In the tech world, there is a constant flow of changes and keeping up with them means the choice for tools and technologies which are the most appropriate to invest your time in.
In 2026 the best programming language or technology stack to learn really depends on your personal aims, hobbies, and apps you are going to create.
The use of AI is increasing. AI as a “Pair Programmer” is becoming the default. Code completion, refactoring, and boilerplate generation are used often. Devs spend more time reviewing and steering code than typing it. “Explain this error” and “why is this slow?” prompts are useful.
In prompt-Driven Development programmers describe the intent in natural language and then let AI generate first drafts of functions, APIs, or configs. Iterate by refining prompts rather than rewriting code. Trend: Knowing how to ask is becoming as important as syntax.
Strong growth in: Auto-generated unit and integration tests and edge-case discovery. Trend: “Test-first” is easier when AI writes the boring parts.
AI is moving up the stack. Trend: AI as a junior architect or reviewer, not the final decider.
AI comes to Security & Code Quality Scanning. Rapid adoption in: Static analysis and vulnerability detection, secret leakage and dependency risk checks. AI can give secure-by-default code suggestions. Trend: AI shifts security earlier in the SDLC (“shift left”).
Instead of one-off prompts: AI agents that plan → code → test → fix → retry. Multi-step autonomous tasks (e.g., “add feature X and update docs”) can be done in best cases. Trend: Still supervised, but moving toward semi-autonomous dev loops.
AI is heavily used for explaining large, unfamiliar codebases and translating between languages/frameworks. It helps onboarding new engineers faster.
What’s changing: Less manual boilerplate work
More focus on problem definition, review, and decision-making. There is stronger emphasis on fundamentals, architecture, and domain knowledge. Trend: Devs become editors, designers, and orchestrators.
AI usage policies and audit trails is necessary. Trend: “Use AI, but safely.”
Likely directions:
Deeper IDE + CI/CD integration
AI maintaining legacy systems
Natural-language → production-ready features
AI copilots customized to your codebase
380 Comments
Tomi Engdahl says:
How I built a Claude Code workflow with LM Studio for offline-first development
https://www.xda-developers.com/built-claude-code-workflow-lm-studio-offline-first-development/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://dev.to/aws/the-python-function-that-implements-itself-3el8
Tomi Engdahl says:
Enterprising developer somehow writes an x86 CPU emulator in plain CSS — no Javascript, no WASM, just stylesheet computing
News
By Bruno Ferreira published 2 days ago
Of all the cursed things I’ve seen this year, this is the most cursed yet.
https://www.tomshardware.com/software/programming/enterprising-developer-somehow-writes-an-x86-cpu-emulator-in-plain-css-no-javascript-no-wasm-just-stylesheet-computing
Tomi Engdahl says:
Many developers (me included) have long made jokes when people mention HTML and CSS as “programming languages,” and this is definitely a moment of harsh acceptance.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://thenewstack.io/webassembly-deep-dive/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.infoworld.com/article/4135218/what-i-learned-using-claude-sonnet-to-migrate-python-to-rust.html
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://medium.com/google-cloud/google-mcp-servers-tutorial-series-3f48dd21e99f
Tomi Engdahl says:
Meet NullClaw: The 678 KB Zig AI Agent Framework Running on 1 MB RAM and Booting in Two Milliseconds
https://www.marktechpost.com/2026/03/02/meet-nullclaw-the-678-kb-zig-ai-agent-framework-running-on-1-mb-ram-and-booting-in-two-milliseconds/
In the current AI landscape, agentic frameworks typically rely on high-level managed languages like Python or Go. While these ecosystems offer extensive libraries, they introduce significant overhead through runtimes, virtual machines, and garbage collectors. NullClaw is a project that diverges from this trend, implementing a full-stack AI agent framework entirely in Raw Zig.
By eliminating the runtime layer, NullClaw achieves a compiled binary size of 678 KB and operates with approximately 1 MB of RAM. For devs working in resource-constrained environments or edge computing, these metrics represent a shift in how AI orchestration can be deployed.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2026/03/04/trying-a-vibe-coded-operating-system/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Rust: The Unlikely Engine Of The Vibe Coding Era
https://www.forbes.com/councils/forbestechcouncil/2026/03/03/rust-the-unlikely-engine-of-the-vibe-coding-era/
In 2025, something unexpected happened. The programming language most notorious for its difficulty became the go-to choice for the laziest form of programming imaginable.
For a decade, Rust was for systems engineers who traded speed for memory safety. It was the “eat your vegetables” language. Python and JavaScript dominated rapid prototyping. However, LLMs have shifted the economics. When AI writes the code, Rust’s strictness stops being a hurdle and becomes free quality assurance.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The right way to architect modern web applications
https://www.infoworld.com/article/4138765/the-right-way-to-architect-modern-web-applications.html
Tomi Engdahl says:
”Purkkavirityksiä” koodaava tekoäly ei ehkä ole paras pitkän aikavälin selviytymissuunnitelma
Tillanne voi olla vuosien kuluttua karulla tolalla.
https://muropaketti.com/tietotekniikka/tietotekniikkauutiset/pomoportaassa-syntyi-yhtakkia-huoli-koodareiden-tyopaikoista/#google_vignette
icrosoftin johtajistoon kuuluvat Mark Russinovich ja Scott Hanselman varoittavat koodausavustajien pitkäaikaisista vaikutuksista. Koodausavustajat voivat tehostaa kokeneiden sovelluskehittäjien työtä, mutta sillä on kääntöpuolensa.
Pomot pelkäävät, että tekoälyavustajat jarruttavat alalle vasta pyrkivien tai juuri aloittaneiden oppimista. Johtajien mukaan tekoäly sortuu usein juniorimaisiin virheisiin ja tekee ”purkkavirityksiä”, jotta koodi toimii.
Tomi Engdahl says:
OpenAI’s AI data agent, built by two engineers, now serves thousands of employees — and the company says anyone can replicate it
https://venturebeat.com/technology/openais-ai-data-agent-built-by-two-engineers-now-serves-4-000-employees-and
In an exclusive interview with VentureBeat, Emma Tang, the head of data infrastructure at OpenAI whose team built the agent, offered a rare look inside the system — how it works, how it fails, and what it signals about the future of enterprise data. The conversation, paired with the company’s blog post announcing the tool, paints a picture of a company that turned its own AI on itself and discovered something that every enterprise will soon confront: the bottleneck to smarter organizations isn’t better models. It’s better data.
“The agent is used for any kind of analysis,” Tang said. “Almost every team in the company uses it.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
New Microsoft Data Shows the Jobs Least Likely to Be Replaced by AI
https://www.birdsadvice.com/microsoft-study-jobs-safe-from-ai/
Most of us have quietly wondered if a computer could eventually do our job. We grew up assuming that physical labor was at risk while office careers were the safe bet for the future. A surprising new analysis from Microsoft flips that idea upside down. By tracking real-world usage, the data reveals a shift that few saw coming, one where a college degree might offer less protection than a steady hand and a little bit of human kindness.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://openai.com/index/gpt-5-3-instant-system-card/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Your Multi-Cloud Strategy Is Now Illegal. The EU Just Made Single-Cloud Architecture a Compliance Nightmare.
https://aws.plainenglish.io/your-multi-cloud-strategy-is-now-illegal-the-b783170b83ee
You have a multi-cloud strategy.
Or at least, you think you do.
Maybe you run compute on AWS and store backups in S3.
Maybe Azure AD handles identity.
Maybe there’s a small GKE cluster running one experimental workload.
None of that counts anymore.
In September 2025, the EU Data Act became fully applicable.
And if your architecture wasn’t designed with mandatory provider switching in mind, you’re not just non-compliant.
You’re operating illegally in one of the world’s largest economic markets.
Here’s what kept me awake last night:
Most US companies don’t even know this law exists.
And the audits are coming.
The Law That Changes Infrastructure
The EU Data Act is not GDPR 2.0.
It’s far more disruptive for engineers.
It mandates that customers must be able to:
Easily switch cloud providers
Port all exportable data
Do so generally free of charge
Translated into architecture terms:
Press enter or click to view image in full size
The law applies to any provider of “data processing services” →IaaS, PaaS, SaaS.
And here’s the part engineers miss:
Your architecture determines compliance.
Not your legal disclaimer.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.infoq.com/news/2026/03/aws-launches-agent-plugins/
Tomi Engdahl says:
GitHub Copilot Instructions vs Prompts vs Custom Agents vs Skills vs X vs WHY?
https://dev.to/pwd9000/github-copilot-instructions-vs-prompts-vs-custom-agents-vs-skills-vs-x-vs-why-339l
Tomi Engdahl says:
Monkey Seedance
New AI Video Generator Is So Impressive That It’s Scaring Hollywood
“I hate to say it. It’s likely over for us.”
https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/seedance-ai-video-generator-scaring-hollywood
Text-to-video generating tools have made tremendous leaps in a few short years.
We went from a horrifying clip of actor Will Smith’s contorted face temporarily merging with a bowl of spaghetti in 2023 to a far more realistic clip of him enjoying a plate of pasta — including a soundtrack of unnerving squelching and chomping sounds — a mere two years later.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.infoworld.com/article/4139528/rust-developers-have-three-big-worries-survey.html
Tomi Engdahl says:
10 Python Libraries That Made My Code Feel Senior-Level
The tools that quietly separated my beginner scripts from production-ready systems.
https://python.plainenglish.io/10-python-libraries-that-made-my-code-feel-senior-level-f70068bf5976
Tomi Engdahl says:
How I’m Using Claude Code (New) /simplify & /batch (To x10 My Code Reviews)
https://medium.com/@joe.njenga/how-im-using-claude-code-new-simplify-batch-to-x10-my-code-reviews-888780a6a42a
Tomi Engdahl says:
How we engineered a scalable and performant enterprise AI platform
https://www.cio.com/article/4137313/how-we-engineered-a-scalable-and-performant-enterprise-ai-platform.html
Tomi Engdahl says:
Linux explores new way of authenticating developers and their code – here’s how it works
Linux kernel maintainers propose a less painful process for identifying developers. See how it can make Linux code safer than ever.
https://www.zdnet.com/article/linux-kernel-maintainers-new-way-of-authenticating-developers-and-code/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://python.plainenglish.io/why-python-is-the-hero-of-modern-programming-cdd772485256
Tomi Engdahl says:
Abandoned project linking Java, JavaScript makes a comeback
https://www.infoworld.com/article/4137631/abandoned-project-linking-java-javascript-makes-a-comeback.html
Tomi Engdahl says:
A Coding Implementation to Build a Hierarchical Planner AI Agent Using Open-Source LLMs with Tool Execution and Structured Multi-Agent Reasoning
https://www.marktechpost.com/2026/02/27/a-coding-implementation-to-build-a-hierarchical-planner-ai-agent-using-open-source-llms-with-tool-execution-and-structured-multi-agent-reasoning/
Tomi Engdahl says:
I don’t pay for ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, or Claude – I stick to my self-hosted LLMs instead
https://www.xda-developers.com/i-stick-to-my-self-hosted-llms-instead-of-chatgpt/
Tomi Engdahl says:
The browser is your database: Local-first comes of age
feature
Feb 26, 2026
10 mins
https://www.infoworld.com/article/4133648/the-browser-is-your-database-local-first-comes-of-age.html
The thick client is making a comeback. Here’s how next-generation local databases like PGlite and RxDB are bringing feature-rich data storage to the browser.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Read more at:
http://m.timesofindia.com/articleshow/128842413.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://aarontay.substack.com/p/creating-your-own-research-assistant?utm_medium=email
Tomi Engdahl says:
Copilot customization cheat sheet
Compare the different customization options for GitHub Copilot.
https://docs.github.com/en/copilot/reference/customization-cheat-sheet
Tomi Engdahl says:
Researchers baked 3x inference speedups directly into LLM weights — without speculative decoding
https://venturebeat.com/orchestration/researchers-baked-3x-inference-speedups-directly-into-llm-weights-without
As agentic AI workflows multiply the cost and latency of long reasoning chains, a team from the University of Maryland, Lawrence Livermore National Labs, Columbia University and TogetherAI has found a way to bake 3x throughput gains directly into a model’s weights.
Unlike speculative decoding, which requires a separate drafting model, this approach requires no additional infrastructure — just a single special token added to the model’s existing architecture.
Tomi Engdahl says:
OpenCrabs
The autonomous AI agent. Single Rust binary. Every channel.
Autonomous multi-channel AI agent built in Rust. Inspired by Open Claw.
https://github.com/adolfousier/opencrabs
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://9to5linux.com/gnu-octave-11-open-source-scientific-programming-language-officially-released
Tomi Engdahl says:
Cursor announces major update to AI agents as coding tool battle heats up
https://www.cnbc.com/2026/02/24/cursor-announces-major-update-as-ai-coding-agent-battle-heats-up.html
Key Points
Cursor announced updates to its AI coding agents as the startup works to fend off competition from rivals.
The updated agents can test their own changes and record their work through videos, logs and screenshots, the company told CNBC.
The agents can also run in parallel on their own virtual machines, which means they won’t have to compete for resources on a developer’s laptop.
Tomi Engdahl says:
IBM’s $40B stock wipeout is built on a misconception: Translating COBOL isn’t the same as modernizing it
https://venturebeat.com/technology/ibms-usd40b-stock-wipeout-is-built-on-a-misconception-translating-cobol-isnt
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/build-and-deploy-multi-agent-ai-with-python-and-docker/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.theregister.com/2026/02/23/open_source_devs_column/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.docker.com/blog/run-openclaw-securely-in-docker-sandboxes/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://venturebeat.com/orchestration/kilo-launches-kiloclaw-allowing-anyone-to-deploy-hosted-openclaw-agents-into
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://reson.fi/tekijanoikeus/promptaajan-tekijanoikeus/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.getsmoothly.com/fi/articles/modernin-sisaltoprosessin-anatomia-nain-rakennat-skaalautuvan-ja-vaikuttavan-sisaltokoneiston?fbclid=IwVERDUAQMwbNleHRuA2FlbQIxMABzcnRjBmFwcF9pZAwzNTA2ODU1MzE3MjgAAR7tjizVw5aiPt2IW0Rns3i7YSv7EpHJjCxwjcbA40cegGCICAvv38ldQ5Zung_aem_4z6lLJSnpxLyrFSdrNC2AQ
Tomi Engdahl says:
In the Red
X Is In Such Dire Straits That Its Head of Product Says It Can’t Afford to Display the Color Blue
An “Everything App” — with just two colors.
https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/twitter-x-color-blue
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://heeki.medium.com/using-spec-driven-development-with-claude-code-4a1ebe5d9f29
Tomi Engdahl says:
Stop Calling Them Low-Level: Rust, C, and C++ in the Modern Era
https://medium.com/@monikasinghal713/stop-calling-them-low-level-rust-c-and-c-in-the-modern-era-%EF%B8%8F-9c641a9d6f84
Tomi Engdahl says:
Open-source security debt grows across commercial software
https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2026/02/26/open-source-vulnerability-surge-risk-analysis/
Open source code sits inside nearly every commercial application, and development teams continue to add new dependencies. Black Duck’s 2026 Open Source Security and Risk Analysis Report data shows that nearly all audited codebases contain open source components, with average component counts rising sharply over the past year.
That growth brings a parallel increase in exposure. Mean vulnerabilities per codebase climbed from 280 to 581 in one year, more than doubling. Median vulnerabilities also rose. The spread between mean and median points to a long tail of heavily burdened applications, including extreme outliers with tens of thousands of findings.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://medium.com/@hugolu87/openclaw-vs-claude-code-in-5-mins-1cf02124bc08
Tomi Engdahl says:
BlacksmithAI: Open-source AI-powered penetration testing framework
BlacksmithAI is an open-source penetration testing framework that uses multiple AI agents to execute different stages of a security assessment lifecycle.
https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2026/03/02/blacksmithai-open-source-ai-powered-penetration-testing-framework/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/1rfgzit/making_webassembly_a_firstclass_language_on_the/