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JavaScript Overtakes Java As Most Popular Programming Language (venturebeat.com)

Posted by msmash on from the closer-look dept.

An anonymous reader writes: Today, HackerRank released the 2019 edition of its annual Developer Skills Report (PDF), surveying over 71,000 software developers from more than 100 countries. Every single industry requires software developers, meaning competition for technical talent is fierce. The idea here is to help everyone from CEOs and executives to hiring managers and recruiters understand the developers they're pursuing. We've put together a quick video to summarize the results. HackerRank asked developers which programming languages they knew and which ones they wanted to learn. Seventy-three percent of developers said they knew JavaScript in 2018, up from 66 percent in 2017. JavaScript was 2018's most well-known language, compared to Java in 2017.

2 of 225 comments (clear)

  1. Makes sense to me by SuperKendall · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I'm surprised Java has held on this long, but there is a ton of enterprise Java development still out there... it seems like in recent years stuff like node.js has really started to take over server development, and Javascript is slowly spreading to other realms as well.

    It's funny how languages that are never favorites of the purists seem to always end up at the top...

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
  2. Re:BS by lgw · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Well put. Java has really gone beyond being the new COBOL (it was that 15-10 years ago) to being what everyone uses for back-end systems. The shift to distributed systems (cloud or otherwise) meant that performance on any given system nearly vanished as a consideration, and C++ along with it in that space. Plus, phones grew powerful enough where you might as well use Java there too. With Microsoft losing its dominance, "Java and C#" has become "Java".

    Javascript totally dominates front-end work, so it's no surprise, with the rise of "full stack devs" that it's growing for back-end work as well. I'm quite happy that I'll retire before I'm faced with that.

    You cannot possibly miss the constant streams of job offers from electrical utilities, medical corporations, the large chain stores, telephone companies, and so on, requiring grunt programmers who do Java.

    Not to mention Amazon, Google, Facebook, and Netflix.

    --
    Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.