Python Displaces C++ In TIOBE Index Top 3 (infoworld.com)

InfoWorld described the move as a "breakthrough": As expected, Python has climbed into the Top 3 of the Tiobe index of language popularity, achieving that milestone for the first time ever in the September 2018 edition of the index. With a rating of 7.653 percent, Python placed third behind first-place Java, which had a rating of 17.436 percent, and second-place C, rated at 15.447. Python displaced C++, which finished third last month and took fourth place this month, with a rating of 7.394 percent...

Python also has been scoring high in two other language rankings:

- The PyPL Popularity of Programming Language index, where it ranked No. 1 this month, as it has done before, and has had the most growth in the past five years.

- The RedMonk Programming Language Rankings, where Python again placed third.
Tiobe notes that Python's arrival in the top 3 "really took a long time," since it first entered their chart at the beginning of the 1990s. But today, "It is already the first choice at universities (for all kinds of subjects for which programming is demanded) and is now also conquering the industrial world." In February Tiobe also added a new programming language to their index: SQL. (Since "SQL appears to be Turing complete.")

"Other interesting moves this month are: Rust jumps from #36 to #31, Groovy from #44 to #34 and Julia from #50 to #39."

Comments

Losing backwards compatibility with point releases

[raymorris]

Never mind Python 2 vs 3; one major reason I shy away from Python is the incompatibility in point releases. I'd see "requires Python 2.6â and see that I have Python 2.7 so it should be fine, right? Nope, code written for 2.6 won't run under Python 2.7. It needs to be EXACTLY 2.6.

  It's at this point that some Python fanboi gets really upset and starts screaming about how that's now problem, with Python you set up separate virtual environments for each script, so that each one can have exactly the version of Python it is written for, with exactly the version of each library. When there is some bug or security issue you then hope that there is a patch for each, and deal with all that. (As opposed to every other peice of software in the world, which you simply upgrade to the latest version to get all the latest fixes). Yes, you CAN deal with that problem, it's possible, in most cases. You shouldn't have to. Every other language does some simple things to maintain backward compatibility in point releases (and mostly in major releases too).

Also the fact that most languages use every day and have used for decades use braces for blocks means my eyes and mind are very much trained for that. Braces aren't necessarily BETTER than just using indentation, but it's kinda like building a car which uses the pedals to steer and a hand stick for the gas. It's not necessarily inherently better or worse, but it would be almost undriveable for an experienced driver with decades of muscle memory in normal cars. Python's seemingly random choices on these things make it feel like using your feet to steer a car. There should be compelling reasons before you break long-established conventions and Python seems to prefer to break conventions just to be different. It seems the Python team is a bit like Berstein in that way. It's really annoying.

python3 for full application development. wtf?

[cats-paw]

Can someone explain to me why using a dynamically typed language is a good idea for "big" applications ?

Python is subject to all sorts of really horrendous bugs that would not happen in a compiled, type-checked language.

For example if you are accessing an undefined variable in the else branch of an if statement, you won't know it's undefined unless that branch is taken. which means if it's something like a rarely occurring error condition it's kind of annoying. yes you can figure it out by writing enough test code, but really.

I love Python, but i think using for multi-thousand line application seems like a bad idea.

Is there something I'm missing here ?

enlighten me...

Re:python3 for full application development. wtf?

[munch117]

Using an undefined variable in Python triggers an exception, and you get a traceback. In a larger program you will normally have a system for capturing and storing such tracebacks for analysis, and with the traceback in hand, it's typically a very simple fix.

In C++ you get an incorrect value created by default-initialisation (or maybe undefined behaviour): the program hobbles along as best it can, and you may never find the problem. You just see your program behaving strangely sometimes, and as the program gets larger, those strange behaviours accumulate.

Python is subject to all sorts of really horrendous bugs that would not happen in a compiled, type-checked language.

Horrendous is not the right word. Bugs that come with tracebacks are simple bugs. Zen#10: "Errors should never pass silently" is exactly what you want in large-scale programming.

Hello Machine Learning

[SuperKendall]

I think what has really propelled Python into a higher rank is machine learning, where it is simply the de-facto language of choice by quite a margin.

I have to admit I am impressed with the progress it has made; of many recent CS grads I've talked to it seemed to be the favorite language...

I have to admit that over the years I've not really enjoyed Python much myself in the on and off again times I've used it, for me the spaces as indent levels maybe get too close to the meaningful whitespace of Fortran... I guess modern programmers do not have this hangup. :-)

So good work Python, a well deserved ascent!