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This one page isn't a good indicator of a language's popularity. It probably includes results referencing Monty Python, as indicated by the news article headlin

This one page isn't a good indicator of a language's popularity. It probably includes results referencing Monty Python, as indicated by the news article headlines, or the animal python. The TIOBE index might be a better indicator of programming popularity using internet search results: http://www.tiobe.com/index.php/content/paperinfo/tpci/index.html http://www.tiobe.com/index.php/content/paperinfo/tpci/index.... but that's still not perfect. You could also look at the number of job postings on sites like Indeed asking for Perl experience.

Mithaldu 12y ago
TIOBE is almost more flawed, since it pretends to be scientific while only querying a bunch of search engines (google, SO, wikipedia) for "<language> programming", which is skewed towards languages that tend to be mentioned with the word, such as http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C_(programming_language) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C_(programming_language) , as opposed to languages that have a unique enough name, such as http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PHP http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PHP
- sbrother 12y ago
  I just looked at that, and apparently F# is more popular than Ruby! As much as I wish that were the case, it's pretty suspect...
  - giancarlostoro 12y ago
    Unless I'm wrong: The popularity doesn't mean anything necessarily good. More people are probably asking for help in F# than they are in Ruby (much simpler to comprehend). The results aren't really helpful they just give you back indiscriminating numbers.
blowski 12y ago
Looking at HTML, CSS, Ruby, Python, PHP, JavaScript, Perl... they're all losing popularity. http://www.google.com/trends/explore#q=php%2C%20ruby%2C%20css%2C%20html%2C%20javascript&cmpt=q&tz= http://www.google.com/trends/explore#q=php%2C%20ruby%2C%20cs... Looks like this internet thing was just a passing fad after all. EDIT: Even more interestingly, there is an inverse relationship between searches for PHP and pizza. What does this mean? http://www.google.com/trends/explore#q=php%2C%20pizza&cmpt=q&tz= http://www.google.com/trends/explore#q=php%2C%20pizza&cmpt=q...
- VLM 12y ago
  Look at the queries... they're all noob oriented. How to use a for loop, hash, or array? I'm not saying that the supply of noobs drying up is a good thing, but...
vorg 12y ago
Tiobe is gamed bigtime by promoters of some of the smaller languages in the 21 to 50 range, and postings for IT jobs that don't exist is a con that's been going on for decades.
placeybordeaux 12y ago
You can filter a lot of that out. http://www.google.com/trends/explore#q=perl%2C%20python%20-monty%20-snake%2C%20python&cmpt=q&tz= http://www.google.com/trends/explore#q=perl%2C%20python%20-m... Looks like the interest in monty python and snake pythons is pretty constant.

Mithaldu 12y ago

TIOBE is almost more flawed, since it pretends to be scientific while only querying a bunch of search engines (google, SO, wikipedia) for "<language> programming", which is skewed towards languages that tend to be mentioned with the word, such as http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C_(programming_language) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C_(programming_language) , as opposed to languages that have a unique enough name, such as http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PHP http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PHP

sbrother 12y ago
I just looked at that, and apparently F# is more popular than Ruby! As much as I wish that were the case, it's pretty suspect...
- giancarlostoro 12y ago
  Unless I'm wrong: The popularity doesn't mean anything necessarily good. More people are probably asking for help in F# than they are in Ruby (much simpler to comprehend). The results aren't really helpful they just give you back indiscriminating numbers.

blowski 12y ago

Looking at HTML, CSS, Ruby, Python, PHP, JavaScript, Perl... they're all losing popularity. http://www.google.com/trends/explore#q=php%2C%20ruby%2C%20css%2C%20html%2C%20javascript&cmpt=q&tz= http://www.google.com/trends/explore#q=php%2C%20ruby%2C%20cs... Looks like this internet thing was just a passing fad after all. EDIT: Even more interestingly, there is an inverse relationship between searches for PHP and pizza. What does this mean? http://www.google.com/trends/explore#q=php%2C%20pizza&cmpt=q&tz= http://www.google.com/trends/explore#q=php%2C%20pizza&cmpt=q...

VLM 12y ago
Look at the queries... they're all noob oriented. How to use a for loop, hash, or array? I'm not saying that the supply of noobs drying up is a good thing, but...

vorg 12y ago

Tiobe is gamed bigtime by promoters of some of the smaller languages in the 21 to 50 range, and postings for IT jobs that don't exist is a con that's been going on for decades.

placeybordeaux 12y ago

You can filter a lot of that out. http://www.google.com/trends/explore#q=perl%2C%20python%20-monty%20-snake%2C%20python&cmpt=q&tz= http://www.google.com/trends/explore#q=perl%2C%20python%20-m... Looks like the interest in monty python and snake pythons is pretty constant.