Challenger Language Series: Overview

For over 20 years, JavaScript, Java and C# have topped the lists of most popular programming languages, but how much do we actually love them?

According to TIOBE Index, an index that measures of the popularity of programming languages, Java, C# and JavaScript account for over 20% of the skilled engineers world-wide, courses and third-party vendors. They also make up three of the seven most widely used programming languages in Stack Overflow’s recent Developer Survey 2020, with JavaScript taking the top spot every year since the report was created in 2013.

But how does this compare to the ranking of developers that want to continue developing in a language? Or as they’re better known - the most loved programming languages.

The answer? Not that well - if you take the top five most used languages, and the top five most loved, the only intersect is Python.

Source: Stack Overflow’s Developer Survey 2020

The most loved programming languages

For five years running, Rust has taken the top spot of Stack Overflow’s Developer Survey as the most loved programming language, with Kotlin holding steady in a top-five position for the last four years. This year, TypeScript came in second, surpassing Python and there were also big gains in Go, moving up to 5th from 10th last year.

They might be the most loved, but do they have the potential to become more widely used, or even the most used? If you want to learn about these most loved languages, and some very exciting up and coming languages, we invite you to join our new event series on ‘Challenger Languages’.

About the challenger language series

If you want to learn about each of these ‘Challenger Languages’, over the next few months we’ll be holding snappy, 45-minute live webinar sessions as part of our AND Elevenses, where we’ll explore the background, the use cases and features of the languages, a live coding demo, and whether it’s really worth looking into.

Interested in the series? Save the following dates in your diary:

• Kotlin, 9th July - view the recording here.
• Rust, 23rd July - view the recording here.
• Typescript, 6th August - view the recording here.
• Go, 10th September - view the recording here.
• Clojure, 24th September - view the recording here.