Languages Of Choice

languages of choice: The dominant languages in open-source development. Currently C, Perl, Python, Java and LISP. -- from the JargonFile: http://www.jargon.8hz.com/html/L/languages-of-choice.html

Note that this entry is undated, and could have come from as far back as 1996 (soon after Java was getting popular).

Furthermore, the "LISP" citation in that list almost certainly refers exclusively to EmacsLisp. No other variant of LispLanguage (even SchemeLanguage and CommonLisp, the two most common non-Emacs Lisps today) has ever been anywhere close to being a "dominant" language in open-source development. -- SmugYetHumbleLispWeenie?

We can objectively measure ProgrammingLanguagePopularity ("the top languages used on SourceForge in December 2004") which gives a slightly different list:

C++, C, Java, PhpLanguage, Perl, Python, JavaScript, ...

I am not sure that is a good metric, however. Corporations and other issues often dictate languages that may not be a developer's first choice. Plus, SourceForge is perhaps not representative of languages under actual commercial use. I am pretty sure that Visual Basic is used more than Python in practice.

If by "good metric" you mean "one that confirms my pre-conceived notions", I agree, it's a terrible metric. I thought VisualBasic would be far more popular. Lots of other people *suspect* that Visual Basic is extremely popular. But is there any way to objectively measure it ?

Yes, people often require programmers to use (what are percieved to be) MainstreamLanguage.

I would really be interested in a list of the top 10 languages in actual commercial use. Especially if it turns out that that list is different from my pre-conceived suspicions.

I would also be interested in what languages *are* a developers first choice, since "commercially popular" and "open-source popular" are biased against new languages (and biased towards heavily-hyped languages) for historical (rather than technical) reasons. I would far rather use a technically superior language, no matter how young or old it is.

Why do you think "Visual Basic is used more than Python in practice"? Is there any good metric (or at least a better metric)? All the evidence I see says that Python is used more than Visual Basic by a ratio of 7 to 4.

-- DavidCary

Are you looking for TheMostWidelyUsedProgrammingLanguageAtAnyLevel?

I used to know 3 of the languages of choice. Alas, now I know only one. However, I think I'm going to learn 2 more fairly soon. -- DavidCary

Man, it sucks when your skills leave unexpectedly. -- WhySympathizeWithTheUnemployed

ProgrammingLanguageUsageStatistics pointed me to http://www.dedasys.com/articles/language_popularity.html which gives:

"Craig's List jobs search engine" gives us a very different list:

SQL, Java, C, Unix, PHP, C++, Perl, Windows, C#, Visual Basic, shell, Delphi, Python, Cobol, ...

See TrulySkilledProgrammers RealLanguage MainstreamLanguage