BLAST is a very powerful and widely used method for querying large sequence databases for sequence proximity with a sequence of interest. This difficult problem requires a fast algorithm designed for nucleic and protein sequences only since their alphabet is limited (5 bases for nucleotides, 21 amino acids for protein), but sequence length can be very long (more than 40000 amino). An example of BLAST installation and usage is provided below.
BLAST Installation
Basic Local Alignment (...)
If in doubt, go for Python :-)
There are many ways to compare the "popularity" of programming languages used nowadays. It can be monitored from the demands of companies nearby you, from the relationships you may have access to (aka "the developpers"), or even by following the guidance of (...)