JavaScript Is Still Most Popular Language, but Developers Love Rust

One of the leading indicators of developer sentiment and trends is the annual Stack Overflow developer survey. Just like in 2016, the 2017 edition of the survey, which garnered responses from 64,000 developers from around the world, found that the most popular programming language is JavaScript. However, that doesn’t mean that JavaScript is the most loved programming language. Rather, that honor goes to Rust, which for the second year in a row has been the one language that developers really want to use. Apple’s Swift programming language, meanwhile, dropped from the second most loved to fourth. When it comes to operating systems that developers love, Linux tops the list. In this slide show, eWEEK looks at some of the highlights of the Stack Overflow 2017 Developer Survey.

JavaScript is the most commonly used programming language, according to the Stack Overflow survey. Of note in the 2017 rankings is that Python is now more popular than PHP.

The node.js JavaScript framework is the most commonly used framework, which is not surprising, given that JavaScript is the most commonly used programming language.

While there has been some hype in recent years about NoSQL-type databases, developers still prefer SQL-based databases. The most commonly used database according to the Stack Overflow survey is MySQL at 44.3 percent.

When it comes to the operating systems that developers use, the mostly commonly used one is Microsoft Windows, followed by Linux.

Although Windows is more commonly used by developers, when asked about what platforms they love, the Linux desktop ranked No. 1, followed closely by serverless technology.

In the physical “real” world, rust is generally not something that anyone likes. When it comes to programming languages, however, Rust is the most loved, while Apple’s Swift fell to No. 4.

According to the 2017 Stack Overflow survey, Visual Basic is the most dreaded programming language. Stack Overflow defines the “most dreaded” as the language with the highest percentage of developers using the technology but with no interest in continuing to do so.