Market Share of Computer Languages

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Aaron - 06 Feb 2007 20:55 GMT

Someone recently told me that 60% of the code currently in use, is
written in java. I have to wonder to myself, "is this information
good? how old is this information? Does 'code' really only apply to a
particular category of code?" and so on. I knew java had become very
popular for mobile devices, but 60% of all code in use seems
surprising. Does any sort of official (hopefully impartial) body
actually keep track of this?

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Daniel Pitts - 06 Feb 2007 20:59 GMT

> Someone recently told me that 60% of the code currently in use, is
> written in java. I have to wonder to myself, "is this information
[quoted text clipped - 3 lines]
> surprising. Does any sort of official (hopefully impartial) body
> actually keep track of this?

60% seems awefully high to me. Perhaps that was 60% of all new code
written?
There is probably a far larger amount of "legacy" code that is written
in C/C++/COBOL/etc.. than in Java.

I don't know any statistics myself, though.

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Aaron - 06 Feb 2007 21:12 GMT

> > Someone recently told me that 60% of the code currently in use, is
> > written in java. I have to wonder to myself, "is this information
[quoted text clipped - 10 lines]
>
> I don't know any statistics myself, though.

I thought the same thing myself. Then again, those older langauges
had already passed their apex by the time the Internet really got
cooking. I got the impression that the "fact" (urban lengend?) did
apply to any legacy code so long as the software was still in active
use.

Another useful question would be what are the fastest growing
languages?

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Arne Vajhøj - 07 Feb 2007 02:37 GMT

>> 60% seems awefully high to me. Perhaps that was 60% of all new code
>> written?
[quoted text clipped - 11 lines]
> Another useful question would be what are the fastest growing
> languages?

Code tend to exist for decades.

There are still a lot of COBOL, FORTRAN and PL/I out there.

C/C++ may not be first choice for new development, but there
are still a lot of code out there and I don't think much has
been retired yet.

I have no doubt that Java is the biggest language for new
development.

Just check the job sites for verification.

The fastest growing language is probably C#.

Arne

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Farcus Pottysquirt - 07 Feb 2007 02:42 GMT

> There are still a lot of COBOL, FORTRAN and PL/I out there.

And while it may seem obsolete, COBOL is still one of the top business
languages used. The shop I work in converted scads of COBOL code from a
mainframe over to Unix and it's still supported, enhanced and maintained
for the simple reason that it does what it is supposed to do well. It
may not be elegant or pretty, but for someone who is old-school like me,
there's nothing better to look at (within IT) than an well structured
Cobol program..even one that is 5000 lines.

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Market Share of Computer Languages

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