Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

TIOBE : C overtakes Java as the No.1 programming language

pixelstech.net

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 68 posts

Re: TIOBE : C overtakes Java as the No.1 programming language

#21

Post by sophacles »

Aedan wrote: post #10

Excuse my apparent ignorance, but people are still programming in C? Why? On which fields? Is there something C can do better than Java or C#?

Off the top of my head, big important projects written in C, which are still actively developed:

* Linux

* GNU

* Apache

* Ruby

* Python

* nginx

* mysql

* posgresql

* Redis

* VMWare

* OpenSSL

* Almost everything "embedded"

Because C allows extreme control and performance. Anecdotally, a lot of people write in higher level languages, then rewrite critical bits in C for that speed boost. In many cases they just start at C if they know it requires certain levels of performance, for instance code on massive super computers or super low latency communications packages.

Re: TIOBE : C overtakes Java as the No.1 programming language

#22

Post by stephencanon »

Aedan wrote: post #10

Excuse my apparent ignorance, but people are still programming in C? Why? On which fields? Is there something C can do better than Java or C#?

> Is there something C can do better than Java or C#?

I write systems code in C and Assembly for a living. I couldn't possibly do my job using Java or C#. In fact, as an experienced C programmer, I honestly can't imagine choosing to use C# or Java to do anything -- I'd rather be writing either in C or in something "higher level".

Re: TIOBE : C overtakes Java as the No.1 programming language

#23

Post by davesims »

gukjoon wrote: post #9

A bit of the ole Ralph Nadar effect going on here, I presume. Java's share is being cannibalized by Groovy, Scala, Clojure, etc. They should start making a JVM ranking to start consolidating all those languages.

As Javascript's is cannibalized by node, jquery, ember, etc., etc., etc.

Re: TIOBE : C overtakes Java as the No.1 programming language

#24

Post by draegtun »

eliben wrote: post #15

Please, please, stop with this TIOBE nonsense. This index is a joke - can't someone with a burning desire for a weekend project create an open-sourced index website and engage with other hackers to incrementally improve it?

The Transparent Language Popularity Index is an opensource alternative: http://lang-index.sourceforge.net/

Re: TIOBE : C overtakes Java as the No.1 programming language

#25

Post by [deleted] »

buro9 wrote: post #14
mrcharles wrote: post #6

Their methodology is suspect as hell: "TIOBE Programming Community Index is an indicator of the programming language trends. It is updated monthly, this list is based on the number of experienced programmers,courses and third-party vendors on the Internet. It uses the well-known search engines (such as Google, MSN, Yahoo) as well as Wikipedia and YouTube to calculate the ranking." Frankly that doesn't sound like a pr…

It is meant to be nothing but a trend indicator. Taken as such, and knowing that the methodology they use is flawed but mostly constant, then it actually works OK.

[deleted]

Re: TIOBE : C overtakes Java as the No.1 programming language

#26

Post by mikegirouard »

krollew wrote: post #18

I think that there is no need to check popularity of C and compare it to other ones. Even if C isn't most often used programming language anymore, it is and will be programming language number 1. Most popular languages are not realy different from C. Python, Ruby, PHP, Perl, Lisp - ok. those languages are different, OK. But C++, C# and Java are just C made bit more convienient tool for object oriented programming. Mo…

PHP is very much akin to C. I wouldn't categorize it w/Ruby or Lisp.

Re: TIOBE : C overtakes Java as the No.1 programming language

#27

Post by spullara »

davesims wrote: post #23
gukjoon wrote: post #9

A bit of the ole Ralph Nadar effect going on here, I presume. Java's share is being cannibalized by Groovy, Scala, Clojure, etc. They should start making a JVM ranking to start consolidating all those languages.

As Javascript's is cannibalized by node, jquery, ember, etc., etc., etc.

None of those are languages. CoffeeScript does come to mind though.

Re: TIOBE : C overtakes Java as the No.1 programming language

#28

Post by super_mario »

Aedan wrote: post #10

Excuse my apparent ignorance, but people are still programming in C? Why? On which fields? Is there something C can do better than Java or C#?

Compilers and interpreters for almost all other languages are written mostly in C or C++. Most of OS kernels, APIs, shells, command line utilities, my favorite editor etc are all written in C. Not a day goes by that I don't download C code, make and install it on my system. So, I think C will remain one of the most popular languages around.

Re: TIOBE : C overtakes Java as the No.1 programming language

#29

Post by davidw »

eliben wrote: post #15

Please, please, stop with this TIOBE nonsense. This index is a joke - can't someone with a burning desire for a weekend project create an open-sourced index website and engage with other hackers to incrementally improve it?

LangPop.com is a lot better than TIOBE, but I'm not sure about open sourcing it... I'd kind of like to sell it for a bit of money and get out of running it (which I haven't actually been doing much of lately).

The one thing I can't stand about TIOBE is not the index itself - it is what it is - but the breathless announcements about so and so overtaking this or that, like it's a horse race.

Re: TIOBE : C overtakes Java as the No.1 programming language

#30

Post by spitfire »

draegtun wrote: post #24
eliben wrote: post #15

Please, please, stop with this TIOBE nonsense. This index is a joke - can't someone with a burning desire for a weekend project create an open-sourced index website and engage with other hackers to incrementally improve it?

The Transparent Language Popularity Index is an opensource alternative: http://lang-index.sourceforge.net/

People are still using Eiffeil and Overon? All the other results I believe (Even clipper and module-2), but that is a bridge too far.
Post reply on HN