ESR: Computer Language Trends in 2009

[davidw]

As for why Tcl won't just up and die, see the SQLite testing thread. Tcl's built like that too, and built well: native threads, Unicode, a very extensive C API. Definitely some pieces missing (OO), but they are being actively worked on. In other words, Tcl is not the most popular thing out there by a long shot, but it's not "dying" either.

[stcredzero]

Good, old languages are like good, old comic book characters. They might be declared dead, but someone's always going to bring them back.

[bayareaguy]

Tcl is still great when you need to whip up a testing wrapper for a C/C++ library but I think these days Lua is doing a better job at the original goal Tcl set out to accomplish.

[draegtun]

Tcl may well get a second chance at glory with Parrot: http://code.google.com/p/partcl/

The whole interoperability with other languages on Parrot is going to be a game breaker IMHO.

[noss]

Looks like we Erlang people can remain as a cool underground movement.

Thank you ESR.

[dfranke]

At least until the next time Techcrunch links to news.yc.

[10ren]

Erlang has 40 projects on freshmeat: http://freshmeat.net/tags/erlang

    Java   5316
    C++    4824
    Perl   3730
    Python 3161
    ...
    Erlang   40

It may be that Erlang people don't add their projects to freshmeat.

[stcredzero]

Erlang people can remain as a cool underground movement

Really, it's quite enviable. Enjoy it while it lasts.

[rjurney]

Perl projects and modules exist in CPAN, so the data has very little relevance. Perl developers tend to push FOSS modules, not complete systems.

[adamc]

Favorite quote: "Perl has become the COBOL of web design"

[SwellJoe]

Awesome...except it isn't true. CPAN grew more in raw number of distributions than both RubyForge and PyPI in the time span under discussion.

[wheels]

davidw runs a site that does much more comprehensive stats:

http://langpop.com/

[sho]

I don't think this is a very valid comparison. Sourceforge is not popular as a repository for a number of the more "modern" languages, and seems to focus more on "end user ready" projects than modules, plug-ins, etc, which is perhaps the primary delivery format for projects in the script-y languages.

Even if you included more repositories, though, still - what's the point? It's good to see trends, yes, but at least try and keep them in the same general domain. No-one is going to be making a choice between developing in C or in Ruby; they are different worlds in so many ways. And even counting projects is a bad metric in itself; someone starting a C project might be expected to have some reason for doing so, and thus he might be likely to at least half-finish it; Ruby "projects" are so easy to start that many developers don't seem to feel the day has really begun until they've tossed off half a dozen crappy new gems.

Nice talking point I guess but I wouldn't read much into these. And personally I am happy to see the fast rate of change and evolution. I would like to see it accelerate even faster. In particular I am hoping to see a mass migration towards a more distributed, federated project hosting paradigm; hopefully the next step after everyone is comfortable with git and the other DSCM systems, which will render this kind of "trends" article even harder to write :D