Alternative ranking : the [PYPL index](http://pypl.github.io/PYPL.html)

Disclosure: I maintain it.

I just can't take TIOBE seriously, I don't think Kotlin is as popular as the Logo educational programming language and Rust dropping 20 positions despite adding a new keyword to it is also interesting. And Typescript isn't even measured. Yours is much more believable, but I don't see C++ there. Is this a bug or a feature? EDIT: I saw the clarification in the other comment but maybe C/C++ would be better then?

It depends what you are looking for in a rating. If you are making a new programming language and want to know which concepts and syntaxes are familiar to people, than TIOBE is probably not that far off. PYPL on the other hand seems to show how many people want to try the language, not necessarily trying or sticking with it, but more like a measure of its visibility on the market. Both are useful metrics and help to paint a better overall picture.

Kotlin is now the preferred programming language for Android development.

Another alternative ranking:

https://redmonk.com/sogrady/2018/03/07/language-rankings-1-1...

In your wordcloud graphic "Java" is twice as big as "Python"; however, in the rankings they are almost identical (Java=22.7%, Python=21.69%)

No C++ in Top 10?

> The index is currently limited to 22 languages. You can still analyze the popularity of your favorite language and compare it to others, using Google Trends. C++ has the same popularity as C on Google trends: to avoid duplication, it is not included in the PYPL index.

Hence, to avoid confusion, the table should be updated as "C and C++" (or worse, "C/C++").

That said, any index which conflates C and C++ cannot be taken seriously.

I'm surprised that Kotlin's rating is so low and PHP and VB still so high.

The world outside the bleeding edge of tech is a really, really big place. Also, software, once written, has a way of sticking around for a long time.

Ruby has been around for almost 20 years and decidedly hip for more than a decade, and only now breaking into top 10. Delphi has been more or less dead in our bubble for a couple of decades, yet only dropping out of top ten...

I know that always looking for the most recent/hyped technology is not a good thing and there is a lot of legacy code out there, but I also know that a lot of people started using Kotlin after Google announced official Android support, so if a language rating fails to capture this, then it's not a good ranking in my opinion.

Yeah, that's the point. If Kotlin remains popular, it might make the top ten in 10-15 years.

Swift made it to the top 10 instantly, there are more Android devices than iPhones so you might expect it next year or in 2020.

I keep having to remind myself of this, trying to keep up with all the fads would be a huge waste of time whilst my customers wouldn't notice anything different.

I'm not, there is a ton of legacy code out there, some of it good, some of it otherwise.

actually PHP went up. it has generally improved as a language and its frameworks matured.

> Delphi ...

I just started picking up pascal again, freepascal to be specific.

I started with pascal in school, quickly moved to C, then C++; As I gain experience and wisdom, I migrated back from C++ to C. I just discovered freepascal this year, and has been enjoying pascal again. Pascal is just like C, but cleaner.

Wow do people still use these languages enough for them to be in the top 20? I wrote a lot of Pascal after Basic and some Delphi when it came out but I haven't heard anything about either in like 15-20 years.

The thing about language popularity is mostly about its ecosystem -- libraries, teachers, friends, and corporations behind them. However, all ecosystem are transient in nature, and all code that interwines and depends on a ecosystem will go with it in time. I guess that is why as I get older, I find myself more attracted to classical languages that do not have much ecosystem anymore. It makes my code to feel less mortal in a sense.

funny how regardless on of index, interesting languages start from scala and below

Wow, R fell a lot in the last year.

Yeah true. R and MATLAB are down and Python is up, makes sense.

.NET VB ahead of JS, Ruby, Swift, Go, R? Interesting...

Swift and Objective C share the iOS platform. I would think Objective C will fall off in the next couple of years and Swift will make a big jump.

Also when Swift on the server is more mature.

There's not really a compelling reason for VB.NET to even exist at this point. It'd be lovely to have whatever effort is expended on that shifted to F#.

The great hidden mass of folks scripting Excel spreadsheets strikes me as unlikely to migrate to anything else, anytime soon.

To be fair, those users are also using VBA, which is still in the VB6 line, not the .NET VB. Visual Basic on .NET is almost identical with C#, just with different syntax, and is a second-class citizen with regards to documentation and resources.

I'm sure the VB.NET programmers would disagree.

What explains the rise of C over the last few years?

Probably the rise of IoT bringing people down the stack to microcontrollers