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Employers Want JavaScript, But Developers Want Python, Survey Finds (infoworld.com)
An anonymous reader quotes InfoWorld:
When it comes to which programming languages are in demand by employers, JavaScript, Java, Python, C++, and C -- in that order -- came out on top in a recent developer survey. Developers, however, want to learn languages like Python, Go, and Kotlin. A survey of developers by technical recruiter HackerRank, conducted in October, found no gap between languages employers want and what developers actually know, with JavaScript barely edging out Java...
HackerRank also found gaps in JavaScript frameworks between what employers want and what developers know. The React JavaScript UI library had the biggest delta between employers and developers, with about 37 percent of employers wanting React skills but only about 19 percent of developers having them... [But] problem-solving skills are the most-sought by employers, more than language proficiency, debugging, and system design.
The survey involved 39,441 developers, and concluded that "Python ruled among all age groups," according to Application Development Trends, "except for those 55 years or older, who narrowly prefer C."
HackerRank also found gaps in JavaScript frameworks between what employers want and what developers know. The React JavaScript UI library had the biggest delta between employers and developers, with about 37 percent of employers wanting React skills but only about 19 percent of developers having them... [But] problem-solving skills are the most-sought by employers, more than language proficiency, debugging, and system design.
The survey involved 39,441 developers, and concluded that "Python ruled among all age groups," according to Application Development Trends, "except for those 55 years or older, who narrowly prefer C."
I would have answered the survey with the majority.
Personally I learned and started using both Python and Javascript late in my career that goes all the way back to writing assembly language on the CDC 6000 and I can't remember how many languages I used. (DIBOL anyone? APL?). As with most software engineers I read Javascript seems to be one of the most unprofessionally crafted languages ever put into wide use.
The updates to Javascript (ES5/ES6) go a long way to fixing things. However I have often wondered how much the world would be different had Python been used as the in-browser programming language rather than JS (ECMAscript) from the start.
The only problem I think Python would introduce is its dependence on white space as a syntactically significant element. That seems like a small compromise. Anyone else think this?