The Rise And Fall of Languages in 2013

After three years of this posting Java and C# just diving ,mainly because JavaScript,all the languages that bet on the browser are increasing,all these free mVC JAVAScript bases ones,and for those that don´t want MVC,there are options like DELPHI+UNIGUI.CLR JIT JVM are things of the past,the Browser is the new machine.

The Python community can be prickly as well if you don't do it in the "Pythonic Way".

Why will speed be needed more now than in the past?

Would JavaScript rank number nine without the existence and growth of use of server-side Node.js? Node.js has enabled JavaScript to appear on more devices as the front end for a mobile application that's running efficiently, that is to say, not in JavaScript, on the back end. And where does Node.js show up in your survey. Perhaps it doesn't at all.

I think that C++ will show an increase in usage when the developers start to use concurrency features of C++ 11 standard and libraries built on them, like Microsoft Concurrency Runtime. Beside, we are entering the state when speed is needed more and more. C++, with appropriate third party libraries will give us performance and productivity.

"the last notable advantage Perl enjoyed: CPAN"

Surely the prickly user community remains as a notable advantage in Perl's favor.

I did read your blog post. You don't understand when percentages can and cannot be compared. You wrote: "There's no conclusion you can make from comparing percentages with different denominators."
Percentages from different sample sizes can be usefully and accurately compared. What exactly do you think pollsters do?
You are suggesting I can't compare the Democrat margin of victory in the 2008 and 2012 presidential elections b/c the total number of voters was different? Your argument makes no sense whatsoever.
Please stop throwing around wild terms like "unethical" when you don't understand the fundamental arithmetic.

I understand that you don't have the absolute numbers and didn't read the link that I posted. There's no conclusion you can make from comparing percentages with different denominators. I know which point you are trying to make, but the numbers you show cannot support it.

Furthermore, you are basing your arguments on Ohloh's numbers from the projects they track. They don't track everything and misclassify quite a bit, which I know by looking at their incomplete record of my own contributions.

It borders on the unethical to continue to push conclusions for which you don't have the data and for which you know the data are incomplete, even if you are accidentally right.

You don't understand my point or, actually, what the numbers mean. If Perl's % is shrinking (as it has been for years), then it means that Perl's role in programming is declining--regardless of whether the programming universe is expanding or shrinking.

The fact that it might be growing in absolute numbers is immaterial if that growth is significantly slower than the growth of the programming ecosystem.

The problem with these analyses is that you can't compare year to year percentages since there's a moving denominator. Although the percentage of everything that is Perl can falling, Perl itself is growing. Although Python might look like it is gaining, that doesn't say thing in relationship to anything else.

It's a serious lack of numeric literacy that allows people to accept these irrelevant plots.

I show how this works (and doesn't work) in "Don't Compare Percentages" http://use.perl.org/use.per...

I don't particularly care if Perl or Python or something else is "winning". There's space for everything to flourish. However, if we are going to talk about trends, we have to do the math right, and these analyses don't.

Will wait for the article on Nimrod!, can't wait to try it.

The phrase "training wheels" is a bit insulting. C++ has deep and subtle complexity which a few find quite useful but most find pointlessly confusing. Java's relative simplicity is an advantage for the vast bulk of work.

Simple is better then complex.

Like standards, the nice thing about languages (both computer and human) is that there are so many! Choose the right one for the job at hand. I do most of my coding in C++, kernel work in C, and web development in PhP. I've used professionally many other languages over the years including Java, Cobol, Dibol, Assembler (for a number of chip architectures), Basic, VB, C#, SoftTalk, Snobol, Prolog, and at least several others, including many scripting languages. I have even written my own scripting interpreters in the deep dark past when there wasn't anything suitable for what I needed to do. I'd probably use Python for that now.

All that aside, my preferred low-level language is C++, simply because when I need to I can do stuff more simply in C without breaking anything, like low-level device control. I consider Java to be C++ with training wheels, and PhP to be pseudo-C++ with embedded HTML capabilities; however the differences between C++ and PhP will often bite you in the nether regions! :-)

For mobile device programming these days, Java and it's pushy cousin Dalvik, seem to be pretty popular, but mostly because the device/OS manufacturers are pushing it. Then there are WebApps - another approach for building mobile apps that is gathering steam.

I guess the point that I am trying to make is that any professional developer these days needs to be polyglot - no one language will serve all purposes.