Have you heard of the Dutch company TIOBE Software BV? Don’t blame yourself if you didn’t. It is primarily known as the author of TIOBE index – regularly calculated ranking of the programming languages popularity.
The TIOBE index has been around since June 2001 originally showcasing 25 programming languages. Currently, it embraces 150 programming languages with measurements taken at least 10 times a month.
What is it made for? How does it work? Is everyone happy with it? Let’s find out.
WHAT IS TIOBE INDEX?
TIOBE index (TIOBE programming community index) is an index that evaluates the popularity of programming languages, based on counting the results of search queries containing the name of the language (a query of the form +"<language> programming").
The majority of TIOBE employees are compiler developers who started their careers in the Philips Research Lab. By the way, TIOBE stands for "The Importance Of Being Earnest", a reference to Oscar Wilde's play with the same name.
HOW IS TIOBE INDEX FORMED?
To form the index, TIOBE analyzes search queries from several of the most visited (according to Alexa web-service) portals: Google, Blogger, Wikipedia, YouTube, Baidu, Yahoo!, Bing, Amazon. Current information is provided free of charge, but long-term statistics are available for a substantial fee (from 1.5 to 5 thousand US dollars).
TIOBE considers a language to be a programming language if it is Turing complete. It means that for any function that can be computed on a Turing machine, there can be a corresponding program performing the same function and written in this language.
As a result, such widespread languages as HTML, XML and SQL are not considered as programming languages. On the other hand, SQL extensions such as PL/SQL and Transact-SQL are considered as programming languages.
Development tools and technologies such as ASP, ASP.NET, Rails, and AJAX are also not considered to be programming languages. Finally, assembly-type languages are excluded from consideration, although they are Turing-complete.
Dialects of the same programming language are united under a common name. At the same time, the rating does not include the total weight of dialects, it considers only the rating of the dialect that showed the best result.
WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF TIOBE INDEX?
According to the creators, the TIOBE index does not rank languages by the quality or quantity of code written. The project implies that there may be a correlation between the number of search results and the number of engineers, courses, and jobs.
The search is also performed in Google newsgroups and blogs. If we take the first 50 programming languages as 100%, the TIOBE ranking shows the share occupied by each language in percent.
In addition, the authors of the rating divide languages into two categories: A and B (although there are A- and A--). They believe that it can be useful in making strategic decisions.
For example, when choosing a language for development or studying (with future career prospects), you are supposed to focus on category A languages, since for category B:
a) there are much less qualified specialists;
b) there is much less choice of quality tools for development;
c) there are fewer libraries available.
HOW TIOBE INDEX LOOKS NOW?
This is what TIOBE index looks like as of October 2022.
Programming Language/ Ratings/ Change
IS EVERYONE HAPPY WITH TIOBE INDEX?
In short, no. Some experts find it strange that the index is based on the quantity of search engine results for each programming language. Not the number of people searching, not the number of requests sent, not the emotional component of the request. Just this useless number that search engine shows.
To create the illusion of big data, the index comprises not one search engine (google.com), but several (bing.com, google.de, google.co.in and others). But 25 useless sources are no better than one useless source.
ARE THERE ALTERNATIVE WAYS TO CHOOSE THE RIGHT LANGUAGE FOR YOUR PROJECT?
The answer is yes. You can start with a simple quiz that will help evaluate the language from a technical point of view.
Only your team can answer these questions. Be sure that the answers will greatly depend on your business objectives, local labor market, and your development budget. But don’t worry. If you hire smart people, they will figure it out.
IN A NUTSHELL
Despite the existence of various programming languages rankings and ratings, the very concept of choosing “the hottest” language and sticking to it undividedly is rather odd.
Don’t tie yourself to just one language. In the end of the day, you are a Developer, not an "X developer” or Y developer". Expand your toolkit. Even the best programming language won't be able to solve every problem you face.
The TIOBE index has been around since June 2001 originally showcasing 25 programming languages. Currently, it embraces 150 programming languages with measurements taken at least 10 times a month.
What is it made for? How does it work? Is everyone happy with it? Let’s find out.
WHAT IS TIOBE INDEX?
TIOBE index (TIOBE programming community index) is an index that evaluates the popularity of programming languages, based on counting the results of search queries containing the name of the language (a query of the form +"<language> programming").
The majority of TIOBE employees are compiler developers who started their careers in the Philips Research Lab. By the way, TIOBE stands for "The Importance Of Being Earnest", a reference to Oscar Wilde's play with the same name.
HOW IS TIOBE INDEX FORMED?
To form the index, TIOBE analyzes search queries from several of the most visited (according to Alexa web-service) portals: Google, Blogger, Wikipedia, YouTube, Baidu, Yahoo!, Bing, Amazon. Current information is provided free of charge, but long-term statistics are available for a substantial fee (from 1.5 to 5 thousand US dollars).
TIOBE considers a language to be a programming language if it is Turing complete. It means that for any function that can be computed on a Turing machine, there can be a corresponding program performing the same function and written in this language.
As a result, such widespread languages as HTML, XML and SQL are not considered as programming languages. On the other hand, SQL extensions such as PL/SQL and Transact-SQL are considered as programming languages.
Development tools and technologies such as ASP, ASP.NET, Rails, and AJAX are also not considered to be programming languages. Finally, assembly-type languages are excluded from consideration, although they are Turing-complete.
Dialects of the same programming language are united under a common name. At the same time, the rating does not include the total weight of dialects, it considers only the rating of the dialect that showed the best result.
WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF TIOBE INDEX?
According to the creators, the TIOBE index does not rank languages by the quality or quantity of code written. The project implies that there may be a correlation between the number of search results and the number of engineers, courses, and jobs.
The search is also performed in Google newsgroups and blogs. If we take the first 50 programming languages as 100%, the TIOBE ranking shows the share occupied by each language in percent.
In addition, the authors of the rating divide languages into two categories: A and B (although there are A- and A--). They believe that it can be useful in making strategic decisions.
For example, when choosing a language for development or studying (with future career prospects), you are supposed to focus on category A languages, since for category B:
a) there are much less qualified specialists;
b) there is much less choice of quality tools for development;
c) there are fewer libraries available.
HOW TIOBE INDEX LOOKS NOW?
This is what TIOBE index looks like as of October 2022.
Programming Language/ Ratings/ Change
- Python / 17.08% / +5.81%
- C / 15.21% / +4.05%
- Java / 12.84% / +2.38%
- C++ / 9.92% / +2.42%
- C# / 4.42% / -0.84%
- Visual Basic / 3.95% / -1.29%
- JavaScript / 2.74% / +0.55%
- Assembly language / 2.39% / +0.33%
- PHP / 2.04% / -0.06%
- SQL / 1.78% / -0.39%
IS EVERYONE HAPPY WITH TIOBE INDEX?
In short, no. Some experts find it strange that the index is based on the quantity of search engine results for each programming language. Not the number of people searching, not the number of requests sent, not the emotional component of the request. Just this useless number that search engine shows.
To create the illusion of big data, the index comprises not one search engine (google.com), but several (bing.com, google.de, google.co.in and others). But 25 useless sources are no better than one useless source.
ARE THERE ALTERNATIVE WAYS TO CHOOSE THE RIGHT LANGUAGE FOR YOUR PROJECT?
The answer is yes. You can start with a simple quiz that will help evaluate the language from a technical point of view.
- Is it possible to hire/train developers to work with it?
- Will they be happy to write in it?
- What will be the speed of development in this language?
- What are the operational costs of executing the code in production?
- Will we need to use third party code? Does it exist and how good is it?
Only your team can answer these questions. Be sure that the answers will greatly depend on your business objectives, local labor market, and your development budget. But don’t worry. If you hire smart people, they will figure it out.
IN A NUTSHELL
Despite the existence of various programming languages rankings and ratings, the very concept of choosing “the hottest” language and sticking to it undividedly is rather odd.
Don’t tie yourself to just one language. In the end of the day, you are a Developer, not an "X developer” or Y developer". Expand your toolkit. Even the best programming language won't be able to solve every problem you face.
