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Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:
Python sits firmly in top place in the newest annual ranking of popular programming languages by IEEE Spectrum.
The ranking and others like it are meant to help developers understand the popularity of languages in a world where no one really knows what programmers are using on their laptops.
IEEE Spectrum has placed Python in first spot since 2017, and last year it was just ahead of C++. The top language is given a score of 100, and all languages with lower scores are scaled in relation to it. C++ last year scored 99.7, followed by Java at 97.5, and C with 96.7.
Today, in the IEEE Spectrum's sixth annual ranking, Python's 100 is a long way ahead of runner-up Java's 96.3 score, while C is in third place with 94.4. C++ has slipped to fourth with 87.5, while in fifth is specialist statistical computing language R with a score of 81.5.
The magazine for engineering members of IEEE, the world's biggest engineering and applied-science organization, attributes Python's popularity to the vast number of specialized libraries it has, especially for developers building artificial-intelligence applications.
[...] They go on to note that Facebook, which was originally built with PHP, launched its alternative to PHP, Hack, in 2014 and since then JavaScript, TypeScript and Python have become the most popular languages for web development.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by DannyB on Monday September 16 2019, @06:31PM (2 children)
(reposted from the COBOL topic)
I've got language bigotry myself. (eg, Perl) I've seen it here on SN.
Here is a true thing: If there were one perfect programming language, everyone would be using it already.
(Or at least migrating to it.)
If there is a language you don't like, but it is among the top languages in use and top languages for high paying job offers, then there is probably a reason for that. Even if you are too
dumbuninformed to realize why these languages have such high level placement.Different languages have a better fit for different porpoises.
Would you write a device driver in PHP? Yet PHP seems to work great for creating small one-off pages or sites -- which then morph into Facebook. Which is one my problems with dynamic language. I love the quick one-off-ness of Lisp or Python. But I wouldn't write a gigantic system like I maintain at work in such a language. An earlier generation of software that I work on was in a "dynamic / duck type" language (specific to Microsoft) and as the code base grew I came to understand why such languages are inappropriate for this. Despite how appealing they are for small quick projects or one-off tasks.
Clearly C and C++ have a place, but not in the software I write. But people who should know better, here on SN, just don't get it.
If you're going to criticize a language because it has certain warts or artifacts of evolution, then I would point out the thing about throwing rocks and glass houses.
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 16 2019, @08:20PM (1 child)
No they wouldn't for the same reasons you have both inches and centimeters: Vendor locking and backwards compatibility.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Monday September 16 2019, @09:46PM
If it were perfect (whatever that means, ideal for all uses, users, maybe other virtues), then there would be a huge incentive.
Niether inches nor centimeters are "inherently" perfect -- although there might be various pros and cons to using them.
I see programming languages as being in the pros and cons, rather than perfection category. If there were perfection, I think it would overcome vendor inertia and other factors.
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.