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

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.

Comments

BS

[110010001000]

There is no way Java was ever #1 in the first place. Give me a break.

Re:BS

[godrik]

Why not, the measure is in "do you know this language?"
Java was the language most chosen in CS1. And bootcamp companies trying to place people in software contracting firm were mostly teaching Java for 15 years. It is not surprising that Java was up there in the "do you know this language?" ranking.

Re:BS

[110010001000]

Apparently JavaScript is the new Java.

Re:BS

[Anonymous Coward]

Statistics isn't in your "Top 10 things I Understand" list, apparently

Re:BS

[jellomizer]

Being most schools teach their Computer Science classes with Java for about 20 years now, it makes sense that Java has been #1 for a while.

Java is not my favorite language and I really do not like it that much. However as an Application Architect when given a task to design an enterprise level application. I really need to fall back to recommend Java J2EE for its design. For the following reasons.

1. Platform Independence, with .NET you are stuck with a Microsoft Server back end, which isn't horrible, however a Linux servers don't have the big license cost, and can be configured to give far more resources to my App. And if we need Windows servers, it will still work.
2. Developer base, we can always find developers who can code in Java, and if an employee leaves the turn over pain is lessen.
3. General Industry support, Unlike Python or Node.JS where you normally write you web server as part of your program, J2EE works off well supported Application Servers such as Tomcat or Glassfish. Where having to reinvent a lot of communication protocol isn't needed, and we can find Administrators who can deal with such systems.
4. It is easier on your marketing team. Java is the safe bet that will not get you into a holy war.
5. It has most of the modern features implemented. So unlike Node.JS where I hit my head into a wall when I find out it isn't multi-threaded, and I needed the App to ramp up, or needing a driver to connect to the database I don't need to go and install a third party add-in. Making installing and deploying after many years easier.

Now that said, I don't care for coding in Java that much, I actually prefer python myself. However if given a task such as an enterprise solution I will normally fall to Java, or .NET if it is a strictly Windows Shop.

Javascript, being #1 now doesn't surprise me at all. First off Node.JS is becoming rather popular so you are coding your server side in JS. And for nearly all Web Based (and many mobile apps that are web based as well) will use Javascript for the front end, then you have your pick what to do in the back end. It is much like how the more popular political party will loose the election because of a 3rd party candidate. The competition may hurt your overall rankings.

Re:BS

[squiggleslash]

If you want to work in a Fortune 500 company making modifications to the giant collection of back end tools and servers which do everything from push out bills to send reports to management, then you almost certainly will need to know Java just as back in the days of the Commodore 64 and Sinclair Spectrum the dominant language wasn't BASIC - even though all your nerd friends knew it - but COBOL.

Java runs almost everything of importance in 2019. The only reason Javascript has caught up is because the web, a mostly unrelated system, has grown up to be larger than all the enterprise software suites put together. (And of course the web is used to access the back-ends, so as it becomes more and more Javascript heavy, it'll increase use in the same places that are heavily Java based too.)

I must admit to being surprised to have to explain this every time the subject comes up. Half of Slashdot thinks that Java is a web plug-in that had poor security and was superseded by Flash. Has nobody here looked for a job yet? 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.

And I haven't even mentioned Android yet.

Small and midsized companies are using PHP, node.js, and whatever the scripting language of the week is, for a huge amount of their work, mixed with .NET on the back-end, but once you get bigger than that nothing else is in the room. Except perhaps some legacy COBOL systems.

Re:BS

[lgw]

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.

Re:BS

[angel'o'sphere]

Did it ever occur you that some people simply prefer one language over the other?

I find PERL incomprehensible ...

And you find Python hard to read ...

Makes sense to me

[SuperKendall]

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...

Re:Makes sense to me

[StormReaver]

The demise of Java has been writing on the wall since Oracle acquired Sun and didn't open source it.

Who didn't open source what? Sun open sourced Java BEFORE Oracle bought the whole kit and kaboodle. The rumors of Java's demise have been nonsensical ridiculousness. I hate Oracle as much as anyone else, but I don't have any complaints about its stewardship of Java. If Oracle does too bad a job, there are other companies fully able to pick up the ball and run with it. And with nothing more than a name change, there is nothing that Oracle can do about it.

Recently that's exactly what they've done by starting to charge for their flagship Java environment.

Oracle is charging its commercial customers more, but the rest of the world continues on like nothing is happening. Also, OpenJDK (which is now identical to Oracle's JDK) will always remain free from the Oracle licensing machine.

Java's future is still bright.

Re:Good

[110010001000]

JavaScript is the best language for learning? Christ.

Yuck

[DarkRookie2]

JS was the reason I never did get into webdev besides some minor pages that just use CSS and HTML.

I feel so old and outdated!

[DidgetMaster]

As I continue to develop my new data management system in that archaic language C++. I am one of those Luddites who believes that 'scripts' are for doing once-in-a-while tasks that need to be written quickly or updated often. Real programs are written in Assembly or the next best thing...C or C++. Of course, all the young programmers can't believe the demo when my system can do something in half a second that usually takes 10 times longer using something else.

Re:I feel so old and outdated!

[dbrueck]

Hey, if it's working for you, that's great.

But yes, you are outdated. I don't mean that in an offensive way at all, but your views on things such as "scripts" vs "real programs" are many, many years out of date (and objectively wrong). Technology has advanced, tools have improved, the state of the art has matured.

There's more opportunity than any of us can get to, so we each have to find a niche to play in, and if you've found yours, then more power to you. But I can't help but wonder if you might not have as good an understanding of the state of things as you think..

(this is coming from someone who once was "sure" that I'd never make the jump to C because there was just no way I was going to give up the performance and control of assembly)