack, making it theoretically easier to migrate from PHP to Hack, but right now, outside of Facebook's own bullpens, it's hard to say if Hack will enjoy the kind of massive uptake PHP has enjoyed.

Jeeves
Resembles: ML, but implemented directly in Scala and Python
License: MIT
What's it all about: Jeeves was created to help programmers do one thing: enforce privacy policies for how data moves through an application. As explained in the readme for the Python implementation of the language, this goes beyond ascertaining whether a given user can see a value to determining whether that user can see values derived from that value. Policies for how such data flows are created and managed separately from the program itself. Given how important data security has become as a matter of programming practice, projects such as Jeeves may be receiving a good deal more attention in the future.

Julia 0.2.1
Resembles: Python
License: MIT
What's it all about: Julia was designed for technical and scientific computing, where parallelized and distributed number-crunching is a way of life. Julia compiles to machine code with the aid of an LLVM-based compiler, and on some key benchmarks it outperforms Matlab, Mathematica, and R -- which were also developed for math and science work -- by a wide margin. It even supports a Lisp-like macro function for expanding the functionality of the language. Also, existing fans of Python's math and science libraries need not feel shut out, since Julia can optionally make use of those libraries as well.

Nimrod 0.9.2
Resembles: Python, Pascal
License: MIT
What's it all about: The Nimrod homepage describes the language as "a statically typed, imperative programming language that tries to give the programmer ultimate power without compromises on runtime efficiency." Nimrod compiles down to C (with C++ and Objective-C as options) and does not need a virtual machine or runtime. Its creator intends for it to be used for systems programming, because it can access hardware directly and has pointers to both garbage-collected and manually managed memory. The language also lets the user define operators and macros, and bindings have been written for many popular libraries and third-party applications: Windows and POSIX APIs, GTK2, OpenGL, and so on.

OCaml 4.01
Resembles: The ML theorem-proving language, and to some degree Lisp
License: Q Public License
What's it all about: Most programming languages generally tend to fall into one of three buckets: functional (Lisp), imperative (C), or object-oriented (Java). OCaml does all of those things, and some recent OCaml projects have made waves, including Hack (Facebook's recent fork of PHP, mentioned previously) and the Xen Project's Mirage OS. Its statically typed design may not win over those solidly invested in the dynamic-typing camp, but one sign of how seriously it's worth taking is how other languages are now beginning to arise in its wake as well: Microsoft's F#, for instance.

Racket 6.0
Resembles: Lisp, Scheme
License: LGPL
What's it all about: A variant of Scheme, which itself is a variant of Lisp, Racket was designed to be powerful enough for creating languages, but also straightforward and robust enough to be used for traditional application programming -- Naughty Dog uses it for scripting in several of its games, and the Hacker News website was developed using Scheme. Unlike other Lisp-like languages, Scheme's macro system includes the compiler itself, so features can be added to the language as if they were native Racket constructions.

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