Programming Languages in 2014 | Hacker News Reader

Programming Languages in 2014

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39 pointsfrostmatthew17 comments

Ode to the javascript would be a better title. Yes, javascript is getting more popular but what would be interesting is to see how javascript growth compares with growth of it's derivatives or languages that compile to it. The sheer amount work done to avoid Javascript at its current state is mind-boggling.

Wait. Python is growing? Somehow something feels off. I'm guessing that's not in the web dev field but rather in the data analysis field. Been keeping an eye out for remote web dev work with a company using python and best practices from extreme programming (especially TDD) and it's almost impossible. The most common stack I see from that kind of company is rails or a js based stack (purely subjective observation there).

Need to take a more careful look at this stuff.

> I'm guessing that's not in the web dev field but rather in the data analysis field.

I believe this is correct. Python is not likely growing in app development, but for data analysis and related backend tasks - in the same areas R is seeing a popularity boost.

Bummer for me. Learning ruby these days and trying to pick up other js related things. It's utterly overwhelming.

It is, but does not need to be destructively so. Become an expert in a few, and competent in several (over time). If app dev is your thing, with Ruby/Rails and JS you probably can't go wrong. Pick up some PHP for when you (will) encounter it.

> Dart now always compiles to JavaScript

Client-side Dart code, yes. But that's something you had to do for compatibility reasons anyways.

Also, don't forget that Dart also exists outside of browsers. It's a fast scripting language with excellent tooling. I use it for almost everything nowadays.

They are also working on a second JIT-free VM (Fletch) for iOS and similar locked-down environments. It's small, highly concurrent, pretty fast, and it supports atomic code updates via some wire protocol. So, Dart doesn't just compete with TypeScript on the browser side, it also completes with languages like Ruby, Python, and PHP on the server side and even with compact embedding-friendly languages like Lua.

Dart's future looks bright, but it's definitely a lot less browser-centric than initially anticipated.

Anybody else get the feeling the author of this post really likes TypeScript?

The second half of the article sounds like a sales pitch.

It would have been nice to see some thoughtful analysis based on the deltas of the languages from those rankings over 2014. All of those rankings are biased in their own ways, hence all of them being wildly different, but I think looking at how languages change across them paints an interesting picture.

Well, to be fair, saying a JS code-slave (of which I am one) really likes TypeScript is like saying a malnourished man lost for a month in Death Valley sustaining only on dead maggots and his own urine really likes dining at the Home Town Buffet. He would already have been overjoyed with some coffee and harmony, yet the gods decided to give him a real meal.

You won't find a single Javascript engineer who hasn't been tortured by "Undefined is not a function" or worse on a daily basis, so something that promises to liberate us from this evil is always appreciated.

  "use strict";

I guess because of karma or something I actually got the "undefined is not a function" error today. And I had no idea what was wrong!

Tried the same in NodeJS and that gave:

  Object  has no method 'bar'

So I guess it depends on what implementation of JS you use for development. Still JS is much easier to debug then assembly (compiled languages).

It seems it's a good thing I made a resolution to really grok JavaScript during 2015.

Also, sad to see Ruby usage go down. It's my day-to-day language. But then again, it's just a language/tool.

I'd take these rankings with a grain of salt.. still see quite a large demand for Ruby (granted, mostly Rails) devs and gigs.

Ruby knockoff Groovy and Rails knockoff Grails also seem to be following their non-G inspirations into obscurity.

R seems to be doing well. What's the explanation for the strong growth in R on github in Q1 and Q2 2014?

http://githut.info/

(Scroll down to "TOP ACTIVE LANGUAGES")

Will be interesting to see how Microsoft adopting GitHub and Open Source effects these numbers next year. Although I suspect the cross platform .NET support would make more of an impact.

R is in the top 20!

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