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C Programming Language 'Has Completed a Comeback' (infoworld.com)
InfoWorld reports that "the once-declining C language" has "completed a comeback" -- citing its rise to second place in the Tiobe Index of language popularity, the biggest rise of any language in 2017. An anonymous reader quotes their report:
Although the language only grew 1.69 percentage points in its rating year over year in the January index, that was enough beat out runners-up Python (1.21 percent gain) and Erlang (0.98 percent gain). Just five months ago, C was at its lowest-ever rating, at 6.477 percent; this month, its rating is 11.07 percent, once again putting it in second place behind Java (14.215 percent) -- although Java dropped 3.05 percent compared to January 2017. C's revival is possibly being fueled by its popularity in manufacturing and industry, including the automotive market, Tiobe believes...
But promising languages such as Julia, Hack, Rust, and Kotlin were not able to reach the top 20 or even the top 30, Tiobe pointed out. "Becoming part of the top 10 or even the top 20 requires a large ecosystem of communities and evangelists including conferences," said Paul Jansen, Tiobe managing director and compiler of the index. "This is not something that can be developed in one year's time."
For 2017 Tiobe also reports that after Java and C, the most popular programming languages were C++, Python, C#, JavaScript, Visual Basic .Net, R, PHP, and Perl.
The rival Pypl Popularity of Programming Language index calculates that the most popular languages are Java, Python, PHP, JavaScript, C#, C++, C, R, Objective-C, and Swift.
But promising languages such as Julia, Hack, Rust, and Kotlin were not able to reach the top 20 or even the top 30, Tiobe pointed out. "Becoming part of the top 10 or even the top 20 requires a large ecosystem of communities and evangelists including conferences," said Paul Jansen, Tiobe managing director and compiler of the index. "This is not something that can be developed in one year's time."
For 2017 Tiobe also reports that after Java and C, the most popular programming languages were C++, Python, C#, JavaScript, Visual Basic .Net, R, PHP, and Perl.
The rival Pypl Popularity of Programming Language index calculates that the most popular languages are Java, Python, PHP, JavaScript, C#, C++, C, R, Objective-C, and Swift.
C never went anywhere. Its mindshare was just continually eclipsed by whatever bullshit venture-captial-seeking-paradigm-of-the-month was en vogue for that month.
What changed? Did someone let slip that bitcoin mining can be done in C faster than with remote calls to jquery?
At some point, don't know where that is myself, one needs to look at programming practices as well, and not just the languages being used.
If you believe in privacy, and believe you have "nothing to hide" at the same time, you're a goddammed idiot
No one is seriously going to try to use C for front end web development, just as no one is seriously going to try to use Javascript in an embedded microprocessor. So what this study is doing is just pointing out where the current jobs are.
Trying to compare languages, is like asking "which is better? a band saw or a screw driver?". They're entirely different. And anyone who doesn't understand that, simply doesn't have enough experience with other programming tools yet.
Oh Lord, seriously? This again? C is more dangerous than Java the way that a KA-Bar is more dangerous than a butter knife. If you take a real programming language, hamstring it, put a bib on it, and pull its teeth so it can process nothing more than strained baby food, sure, it won't be dangerous but then again it won't do much useful either.
Write a device driver in Java or Python. Or a kernel. C will always have a place in net-connected computers. You just don't hand a loaded gun to a child and expect he'll produce something useful without blowing his foot off. C is for grown-ups and when you get big and strong and if you eat all your spinach maybe when you grow up you'll do system programming too. Until then, feel free to play around with interpreted languages that pen you in a coral so you don't do anything stupid and feel free to pretend that JIT really does mean it's compiled and just as fast as native code.
You're not suggesting that we make programs less efficient than possible because we have more resources, are you? IMO, while going nuts is not helpful, we shouldn't use resources inefficiently, or the like, "just because" we have the room - not only that, but not every programming project, career, involves software that has that sort of safety - embedded systems, for instance.
If you believe in privacy, and believe you have "nothing to hide" at the same time, you're a goddammed idiot
Everything on planet freaking earth has firmware in it now and guess what compiler makes the smallest binaries that can talk to hardware?
Yes, that's right C.
Python can talk to C, but you aren't going to write firmware or low level interrupt handling code (like reading IR pulses) or monitoring an I2C bus.
Java is C's fat lazy son that lives in the basement and consumes all available resources can do things eventually, if you give him enough resources, time, and be able to tolerate the odor.
As long as computer architecture remains constant, C will be king. It's fast, small, and get's sh*t done now. Plus once you write it in C, you can call it from any other modern programming language like Python, Java, Objective-C, Swift, etc ...
I went to a graduation party of a graduating Aerospace engineer last weekend and his advice was learn C, learn simulation and solving software like Mathematica, learn how to work in teams, and be multidiscipline in career focus for great success. He graduated from Perdue.
Attitudes like this are why people need a computer 600,000 times faster with 262144 times the memory in order to load something just to check their e-mail. I don't use Rust. I use Go when I must. It's not a bad language as new languages go - Syncthing, a project I've contributed to, uses Go and it's not terrible.
In a way you're correct. I'd agree that only about 10% of software really needs the performance and versatility of C. Most others can get away with C++, for better organization, or some other natively compiled code. Go if you like. Or Pascal if you want something old school but still strongly type checked. I actually use Pascal quite a bit myself, simply because of the free Lazarus environment. Even interpreted stuff has its place, but far less than it is used for. Just as only about 10% of software needs the power and versatility of C, only about 10% of software is appropriate for an interpreted environment. The problem is, kids coming out of school high on what some unfortunate profs (who often don't have to work in the real world) have been feeding them then start all these projects in Python and Java that have no place being written in an interpreted language. Python is good for small front ends. But then someone will want to get fancy and use PyGTK or some other frankenlibrary or else what started as a little front end simply grows beyond what is really appropriate and it becomes non-portable and a nightmare fast.
I actually have nothing against any language. I have serious problems when they are used inappropriately, though, and I have even more serious problems when what has been the best swiss army knife programmers have ever had for the better part of half a century is slagged in favour of some du jour. C never lost its place, and won't for the foreseeable future. For system programming it's not just unparalleled, it's often just simply indispensable. Computers are not people, they are electrical devices with bits and bytes, and sometimes you just need a language that embraces that rather than tries to hide it like its some dirty secret.