Live data from Hacker News

Python overtakes Java to become the second-most popular programming language

techrepublic.com

21–30 of 357 posts

Re: Python overtakes Java to become the second-most popular programming language

#21
post #6
post #3

Python is certainly popular, but the TIOBE Index ranking is not credible. Quote: "The ratings are based on the number of skilled engineers world-wide, courses and third party vendors. " According to this index, "Logo", beats out Rust, Scala, Kotlin, and Cobol. I cannot remind myself when I last time saw a course, book or even any source code covering Logo. This must be some very poorly vetted, automatically collected…

That C is supposed to be the most popular language makes the whole ranking questionable. The stackoverflow ranking[1] corresponds much more to my own experience in real life. [1] https://insights.stackoverflow.com/survey/2020#most-popular-...

Well, if you take away HTML/CSS and SQL, because most people would not call them programming languages, Python still comes in second, right above Java. So it's alright.

Re: Python overtakes Java to become the second-most popular programming language

#22
post #12
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That C is supposed to be the most popular language makes the whole ranking questionable. The stackoverflow ranking[1] corresponds much more to my own experience in real life. [1] https://insights.stackoverflow.com/survey/2020#most-popular-...

On the other hand the stackoverflow survey might show that C is so simple that programmers using it don't need stackoverflow :)

C is simple on the surface but it gives you enough rope to shoot yourself in the foot that even after 6 years of using it I don't dare call it simple knowing my war scars.

Re: Python overtakes Java to become the second-most popular programming language

#23
post #14

And they have C as number one? Visual Basic ranked higher than JavaScript? Groovy (!?) higher than Go, Swift and Ruby? R higher than SQL? What a joke the TIOBE index is.

There are a lot of CPUs in embedded applications, far more than the number of PCs and smartphones, I would expect most of the embedded stuff to be written in C.

Re: Python overtakes Java to become the second-most popular programming language

#24

Of the top 10, only Java has experienced a year on year drop. So, at least some of the gains are at the expense of Java. For C and C++, you're probably not going to reach for Python as a replacement. It's not like in the 90s when these were considered general purpose. If you're using them these days, it's more likely due to needing to use them. Java is still used for a lot of other things where a language like Python…

On my area of work only Java and .NET get to play, and in what concerns UNIX like platforms most customers only care about Java.

The only one that is growing, although I rather not, is Go, as we now start to jump into the same container bandwagon as everyone else. And even there it isn't taking anything away from our Java/.NET setups, rather complements them.

Re: Python overtakes Java to become the second-most popular programming language

#25
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the other hand the stackoverflow survey might show that C is so simple that programmers using it don't need stackoverflow :)

C is simple on the surface but it gives you enough rope to shoot yourself in the foot that even after 6 years of using it I don't dare call it simple knowing my war scars.

Sure, but you probably don't go to stackoverflow to help you debug it. Stackoverflow is more for "how do I do X in Y" rather than "where is the error in my million line codebase"

Re: Python overtakes Java to become the second-most popular programming language

#26
post #23
post #14

And they have C as number one? Visual Basic ranked higher than JavaScript? Groovy (!?) higher than Go, Swift and Ruby? R higher than SQL? What a joke the TIOBE index is.

There are a lot of CPUs in embedded applications, far more than the number of PCs and smartphones, I would expect most of the embedded stuff to be written in C.

[deleted]

Re: Python overtakes Java to become the second-most popular programming language

#27
post #2

We need to start ranking languages based on what people use them for. Python is certainly #1 in ML, for example, but far from #1 in web. I had a "which stack" argument with a client recently for a web server processing tons of data. He wanted to use Node (which I hate, but also use when performance doesn't matter because TypeScript is so good). I showed him that the Node library ecosystem is actually pretty weak (man…

Just curious, what other server side languages do you feel have a better library ecosystem than Node/JS?

Java and .NET.

Not only better library ecosystem, more performance and tooling.

Re: Python overtakes Java to become the second-most popular programming language

#28
post #3

Python is certainly popular, but the TIOBE Index ranking is not credible. Quote: "The ratings are based on the number of skilled engineers world-wide, courses and third party vendors. " According to this index, "Logo", beats out Rust, Scala, Kotlin, and Cobol. I cannot remind myself when I last time saw a course, book or even any source code covering Logo. This must be some very poorly vetted, automatically collected…

Logo is still very commonly used in early educational settings - maybe not typically for engineering applications, but I'm confident it has far more people using it than the other languages you list.

I recently had to use logo when migrating a model to another platform someone originally wrote in a flavor of logo. It's a mess.

Re: Python overtakes Java to become the second-most popular programming language

#29
post #21
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That C is supposed to be the most popular language makes the whole ranking questionable. The stackoverflow ranking[1] corresponds much more to my own experience in real life. [1] https://insights.stackoverflow.com/survey/2020#most-popular-...

Well, if you take away HTML/CSS and SQL, because most people would not call them programming languages, Python still comes in second, right above Java. So it's alright.

How could they even include HTML/CSS? A huge majority of people who are using Python, Java, .net, and JavaScript are going to answer yes to those.

SQL is justified though. I’ve met quite a few BAs or DBAs who can do magic in a sql developer suite but don’t have a programming bone in their body.

Post reply on HN