Language comparison site - Python ranks #8 on the A-list

[Paul McGuire]

I just tripped over this site (http://www.tiobe.com/tpci.htm), and google
shows that there has only been a brief mention of it on c.l.py in the Aug 12
Dr. Dobb's Python-URL post, so I thought I'd pass it along for those looking
for some quasi-quantitative Python advocacy data.

It's also interesting to look at the comparitive trend chart lower down on
the page. But my question is, what the heck happened in March '04?
(Several languages showed drastic swings of several percentage points up or
down - I suspect that this actually reflects some artifact of the data
sampling process, perhaps a software change at Google/Yahoo that would alter
their search outputs, which are inputs to this algorithm, which is why I
call it "quasi-quantitative.")

-- Paul

 

[Peter Hansen]

I just tripped over this site (http://www.tiobe.com/tpci.htm), and google
shows that there has only been a brief mention of it on c.l.py in the Aug 12
Dr. Dobb's Python-URL post, so I thought I'd pass it along for those looking
for some quasi-quantitative Python advocacy data.

It's also interesting to look at the comparitive trend chart lower down on
the page. But my question is, what the heck happened in March '04?
(Several languages showed drastic swings of several percentage points up or
down - I suspect that this actually reflects some artifact of the data
sampling process, perhaps a software change at Google/Yahoo that would alter
their search outputs, which are inputs to this algorithm, which is why I
call it "quasi-quantitative.")

Interesting reading from years past:
http://groups.google.com/groups?q=group:comp.lang.python+www.tiobe.com

(Perusing those threads again to reminisce, I discovered that the
site has variously claimed Python was an A++ language, and a
"B status language with declining popularity".)

I remain to be convinced the ranking has any more meaning than
as a marketing tool to attract people to the their site so
they can sell more services. (Not that this is a bad thing,
for them anyway.)

-Peter

 

[Ville Vainio]

Paul> I just tripped over this site
Paul> (http://www.tiobe.com/tpci.htm), and google shows that there
Paul> has only been a brief mention of it on c.l.py in the Aug 12
Paul> Dr. Dobb's Python-URL post, so I thought I'd pass it along
Paul> for those looking for some quasi-quantitative Python
Paul> advocacy data.

To stay on topic, observing the software development landscape in
general, it seems that Python mindshare has increased a lot during the
last few years. In the Open Source scene Python already seems to be
the de facto standard scripting / RAD language (having replaced Perl),
but Python seems to be doing a nice job of increasing the adoption in
the proprietary world as well (in the scripting role).

So Python has definitely "made it", and there is really no fear of it
sinking into obscurity (prediction of which being probably what the
aforementioned websites are for). Not before Java anyway, not to
mention the more obviously proprietary languages.