Developers Continue to Grow Python Usage, Study Finds

One of the most insightful indicators of developer sentiment and trends is the annual Stack Overflow developer survey. 

The 2019 edition of the survey was released on April 10, based on responses from nearly 90,000 developers around the world. The modern world of development is often thought to be very fast moving, though the study reveals that some things don’t change very fast, if at all. For example, for the seventh year in a row, JavaScript was identified as the most popular programming language in the world. That said, Python use is growing, as is the love developers have for the open-source programming language.

In this eWEEK Data Points article, we look at some of the key highlights of the Stack Overflow 2019 Developer Survey.

Data Point No. 1: Python is moving up the list for developer adoption.

Among the biggest trends identified in the report is the growing adoption and affection for the Python programming language.

• 41.7 percent of developers are using Python, which now surpasses Java at 41.1 percent.
• Python is the second most loved language at 73.1 percent.
• Python was ranked by developers who don’t currently use Python as the most wanted language they want to learn.

Data Point No. 2: JavaScript is the most widely used programming language.

While Python use is growing, at 67.8 percent of developers, JavaScript still dominates as the most widely used programming language for the seventh year in a row. However, JavaScript only ranks 11^th, at 66.8 percent, for being the most loved language that developers enjoy using and want to continue to work with.

Data Point No. 3: Rust is the most loved.

• In the physical, “real” world, rust is generally not something that anyone likes. When it comes to the most loved programming language, however, Rust came in first at 83.5 percent, followed by Python at 73.1 percent.
• Go, which is an open-source language originally started by Google and now at the heart of Docker and many cloud-native technologies, came in 9th at 67.9 percent.

Data Point No. 4: MySQL is more popular than any other database.

• MySQL is the most commonly used database at 54.0 percent.
• In contrast, MariaDB, which was originally based and forked from MySQL, came in at 16.5 percent, which coincidentally is the same usage for Oracle’s namesake database.

Data Point No. 5: Developers dread VBA and Objective-C.

• Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) was identified by 75.2 percent of developers as being a language they currently use but really don’t really want to keep using, making it the most dreaded language.
• Objective-C was ranked as the second most dreaded language, at 68.7 percent.

Data Point No. 6: Developers don’t care for blockchain.

Blockchain isn’t a technology that is particularly well-regarded by the Stack Overflow developer respondents.

• 80 percent said they are not using or implementing blockchain technology.
• 16.8 percent said that blockchain is a “passing fad.”
• 15.6 percent said it was an irresponsible use of resources.

Sean Michael Kerner is a senior editor at eWEEK and InternetNews.com. Follow him on Twitter @TechJournalist.