Posted on 12/28/2015 9:49:47 AM PST by SeekAndFind
The Python Programming Language is rising in popularity in Tiobe's monthly language index, reaching an all-time high of fourth place this month, up from fifth place last month. The language now has a rating of 4.429 percent, an increase of more than 2 percent from a year ago, when it was ranked eighth.
"[Python is] easy to learn, available everywhere, and embraced by industry. Python is the current standard in scripting," a report accompanying the index said. Tiobe uses a formula involving searches on popular search engines to gauge language popularity.
In an email, Paul Jansen, managing director at Tiobe, said Python is in use more and more as a first language at high schools and universities. Moreover, it runs on all major platforms and is very expressive, he said. While JavaScript and PHP are used for only Web scripting, Python can serve as the general scripting language for building scripts and small algorithms, as well as serving as glue code between applications, he said.
Python also scores well in the rival PyPL Popularity of Programming Language index, again coming in second place with a share of 11.6 percent, behind Java's 24.4 percent. PyPL analyzes how often languages are searched on in Google.
Elsewhere in this month's Tiobe index, Java continues its recent rise and is expected to be Tiobe's Programming Language of the Year, a title awarded to the language with the greatest increase in popularity. Java is ranked first, this time with a 20.973 percent rating. Jansen reiterated that Java is being helped by its use in Android mobile development and by the adoption of Java 8, which was introduced last year.
Objective-C, meanwhile, continues to decline. In third place a year ago, it is now in 15th place and has seen a drop of nearly 8 percentage points, leaving it with a 1.357 percent rating. "From the moment that Apple declared that Objective-C was to be replaced by Swift, there was no demand for Objective-C anymore. Obviously nobody was interested any more in learning Objective-C after this statement," said Jansen. Swift, the successor to Objective-C, has risen from 17th place a year ago to 14th place, with a 1.405 percent rating.
C comes in second place in this month's index again, with a rating of 16.460 percent, followed by C++ (5.943 percent) and C# in fifth place (4.114 percent). Respectively inishing third, fourth, and fifth in the PyPL index were PHP, with a 10.7 percent share; C# (8.9 percent); and C++ (7.6 percent).
For next year, Jansen sees big-data-related languages like R and Julia doing well, along with JavaScript and Typescript. Scala, he added, is "a serious candidate for a permanent position in the top 20." On the downside, Jansen anticipates hard times for Objective-C, Pascal, and PHP in 2016.
As Objective-C goes so does Apple. Even with Swift coming on board, Objective-C is still the foundation for all of Apple’s apps. Apple software development is dying by a thousand cuts.
“While JavaScript and PHP are used for only Web scripting...”
Has the author ever heard of Node? The Javascript ecosystem is huge. And growing fast.
I wouldn’t choose Javascript as a primary language, but you have to give credit where credit is due.
C, C++ are big with IOT programmers due to the ability to cram more code onto tiny processors. Support is exceptional and the same can be said for Python - which is Python’s Ace up its sleeve. Measure support available for any programming language to determine it’s popularity and usage, IMO.
Perl rules!
Meanwhile, in the shadows, Lisp developers continue to write enlightened code. A more elegant weapon, from a more civilized age.
People are saying Perl 6 is worth learning.
Java and Python are used to make Minecraft mods. Python is taught to children because it’s easy to read.
PHP runs WordPress. It’s not going anywhere.
And now that Unreal and Unity are “free,” C++ and C# will become more popular.
“Python can serve as the general scripting language for building scripts and small algorithms”
Give me a real programming language.
Python is nice and quick to bash something out, but it needs a compiler.
Python is first rate if you don’t need a modern UI. For batch / scripting it’s great. I’ve not explored Django very much but what little I’ve done I liked what I saw. It’s a very unique approach development.
Speaking of Lisp, I'm doing all my work in Racket these days.
| Dec 2015 | Dec 2014 | Change | Programming Language | Ratings | Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 |  |
Java | 20.973% | +6.01% |
| 2 | 1 |  |
C | 16.460% | -1.13% |
| 3 | 4 | |
C++ | 5.943% | -0.16% |
| 4 | 8 |  |
Python | 4.429% | +2.14% |
| 5 | 5 | C# | 4.114% | -0.21% | |
| 6 | 6 | PHP | 2.792% | +0.05% | |
| 7 | 9 | |
Visual Basic .NET | 2.390% | +0.16% |
| 8 | 7 | |
JavaScript | 2.363% | -0.07% |
| 9 | 10 | |
Perl | 2.209% | +0.38% |
| 10 | 18 | |
Ruby | 2.061% | +1.08% |
| 11 | 32 | |
Assembly language | 1.926% | +1.40% |
| 12 | 11 | |
Visual Basic | 1.654% | -0.15% |
| 13 | 16 | |
Delphi/Object Pascal | 1.639% | +0.52% |
| 14 | 17 | |
Swift | 1.405% | +0.34% |
| 15 | 3 |  |
Objective-C | 1.357% | -7.77% |
| 16 | 20 | |
MATLAB | 1.168% | +0.30% |
| 17 | 15 | |
Pascal | 1.147% | -0.03% |
| 18 | 12 | |
R | 1.122% | -0.51% |
| 19 | 14 | |
PL/SQL | 1.103% | -0.23% |
| 20 | 26 | |
COBOL | 0.828% | +0.17% |
| Position | Programming Language | Ratings |
|---|---|---|
| 21 | Ada | 0.823% |
| 22 | Fortran | 0.815% |
| 23 | D | 0.803% |
| 24 | Groovy | 0.778% |
| 25 | Dart | 0.757% |
| 26 | Scratch | 0.733% |
| 27 | SAS | 0.695% |
| 28 | Scala | 0.677% |
| 29 | Lisp | 0.674% |
| 30 | ABAP | 0.662% |
| 31 | Lua | 0.592% |
| 32 | Transact-SQL | 0.485% |
| 33 | Erlang | 0.459% |
| 34 | F# | 0.455% |
| 35 | Logo | 0.450% |
| 36 | Prolog | 0.445% |
| 37 | RPG (OS/400) | 0.302% |
| 38 | Scheme | 0.291% |
| 39 | Haskell | 0.284% |
| 40 | OpenEdge ABL | 0.282% |
| 41 | ActionScript | 0.278% |
| 42 | LabVIEW | 0.273% |
| 43 | (Visual) FoxPro | 0.233% |
| 44 | Ladder Logic | 0.223% |
| 45 | Awk | 0.219% |
| 46 | Rust | 0.216% |
| 47 | VBScript | 0.210% |
| 48 | ML | 0.208% |
| 49 | Apex | 0.196% |
| 50 | Go | 0.195% |
Who gave you the authority to exclude snakies?
“Give me a real programming language.”
IBM’s Basic Assembly Language (BAL)?
So they`re making a come back, alright! https://www.youtube.com/user/MontyPython
Python is a rare computer programming language in that it is well suited both for casual programmers writing small knocked-together apps and for professional developers working on complex enterprise-level applications.
Python’s popularity is kind of similar to Visual Basic 6 way back when, where even non-programmers could pick up VB6 and quickly be productive with it. (Of course Python is far more elegant and better designed.)
The C++/C#/ObjC languages have steep learning curves, and PHP and JavaScript have their own issues with scalability and weird quirks.
I would recommend Python as the first computer language to learn for anyone serious about going into software programming. After you master Python you can then ‘map’ your mental model onto those other computer languages and pick them up as you go.
Java is not a good name either.
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