Java dropped off the top-two position on RedMonk's programming language rankings for 2020.

JavaScript came first and Python came second.

Java dropped to third after dominating the top two since at least 2013.

PHP, the language everyone claims to hate, came fourth. Laravel was able to salvage PHP to a large extent. Now PHP promises to have some cool and breaking changes in PHP 8.

[img]https://1.bp..com/-4ejbZHAnd2w/XypOcHqGigI/AAAAAAAAAkM/2p2FxAaDAOEqGY9UIqyXpUQV5jV-yDIbACLcBGAsYHQ/s1368/20200805_071200.jpg[/img]

Redmonk base their ranking on two datasets:

1- Number of question tags from stackexchange

2- Number of projects on GitHub.

For those who don't know.

Stackexchange is (by far) the most widely-used question and answer forum of developers. Think of it as Nairaland for programmers.

GitHub is (by far) the most widely used repository for storing and managing projects. It's like the Facebook of programmers.

See the image below for comparison of GitHub data and Stackexchange data.

[img]https://1.bp..com/-BwQAFj-vlLk/XypNB9zn17I/AAAAAAAAAjw/OYBDTtcxWGwumhQ5wixfxdJKLOistJNlgCLcBGAsYHQ/s1050/lang.rank_.120.wm_.png[/img]

And even OAU's Fortran made the list. Can you see it?

For more reading, visit:
https://redmonk.com/sogrady/2020/02/28/language-rankings-1-20/

One thing is, to be a great software engineer, you must know either Java, c, or c++ with whatever language you are good with either JS or python or any.

Java still remains the best among the best.

Coder2Client:
One thing is, to be a great software engineer, you must know either Java, c, or c++ with whatever language you are good with either JS or python or any.

Java still remains the best among the best.

Your first paragraph looks subjective and controversial to me. Many people will disagree.

Firstly, is there anything as the best language?

Each language has it's strengths and weaknesses.

For example, Java is a verbose language. So it wouldn't be a great fit for academic researchers who just want to learn some coding and get up and running with their analytics.

On the other hand, R and Python are light and relatively easy to learn so they're the choice of researchers.

C++, C# and C are low level languages. This means that they only have to be translated into binary numbers and the machine can interpret them. On the other hand, high level languages like JavaScript and Python must first be translated into a low level language before compiling to binary which the computer reads.

This means C++, C# and C are very fast and efficient. But then with greater power comes greater responsibility. With a low level language, you must do everything manually. Declaring a simple variable or writing a simple 'hello world' in C languages isn't beans. Unlike JavaScript which you can simply console.log('hello world') into your browser and you're done.

In summary, it's difficult to call a language the absolute best. At best, we can say a language is the best for a particular purpose.

As for the second part. I'll agree with you to a large extent. And that's for the following reasons.

1- Python's popularity is mainly among researchers and data/GIS analysts not among 'mainstream' developers.

2- The ranking is only on popularity not on the importance and scale of the projects done with these languages.
Perhaps that's why RedMonk itself said in it's official release that:

All numerical rankings should be taken with a grain of salt. We rank by numbers here strictly for the sake of interest. In general, the numerical ranking is substantially less relevant than the language’s tier or grouping.

GeoAfrikana:


Your first paragraph looks subjective and controversial to me. Many people will disagree.

As for the second part. I'll agree with you to a large extent. And that's for the following reasons.

1- Python's popularity is mainly among researchers and data/GIS analysts not among 'mainstream' developers.

2- The ranking is only on popularity not on the importance and scale down f the projects done with these languages.
Perhaps that's why RedMonk itself said in it's official release that:

But on what bases will people disagree on the first paragraph? Well, maybe web designers sha.

Although, language is just a tool but some languages are just more than just being a tool. You can't use PHP where you should use Java or C++, in the long run, the project owner will have to migrate his project to a better language that is scalable and maintainable.

Coder2Client:

But on what bases will people disagree on the first paragraph? Well, maybe web designers sha.

Although, language is just a tool but some languages are just more than just being a tool. You can't use PHP where you should use Java or C++, in the long run, the project owner will have to migrate his project to a better language that is scalable and maintainable.

Please review my answer, I've modified it. Hopefully, I've answered your question in it.

Yes, you can't use PHP where you should use C++. But then, you can't also use C++ where you should use PHP.

Do you agree?

Even with all the hatred PHP has been following Java and Javascript bumper to bumper for years?


I just pity newbies who hate PHP because everyone else does.

Karleb:
Even with all the hatred PHP has been following Java and Javascript bumper to bumper for years?


I just pity newbies who hate PHP because everyone else does.

Lol.

I think PHP's popularity is due to WordPress. But then, there will always be a reason for everything.

Personally, I used to have a dislike for PHP despite my love for WordPress. I just don't know why.

But this report just changed my mindset about PHP.

Coder2Client:
One thing is, to be a great software engineer, you must know either Java, c, or c++ with whatever language you are good with either JS or python or any.

Java still remains the best among the best.

No such thing as best language, depends on what u r trying to achieve

spoilerx:


No such thing as best language, depends on what u r trying to achieve

Exactly.

That's why it's better to choose a career path then choose a language that fits the path. Instead of learning a language and then trying to adapt it to your career.

That said, once you learn one language, learning another language is going to be a piece of cake.

However, it's one thing to learn a language and it's another thing to understand the philosophy of the language.

For example, the philosophy of python is that there is one and only one way to do something correctly. This means even when you have up to three apparent solutions for a problem in python, they have differences. Even though the difference might not be apparent at first site.

According to the zen of python

There should be one—and preferably only one—obvious way to do it.

Although that way may not be obvious at first unless you're Dutch.

The philosophy of Perl, on the hand, is that there are many ways to skin a cat. See below for screenshots of an answer from stackexchange.

JavaScript is blazing, cruising around the globe

talk2hb1:
Coming Back To Comment

Expecting your comment sir.

I hope the way Oracle is commercializing Java won't mark it's decline.
Java is still the king anyway.

ToyinDipo:
I hope the way Oracle is commercializing Java won't mark it's decline.
Java is still the king anyway.

I just hope so.
Last year I needed to install Java for a webmapping software (Geoserver) only to read that Java now sells licenses.
I was shocked and disappointed. Since then I've been thinking of migrating to mapserver. Mapserver is an alternative to Geoserver and it's Python friendly.

Additionally, Google has declared Kotlin as the official language of Android. It used to be Kotlin and Java but now it's Kotlin only.

You know Google owns Kotlin.

Lastly, people should forget this "Java can't die" mentality. I'm not saying Java is dying or it's dead but I'm saying it can die. Greater brands have existed before it only to become history.

Yesterday, I was speaking with a friend who's an Android developer, he's now forced to learn Kotlin. So, if you're an Android developer, please learn Kotlin if you want to remain relevant.

GeoAfrikana:

I just hope so.
Last year I needed to install Java for a webmapping software (Geoserver) only to read that Java now sells licenses.
I was shocked and disappointed. Since then I've been thinking of migrating to mapserver. Mapserver is an alternative to Geoserver and it's Python friendly.

Additionally, Google has declared Kotlin as the official language of Android. It used to be Kotlin and Java but now it's Kotlin only.

You know Google owns Kotlin.

Lastly, people should forget this "Java can't die" mentality. I'm not saying Java is dying or it's dead but I'm saying it can die. Greater brands have existed before it only to become history.

Yesterday, I was speaking with a friend who's an Android developer, he's now forced to learn Kotlin. So, if you're an Android developer, please learn Kotlin if you want to remain relevant.

There is open jdk, it doesn't require license, and the Oracle java is built atop it.

For Android development, Java will probably fade with time, because of less terse kotlin, except Java reinvents itself which to me is unnecessary.

However for enterprise development, Java will almost always remain number one, I don't really see it dying, I mean there are lots of heavy enterprise apps built with Java, and more still being built with it, because of the power of JVM, and the frameworks supporting it.

ToyinDipo:

There is open jdk, it doesn't require license, and the Oracle java is built atop it.

For Android development, Java will probably fade with time, because of less terse kotlin, except Java reinvents itself which to me is unnecessary.

However for enterprise development, Java will almost always remain number one, I don't really see it dying, I mean there are lots of heavy enterprise apps built with Java, and more still being built with it, because of the power of JVM, and the frameworks supporting it.

I concur 100%

ToyinDipo:

There is open jdk, it doesn't require license, and the Oracle java is built atop it.

For Android development, Java will probably fade with time , because of less terse kotlin, except Java reinvents itself which to me is unnecessary.

However for enterprise development, Java will almost always remain number one, I don't really see it dying, I mean there are lots of heavy enterprise apps built with Java, and more still being built with it, because of the power of JVM, and the frameworks supporting it.

@bold
That can never happen except if Google drop android os for a new one. Not all native Dev like kotlin and kotlin is not perfect either . Complaints are already dropping in for some advance aspect of kotlin in android dev. Java for Android can not fade and will never fade away.

Android does not fully support Java 8, and Java 15 is already coming with the same features that made people like kotlin which is NullPointer reference avoidance. Imagine if android supports Java 15 that's coming, with all the great features.
Kotlin is here to help Java not that it will relegate it.

I like kotlin and I work with it but Java for android is going nowhere. People are still working with it, myself inclusive.

Coder2Client:

@bold
That can never happen except if Google drop android os for a new one. Not all native Dev like kotlin and kotlin is not perfect either . Complaints are already dropping in for some advance aspect of kotlin in android dev. Java for Android can not fade and will never fade away.

Android does not fully support Java 8, and Java 15 is already coming with the same features that made people like kotlin which is NullPointer reference avoidance. Imagine if android supports Java 15 that's coming, with all the great features.
Kotlin is here to help Java not that it will relegate it.

I like kotlin and I work with it but Java for android is going nowhere. People are still working with it, myself inclusive.

I get, I am not really into mobile development, I just noticed that most Android gigs I see require Kotlin knowledge

ToyinDipo:

I get, I am not really into mobile development, I just noticed that most Android gigs I see require Kotlin knowledge

Those are probably new projects and some companies have their codebase in Java, if they would employ a new Dev, it would be someone that has both knowledge of kotlin and Java for either maintenance or to move existing projects to kotlin.

And thanks to you for saying most and not all. If you look closely to some gigs it will be Java /kotlin, right?


Do you know c++ is the third language that android supports for native app up to date?

Coder2Client:


Those are probably new projects and some companies have their codebase in Java, if they would employ a new Dev, it would be someone that has both knowledge of kotlin and Java for either maintenance or to move existing projects to kotlin.

And thanks to you for saying most and not all. If you look closely to some gigs it will be Java /kotlin, right?


Do you know c++ is the third language that android supports for native app up to date?

@emnbodened. Do you know how this sentence sounds? Like: "I know Kotlin is killing Java in Android world but I just don't like to break the hearts of those who're stuck in the Java ecosystem"

GeoAfrikana:

I just hope so.
Last year I needed to install Java for a webmapping software (Geoserver) only to read that Java now sells licenses.
I was shocked and disappointed. Since then I've been thinking of migrating to mapserver. Mapserver is an alternative to Geoserver and it's Python friendly.

Additionally, Google has declared Kotlin as the official language of Android. It used to be Kotlin and Java but now it's Kotlin only

You know Google owns Kotlin.

Lastly, people should forget this "Java can't die" mentality. I'm not saying Java is dying or it's dead but I'm saying it can die. Greater brands have existed before it only to become history.

Yesterday, I was speaking with a friend who's an Android developer, he's now forced to learn Kotlin. So, if you're an Android developer, please learn Kotlin if you want to remain relevant.

Jetbrain owns kotlin.

If you are to use jdk on your machine only and not for a company, oracle won't charge you for it, but openjdk has all what the normal jdk has

About your friend, if the company he works for demands the change of language then that's not problem as kotlin is a sister to Java. Kotlin is even simple to use if you are coming from Java background.

There is so much for you to learn about Android @bold, who told you that it's now kotlin only that's used in android studio? What Google said was, any update on Android will be kotlin first. Please, get your info right. It's still Java, Kotlin and c++.

GeoAfrikana:

@emnbodened. Do you know how this sentence sounds? Like: "I know Kotlin is killing Java in Android world but I just don't like to break the hearts of those who're stuck in the Java ecosystem"

Smile, like I said in the comment I dropped on your comment. You need to entangle yourself to Java and kotlin for you to know why people seem to like kotlin over Java, two major reasons are : handling of boilerplate code and null pointer reference. Kotlin is not killing Java in any way.

What i said in response to the other guy, is to point him to other gigs that has Java/kotlin in them and not kotlin only.

Coder2Client:


Jetbrain owns kotlin.

If you are to use jdk on your machine only and not for a company, oracle won't charge you for it, but openjdk has all what the normal jdk has

About your friend, if the company he works for demands the change of language then that's not problem as kotlin is a sister to Java. Kotlin is even simple to use if you are coming from Java background.

There is so much for you to learn about Android @bold, who told you that it's now kotlin only that's used in android studio? What Google said was, any update on Android will be kotlin first. Please, get your info right. It's still Java, Kotlin and c++.

I'm not an Android developer. I only shared what my peeps gisted me about the Android industry.

I write JavaScript and Python for webmaps and GIS analysis respectively.

GeoAfrikana:

I just hope so.
Last year I needed to install Java for a webmapping software (Geoserver) only to read that Java now sells licenses.
I was shocked and disappointed. Since then I've been thinking of migrating to mapserver. Mapserver is an alternative to Geoserver and it's Python friendly.

Additionally, Google has declared Kotlin as the official language of Android. It used to be Kotlin and Java but now it's Kotlin only.

You know Google owns Kotlin.

Lastly, people should forget this "Java can't die" mentality. I'm not saying Java is dying or it's dead but I'm saying it can die. Greater brands have existed before it only to become history.

Yesterday, I was speaking with a friend who's an Android developer, he's now forced to learn Kotlin. So, if you're an Android developer, please learn Kotlin if you want to remain relevant.

Aren't Java and Kotlin like basically the same? I thought Google liked it because it was like a simpler version of Java

Plus you can still use Java if you want - it’s not really by force

And… Google doesn’t own it. Apparently, it’s open source