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New programming language rankings: Python now as popular as Java, as TypeScript climbs
Python is tying with Java as the second most popular programming language behind JavaScript, according to developer analyst RedMonk's latest ranking.
The second spot for Python is the highest position it's ever attained in RedMonk's list of top programming languages, which is based on an analysis of GitHub and Stack Overflow data. Historically, Python has been steady in fourth position but it rose to third spot three years ago in RedMonk's tables.
[...] Microsoft-maintained TypeScript for large-scale JavaScript projects has also risen one place to ninth position along with C. TypeScript could have slipped back to 15th but it continues to win developers because of its "ability to intermingle with a large existing codebase in JavaScript" and its ability to make code safer, according to O'Grady.
Rust is a popular language among developers who discuss technical challenges on StackOverflow, but it hasn't moved from its spot at 21. As O'Grady notes, Rust has the potential for core infrastructure projects but, like Google-created Go, it seems to be stuck on its current ranking. Go meanwhile has risen one place to 14.
(Score: 2, Disagree) by bradley13 on Wednesday March 04 2020, @08:12AM (14 children)
The software present on GitHub has little to do with actual, installed, productive code. And anyway, programming languages are not participants in some popularity contest.
A language is a tool. A good programmer chooses the right tool for a task. No one is going to try to use Rust on client-side browser code. No one should use Prolog to write a GUI. No one should use a scripting language like Python for back-end code, I don't care how "popular" it is.
Everyone is somebody else's weirdo.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 04 2020, @09:03AM (5 children)
That is exactly what most programming languages are. There's no rational reason why JavaScript is ubiqious on the web, or why developers still put up with languages needing header files. Programming languages, before even OS es, were the original network effected in IT.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by sgleysti on Wednesday March 04 2020, @01:41PM (4 children)
Granting that historical accident does not equate to rationality, it's the only language available in most (and all major) web browsers.
Compiler availability and other features of the language. I've done work in embedded programming, and the options were Assembler, C, and C++, with management ruling out the first of these. I don't think a compiler exists for any other language that targets the particular microcontroller we were developing against.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday March 04 2020, @04:15PM
<no-sarcasm>
I find that quite amusing. I remember the 1970s wars over Assembler versus Compiled high level languages (like C ironically). Of course the high level languages won out. Because: developer productivity. Yet ironically it is the C advocates that poo poo and denounce any language even more high level than C.
The Assembler-only crowd argued how much more efficient assembled code was. And how obviously poor compiler generated code was. (And this is back when most compilers were Pessimizing compilers -- generating code worse than the obvious translation.) Yet high level languages won.
</no-sarcasm>
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 Wednesday March 04 2020, @04:51PM (2 children)
"Assembler" is not the name of a language. Do you call C "compiler"? I mock anyone who calls Assembly Language "Assembler."
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday March 04 2020, @05:02PM (1 child)
Assembler is shorter to write. Therefore it must be more optimized?!? But you are right. It is the name of a tool, not a language.
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 Thursday March 05 2020, @12:17AM
Assembler is shorter by precisely -1 characters than the correct word.
(Score: 3, Informative) by maxwell demon on Wednesday March 04 2020, @10:27AM
No one? Are you sure? [servo.org]
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 04 2020, @01:28PM (3 children)
Challenge accepted!
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday March 04 2020, @05:10PM (2 children)
You can implement Prolog in Lisp.1
You can implement Lisp in JavaScript or Python.2
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
1Paradigms of Artificial Intelligence Programming: Case Studies in Common Lisp - Peter Norvig [amazon.com] (I got this one for Christmas in 1992 and could not put it down.)
2 Sea these:
* PyLisp - A Tiny Lisp in Python [wisc.edu]
* HyLang - A dialect of Lisp that's embedded in Python [github.com]
* (How to Write a (Lisp) Interpreter (in Python)) [norvig.com]
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 Wednesday March 04 2020, @07:55PM (1 child)
You can implement any* language in any Turing complete language.
*Any language with no greater expressivity of a Turing complete one, in case one ever becomes available.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday March 04 2020, @09:47PM
Yes, true.
But the amount of effort is a factor in whether anyone would produce a specific implementation.
Especially a goal of UI written in Prolog.
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Common Joe on Wednesday March 04 2020, @03:34PM (1 child)
I wish that were true. If there is one thing that has been hammered into my head is that if I want to eat tomorrow, I better choose a tool that I can put on my resume. I need to keep that resume hot and filled with buzzwords. Otherwise, I'm not worth anything to employers. I don't get past HR and I don't get hired. So, after two decades of fighting to use the right tool for the job, I'm considering not doing that anymore. My guess is that it will make more people happy -- me, my employer, and my customers. The end users might get screwed, but no one seems to worry about them these days.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 04 2020, @10:19PM
The solution to that problem is tenure, as one of the last lucky bastard with job security comparable to tenured professors, I have no need for resumé padding. As a result I am free to choose the right tool for the job.
Tenured positions come with theirs own set of problems but fad chasing isn't one of them and most can be solved with a sufficiently long probation (mesured in years not months) and generous use of temporary workers that have no decision power.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday March 04 2020, @04:08PM
Oh, but to read the comments, especially negative ones, programming languages are in a popularity contest. And don't get me started on "flavor of the month" frameworks.
Heresy! Or as they said on "Planet of the Apes" : Scientific Heresy!
If there were one perfect programming language, wouldn't we all already be using it?
I'll conclude with these two things:
Anyone who criticizes a language that others productively use is an idiot.
Even modern mental health care has great difficulty helping people to achieve complete recovery from having used Perl.
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.