[Python-Dev] Python most popular progamming language on github? (original) (raw)

Terry Reedy tjreedy at udel.edu
Wed Jul 19 16:02:09 EDT 2017

https://blog.sourced.tech/post/language_migrations/ Waren Long analyzed several years of Github data for 22 top languages (excluding browser Javascript) with respect to language use and change of use, defined a 'centrality measure' based on the stationary distribution of a markov chain model of language switching.

Time trend: Python rose from about 2002 to 2007, stayed flat until 2013, then has risen since.

Conclusion: The Python sky is not falling; Python3 did not kill Python. (This is not a call for complacency.)

The measure is not based on lines of code. The 4 after Python, Java, C, C++, and PHP have more lines on Github. Well, we all know that non-cryptic conciseness is good ;-).

Java has at least doubled since 2007. Perhaps that is mostly prortable Android devices.

This analysis was stimulated (provoked?) by Erik Bernhardsson's analysis of Google searches related to changing language. Go won in that. It seems that people learn and use Python without asking Google so much.

-- Terry Jan Reedy

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