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Also, StackExchange doesn’t measure popularity, but popularity AND difficulty. All else equal, the harder language will have more SO activity.
by weberc2 8y ago
Also, StackExchange doesn’t measure popularity, but popularity AND difficulty. All else equal, the harder language will have more SO activity.
- fabian2k 8y agoI'm not convinced that SE activity measures difficulty. But it certainly is affected by much more than just popularity. I could imagine it measuring the total API surface, as you can ask more questions about larger subjects. It's certainly a deeply flawed measure, but then pure search engine hits like TIOBE are likely much worse.
- weberc2 8y agoTo be clear, I don't think it measures difficulty, but difficulty is necessarily a driver of the metric. A complex language is going to generate more questions than a small, intuitive language.
- marcosdumay 8y agoSpecifically, complexity will generate more questions than difficulty.
- weberc2 8y agoNo, it can’t by definition. Complexity is a type of difficulty. :)
- esrauch 8y agoIt is also skewed towards what slightly-beyond-beginners use; many true beginners haven't discovered it, many experienced people more easily find the same answers without posting.
- marcosdumay 8y agoIt's very good of measuring documentation quality. As in, the better your documentation, the less activity there will be.