Microsoft C# named programming language of 2012

IT World ^ | 01/28/2013 | Sophie Curtis, Techworld

[SeekAndFind]

Microsoft's C# has been crowned the number one programming language of the year by the PopularitY of Programming Language (PYPL) index.

Although Java is still the most widely used programming language in the world, C#'s popularity grew by 2.3% in 2012 - more than any other programming language during the same period. The growth of C# is thought to come at the expense of C and Visual Basic.

Java had a 28.3% developer share in 2012, even though its usage went down 0.3%. PHP, whose market share was down 1.6% to 15.4%, was the second most popular. C# and C++ came in joint third, each with a 10.5% share.

C and Javascript, both dropped down two places, from third to fifth place and fifth to seventh place respectively. Python dropped from fifth to sixth place, despite growing 0.9% in popularity and becoming the second most popular language in the US.

The PYPL index is created by analysing how often language tutorials are searched on Google. The more a specific language tutorial is searched, the more popular the language is assumed to be.

According to Nat Friedman, CEO of cross-platform app creation platform Xamarin, the launch of Windows 8 has played an important role in the growth of C# in 2012. C# remains the dominant language of third-party application development on Windows devices.

However, other features such as asynchronous programming, garbage collection, type safety and the ability to execute applications quickly have all contributed to the popularityof C# among mobile developers. The potability of C# is also key, according to Friedman.

"Between Windows, iOS and Android, your C# code can run on over 2.2 billion devices. And beyond mobile, C# is highly portable in a wide range of environments across the spectrum of mobile, embedded, desktop, and server computing," he said in a blog post.

The results of the PYPL index conflict with those of the better known TIOBE Programming Community Index, which ranks language popularity based on the number of skilled engineers world-wide, courses and third party vendors.

TIOBE is broader in scope, in that it uses Google, Bing, Yahoo, Wikipedia, Amazon, YouTube and Baidu to calculate the ratings. However, it uses the word "programming" in the search phrase rather than "tutorial", which PYPL claims is "misleading".

According to TIOBE's December 2012 results, Objective-C is the language of the year, rising 4.3% in popularity during 2012. C had the greatest developer share (18.7%), followed by Java with 17.6% and Objective-C with 11.1%.

Meanwhile, C# dropped a place to fifth place with a rating of 5.5%, and PHP was placed sixth.

"TIOBE is a lagging indicator. Among other things, it counts the number of web pages with the language name. Objective-C programming has over 28 million pages, while C programming has only 11 million. This explains why Objective-C has a high TIOBE ranking," stated a post on the PYPL web page.

"But who is reading those Objective-C web pages? Hardly anyone, according to Google Trends data. Objective C tutorial are searched 6 times less than Javascript tutorial. Javascript has a 7.9% share of search, so Objective-C has a share of 1.3%."

TIOBE will announce its own programming language of the year 2012 later this month.

[SeekAndFind]

The PYPL PopularitY of Programming Language index

The PYPL PopularitY of Programming Language index is created by analyzing how often language tutorials are searched on Google : the more a specific language tutorial is searched, the more popular the language is assumed to be. It is a leading indicator. The raw data comes from Google Trends, so that anyone can verify it, or make the analysis for his own country.

If you believe in collective wisdom, the PyPL Popularity of Language index can help you decide which language to study, or which one to use in a new software project. Click on a language in the table below to perform your own popularity analysis for your country.

Position Feb 2013	Position Feb 2012	Delta in position	Programming language	Share in Feb 2013	Delta Feb 2012
1	1		Java	29.0 %	-0.6 %
2	2		PHP	14.6 %	-1.2 %
3	5		C#	10.5 %	+1.8 %
4	6		Python	10.3 %	+1.0 %
5	4		C++	9.8 %	+1.1 %
6	3		C	9.6 %	-0.9 %
7	7		Javascript	7.5 %	-0.2 %
8	8		Visual Basic	3.8 %	-0.7 %
9	9		Ruby	2.9 %	+0.1 %
10	10		Perl	1.9 %	-0.4 %
© 2012 Pierre Carbonnelle			Total:	100.0 %	0.0 %

[SeekAndFind]

A possible interpretation of this diagram is :

• Java and javascript are fairly stable
• which language is taking advantage of PHP's decline, if confirmed ? It's too early to say
• there is a curious dance between C# and C in 2009-2011
• the growth of C# comes at the expense of C++ and Basic
• the growth of Python comes at the expense of Perl

[Olog-hai]

There any resources for C♭?

[SeekAndFind]

RE: There any resources for C♭? Not even sure if such a NOTE exists. :)

[Jeff Chandler]

#10 Perl 1.9 % -0.4 %
.
Perl is pretty much dead. I can’t believe anybody is still using it. . . . oops

[Jeff Chandler]

RE: There any resources for C♭? Not even sure if such a NOTE exists. :) . Of course it does. It's called "B".

[softwarecreator]

I agree with them.  I use, or have used, most of the popular languages (PHP, PERL, C++, Java, Python, etc) and find it to be the best for web and windows applications.

[OneWingedShark]

I contest the result!
Ada 2012 is the language of 2012... it’s even in the name.

Oh, you’re talking about the popularity index.

[SeekAndFind]

RE: Perl is pretty much dead. I can’t believe anybody is still using it. . . . oops

I believe this FR site uses Perl.

[Revolting cat!]

See pound? It was supposed to die the year it came out, I remember!

[Revolting cat!]

I believe this FR site uses Perl.

What about the other FR site?

[JRandomFreeper]

The more a specific language tutorial is searched, the more popular the language is assumed to be.

What the heck kind of screwed up metric is that? The more you have to go to the book because of a hard-to-use, lack of logic language the more popular it is?

/johnny

[Jeff Chandler]

I believe this FR site uses Perl.

High praise indeed!

[SeekAndFind]

RE: I use, or have used, most of the popular languages (PHP, PERL, C++, Java, Python, etc) and find it to be the best for web and windows applications.

The MONO PROJECT is a free and open source project who purpose is only to allow developers to be able to run Microsoft .NET applications cross-platform, but also to bring better development tools to Linux developers.

Mono can be run on many software systems including Android (and most other Linux distributions), BSD, iOS, OS X, Windows, Solaris, and some for game consoles such as PlayStation 3, Wii, and Xbox 360.

The Mono team actually has a BUILDING provided for them by Microsoft near their HQ.

Click here for the official MONO website.

[Jeff Chandler]

The potability of C# is also key, according to Friedman.

That may be, but personally, I'd rather drink Java.

[OneWingedShark]

I agree with them. I use, or have used, most of the popular languages (PHP, PERL, C++, Java, Python, etc) and find it to be the best for web and windows applications.

I dunno; there are somethings that are just a bear* to work with -- granted, I'm saying this as a programmer who has to maintain/develop for a program that was put together by a kid in an internship position (likely unfamiliar w/ the C# and the .NET framework) that from all accounts was a (more or less) transliteration of an Access DB somebody had put together.

* -- I'm looking at you, DataGridView.

[andyk]

Potability - bwahahaha!

[JRandomFreeper]

Perl is pretty much dead.

Oooohhh... a programming language holy war.

Personally, I never left Turbo Pascal for a high-level language. And there's always assembler for important stuff. ;)

/johnny

[dangus]

PHP’s decline is fairly slight, so far. Therefore, Python’s growth has been more at the expense of Perl than PHP. But if PHP’s decline continues and/or accelerates (as I believe it will), it will be because of Python. Ironically, C# is probably helping PHP’s shelf life, because C# is a great back-end language, but not as widely used for serving web pages. And with ASP a joke...

I’m rather amazed that there is little movement in Javascript, with client-side programming such an emerging technology.

Some visible issues with the PyPL Index: You can see in a single month a sharp drop (about 2.5-3%) in the popularity of C, matching a simultaneous pop (1.5-2%) in the popularity of C#. I don’t believe any change was made that suddenly and that isolated from any larger trend; to me, it seems one key element of the index was changed, and the entire effect was reported at once.

[Olog-hai]

Heh. It almost exists on a fretless guitar . . .