   C again the "number 1" language
  I saw this today, looks like java's been knocked off its position as the most popular/used language in the world IIRC its been number 1 since ~2000strong rise in objective C as well, no doubt co-insiding with the rise of the apple platforms http://www.tiobe.com/index.php/content/paperinfo/tpci/index.html   
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiobe_indexQuote:Tiobe programming community index is an ordered list of programming languages, sorted by the frequency of web search using the name of this language as keyword. ^^ Doesn't this just mean it's the #1 language that people need help with at the moment?   ;  Lol Hodgman, wouldn't that effectively mean the most difficult and poorly documented language :P ? Or perhaps the language used by the most untrained coders...   ;  or languages most taught at universities?   ;Quote:Original post by Hodgmanhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiobe_indexQuote:Tiobe programming community index is an ordered list of programming languages, sorted by the frequency of web search using the name of this language as keyword. ^^ Doesn't this just mean it's the #1 language that people need help with at the moment?Or that more people are interested in breast size than programming languages?  Obviously they're doing something more than counting "frequency of web search using the name of this language," right?   ;TIOBE have a link on their page that explains how they calculate the index.Basically, they do just do a search using the term +"<language> programming" and count the results.It's not clear if they do anything about synonyms. I sometimes use abbreviations like Obj-C instead of Objective-C, or refer to ActionScript as AS2, AS3 or just Flash programming.It's clear by their metric that the most popular language should be THE. It's criminal they don't include this superb language in their listings; you aren't a proper programmer if you don't know THE.   ;  The TIOBE index is bit like ratings are in television - they're publicly incorrect, but if done consistently, also consistently (un)reliable. They do not reflect reality on their own, but they're the best there can be. It's probably not as much the case with the TIOBE index, but in the case of ratings a peculiar loopback system takes hold: investment in the top-rated article(s) generates real participation and increased validation of the index so the index actually becomes increasingly more reliable over time.In the end it's still much like string theory - good luck trying to prove it's (not) right.   ;Quote:Original post by irreversiblebut they're the best there can be.The best?  Really?  No.It's marginally useful as a gross approximation of... uhh, hell, we don't even really know do we?  I'm guessing mostly of online documentation.  Which isn't necessarily a good sign [lol]   ;  Wouldn't a far better system for discovering which languages are being used the most be one in which you actually Ask those doing programing?If you ask 10 000 companies, spread across an array of fields, what languages they use and how often they use them, I think you would get a far better idea of what is actually being done out there.Actually something like this should be handled by government statistics on businesses.;Quote:Wouldn't a far better system for discovering which languages are being used the most be one in which you actually Ask those doing programing?yes thats been done as wellthey check the number of jobs advertised in each language, I know java has been #1 since ~2000 (actually I thought the above was based on that method)   