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Programming Trends on StackOverflow

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Re: Programming Trends on StackOverflow

#41

Post by michaelwww »

GFischer wrote: post #23

Add to the TIOBE data, and it doesn't look pretty for Microsoft. http://www.tiobe.com/index.php/content/paperinfo/tpci/index.... I suspect it's because of the failure of Microsoft in the mobile space.

I think it's an exaggeration to say "it doesn't look pretty for Microsoft" especially since the drop in C# can be explained in part by Microsoft actively encouraging C# devs to start writing TypeScript/JavaScript applications. Microsoft has decided the future is TypeScript. If you want C# on mobile your best bet is to look at Xamarin, which is run by Miguel de Icaza of Mono fame. I'm curious how much MS has invested in that company.

Reference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-5nExkCvAY

Re: Programming Trends on StackOverflow

#42

Post by joshuak »

It seems to me that this graph represents newness not popularity (to the degree it represents anything at all). That is when tech is new or has a new release more questions are asked about it. Once those questions are answered, fewer and fewer questions remain.

However, the problem is there are lots of noise sources. Is the tech complicated/confusing so lots of clarifying questions are asked? Are there lots of updates and releases? It the tech a lot larger in scope, such that it takes more questions to cover it? Is it in very heavy use and people are typically well versed in it so there are fewer questions? etc.

All in all I'm afraid it is hard to draw any meaningful conclusions from this, and easy to be mislead.

Re: Programming Trends on StackOverflow

#43

Post by brudgers »

oneeyedpigeon wrote: post #14

Interesting data. The founders (Joel Spolsky, Jeff Atwood) are strong proponents of Windows programming, and the initial popularity of .net and c# make a lot of sense in that context. As the site has become more and more popular, the audience now consists of many people who aren't even aware of who those founders are, let alone follow their work. As such, the language spread is much more representative. As someone wh…

Given StackOverflow's structure and operational methods, one would expect questions about products in the Microsoft stack to decline as searches return more relevant answers.

To put it another way, as the site matures, more questions about x will tend to correlate to the inverse of x's formal repositories of knowledge.

A user who finds an answer to their ASP.NET question on StackOverflow, doesn't ask a new question.

Re: Programming Trends on StackOverflow

#44

Post by jacobparker »

podperson wrote: post #6
damian2000 wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes that's how I originally tried it, but it was hard to pick out the trends since a bunch of lines were grouped together. Admit that the way its been done here is fairly strange, hopefully its useful to someone.

Another option would be a stacked area graph like this (the one on the right) http://www.asymco.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Screen-Shot...

Wow. Stacked area charts are so bad at conveying information efficiently or honestly - this one would be a good parody if it wasn't presumably an honest attempt.

RE: dishonesty, see for example http://www.leancrew.com/all-this/2011/11/i-hate-stacked-area...

RE: inefficiency, note how bad the trend lines become near the top as the noise accumulates from the curves below. e.g. the galaxy tab curve on the left. I am reduced to visually converting areas into numbers (something humans are quite bad at) and searching for the previous data point, etc.

The one major thing this chart has going for it, though, is that it makes me want to play some old school video games.

See also: http://www.edwardtufte.com/tufte/books_vdqi

Re: Programming Trends on StackOverflow

#45

Post by mattmanser »

brudgers wrote: post #43
oneeyedpigeon wrote: post #14

Interesting data. The founders (Joel Spolsky, Jeff Atwood) are strong proponents of Windows programming, and the initial popularity of .net and c# make a lot of sense in that context. As the site has become more and more popular, the audience now consists of many people who aren't even aware of who those founders are, let alone follow their work. As such, the language spread is much more representative. As someone wh…

Given StackOverflow's structure and operational methods, one would expect questions about products in the Microsoft stack to decline as searches return more relevant answers. To put it another way, as the site matures, more questions about x will tend to correlate to the inverse of x 's formal repositories of knowledge. A user who finds an answer to their ASP.NET question on StackOverflow, doesn't ask a new question.

In the lifetime of the site c# 3 came out with a lot of new programming paradigms, ASP.Net MVC has come out, Silverlight has come and gone, WPF has gone from being something no-one uses to something a lot of people do and windows phone and now windows 8 have come out.

Contrast that to Java which had Android, which people don't seem to bother tagging as Java? And that's about it I think? And Java grew and stabilized, so it really is probably just down to their initial users consisted overwhelmingly of .Net developers.

Re: Programming Trends on StackOverflow

#47

Post by raelshark »

brudgers wrote: post #43
oneeyedpigeon wrote: post #14

Interesting data. The founders (Joel Spolsky, Jeff Atwood) are strong proponents of Windows programming, and the initial popularity of .net and c# make a lot of sense in that context. As the site has become more and more popular, the audience now consists of many people who aren't even aware of who those founders are, let alone follow their work. As such, the language spread is much more representative. As someone wh…

Given StackOverflow's structure and operational methods, one would expect questions about products in the Microsoft stack to decline as searches return more relevant answers. To put it another way, as the site matures, more questions about x will tend to correlate to the inverse of x 's formal repositories of knowledge. A user who finds an answer to their ASP.NET question on StackOverflow, doesn't ask a new question.

I can say anecdotally this applies to me. I use ASP.NET and C# heavily and am a daily user on StackOverflow, but I rarely find myself needing to ask a question there. I usually just find an answer to what I need and vote and favorite accordingly. It's become more of a repository of information for me than when it started out.

Some drop in ASP.Net/C# popularity wouldn't surprise me either though.

Re: Programming Trends on StackOverflow

#49

Post by pavs »

kailuowang wrote: post #29

I am a little surprised how comfortably PHP has remained as one of the top ranked tag. It's not consistent with the trend here on HN.

I am teaching myself php (my first language) and I have seen that outside HN eco-chamber (and some other similar small community), PHP is not only very popular the communities are very newbe friendly.

Re: Programming Trends on StackOverflow

#50

Post by yen223 »

spyc3r wrote: post #39
oneeyedpigeon wrote: post #14

Interesting data. The founders (Joel Spolsky, Jeff Atwood) are strong proponents of Windows programming, and the initial popularity of .net and c# make a lot of sense in that context. As the site has become more and more popular, the audience now consists of many people who aren't even aware of who those founders are, let alone follow their work. As such, the language spread is much more representative. As someone wh…

It probably has more to do with the maturity of the framework and less to do with audience popularity (although I'm sure that is a factor). That's just the nature of SO. The ios graph demonstrates this.

Agreed. Most of the easier .Net questions have already been answered. Most of the harder ones too, thanks to Jon Skeet.
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