“Programming language Python is now firmly the second most popular programming language, for the first time knocking Java out of the top two places in RedMonk’s language popularity rankings,” reports ZDNet:

It’s the first time since 2012 that Java is not one of the top two most popular languages in the developer analyst firm’s programming language popularity list. The company’s previous rankings in March placed machine-learning propelled Python in a tie for second place with Java, behind JavaScript.

RedMonk’s influential programming popularity rankings are based on GitHub and Stack Overflow data. The company combines them “for a ranking that attempts to reflect both code (GitHub) and discussion (Stack Overflow) traction”, says RedMonk analyst Stephen O’Grady, who notes “all numerical rankings should be taken with a grain of salt….

“Python is the first non-Java or JavaScript language ever to place in the top two of these rankings by itself, and would not have been the obvious choice for that distinction in years past,” O’Grady notes, comparing it to Perl in its heyday because it has become a “language of first resort” and the “glue” for thousands of small projects, while enjoying high adoption in growing categories such as data science…

Five-year-old systems-programming language Rust, created by Mozilla, has hit a more positive milestone, for the first time becoming the 20th most popular language in RedMonk’s rankings.
Last week IEEE Spectrum also declared Python “dominated” their assessment of language popularity (compiled from 11 different online metrics), followed by Java and C (and then C++ and JavaScript).

of this story at Slashdot.

…read more

Source:: Slashdot