
Java Leads Programming Language Popularity, by books sold? - jjohns
http://blog.jelastic.com/2012/05/29/java-leads-programming-language-popularity/
======
Tloewald
There's probably a property of programming languages that connotes to the
ratio of books needed to code written which Java scores highly in. That and
the huge number of people forced to learn Java and buy books on it.

At the opposite end would be languages that are easier to work with, have
incredibly good online documentation, and/or for which a book industry has not
yet materialized.

~~~
jbooth
It's hard to find any language that has better online documentation than Java.

Java as a language is dominant in universities (for debatable reasons) and in
average-boring-industry shops and at high-scale shops, both for very good
reasons. There's going to be a lot of books sold because of that.

~~~
irahul
> It's hard to find any language that has better online documentation than
> Java.

I don't see how <http://docs.oracle.com/javase/6/docs/api/> this is better
documentation than <http://docs.python.org/library/random.html> or
<http://perldoc.perl.org/perlretut.html>

Java docs are mostly a dump of class hierarchies with some comments
documenting the functions. Python and Perl docs are written as user guides
compared to Java api dumps.

~~~
RodgerTheGreat
In addition to the API documentation, there's the "Java Learning Trail", which
is a set of step-by-step tutorials with numerous screenshots and tons of
example code:

<http://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/java/index.html>

Additionally, if you actually page through the Java API documentation, many
packages contain overviews describing rationale and how everything fits
together- hardly a "dump of class hierarchies with some comments". For
example,

[http://docs.oracle.com/javase/1.4.2/docs/api/java/awt/doc-
fi...](http://docs.oracle.com/javase/1.4.2/docs/api/java/awt/doc-
files/FocusSpec.html)

Personally I think having _both_ a tutorial and browsable API documentation is
preferable to dealing with unstructured prose for everything.

~~~
irahul
> In addition to the API documentation, there's the "Java Learning Trail",
> which is a set of step-by-step tutorials with numerous screenshots and tons
> of example code:

If you are already a programmer, you will be able to complete this tutorial in
less than 2 hours <http://docs.python.org/tutorial/>, and can start
programming Python. Want to learn Perl? <http://www.perltutorial.org/>. This
_tutorial_ thing isn't something that is unique to java, and personally, I
find the Perl and Python versions higher quality compared to Java's tutorial.

> Personally I think having both a tutorial and browsable API documentation is
> preferable to dealing with unstructured prose for everything.

Unstructured prose for everything? What are we talking about? How is
<http://docs.python.org/library/random.html> (description, methods and usage,
example code) unstructured prose? When it comes down to which doc is better,
it comes down to personal preference. But _Java has the best online
documentation_ is far from the truth.

------
readme
Java remains at the top, just behind C, of the trusted TIOBE index:
[http://www.tiobe.com/index.php/content/paperinfo/tpci/index....](http://www.tiobe.com/index.php/content/paperinfo/tpci/index.html)

This is not a surprise at all.

Java is huge. Sorry to everyone who doesn't like it. It's just a current fact
of the industry.

------
edwinnathaniel
I find this statistics to be interesting because technically, outside Android,
there's probably not too many new books about Java published by O'reilly
unlike in the early 2000 when Java for the web and enterprise exploded.

On the flip side, Head First Design Patterns, Head First OOP, Head First
Software Development are all using Java and the Head First series seems to
replace the "For Dummies" series for beginner's book (don't get me wrong, I
love Head First series because the series attempts to write book from a
different angle and it does make sure you remember what you read, just like in
the classroom).

Last but not least, O'reilly has the best selection of JavaScript books out
there compare to other publisher.

[edited typo :)]

~~~
cageface
_Head Fist Software Development_

I know this is a typo but this is a book that really begs to be written.

~~~
gits1225
It's not a typo. <http://shop.oreilly.com/product/9780596527358.do>

~~~
freehunter
The link describes it as "Head First Software Development". The OP described
it as "Head Fist".

------
jiggy2011
One obvious reason for this would be that colleges/universities very often
teach Java as the main language and will usually encourage students to buy at
least one or two books on the subject.

Another reason is that Java projects will often use some fairly heavy
frameworks like hibernate, which can be great to work with if you really
understand how they work. The best way to do this is to make sure you have the
definitive book on your shelf as you are in for a world of pain if you just
try to "wing it" like you would with PHP.

~~~
efa
And also Java is very popular in large corporations (at least in my experience
in the Financial Services sector). These companies have large staffs and lots
of money. They'll send whole teams to training classes (which includes books).

While working for these large companies I thought the whole world was
Java/Spring/Hibernate. Now that I work on my own (and have started spending
more time on HN) I see there is a totally different picture for the
startup/consulting world.

BTW, scanning GitHub to determine language popularity seems ridiculous to me.
What percent of larger corporations use GitHub (less then 5% I would guess).

------
Roritharr
It's sad that learning from books doesn't work like osmosis.

If the amount of books i've bought would equate with the number of books I've
read I probably would be a more rounded coder...

Is it common to have atleast 5 times the amount of unread coding books in
comparison to the read ones?

There are surely lots of Java books bought by students who drop out after the
first semester...

------
Feoh
I don't think these results correlate _at all_ to the popularity of a given
programming language in use in the field.

For instance, pretty much ever since the language's ascendance to popularity,
a visit to the bookstore will yield a veritable WALL of Java books, most of
them bound for obsolescence within a year, or two, max. Sure, this happens
with other programming languages too, but the constant churn of frameworks,
libraries and infrastructure that happens in the Java world is a boon for book
publishers.

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thebluesky
Interesting trends, which likely match reality wrt the the decline of visual
basic and perl, and the rise of python
<http://radar.oreilly.com/upload/2012/03/Lang_allYears.jpg> It also shows the
ruby market cooling off, which is consistent with recent stats for open source
commit numbers.

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namidark
I can't tell the difference between Ruby, VBA, Perl, and SQL at first
glance... instead I have to count columns and figure out where a language is

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beothorn
err...no <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betteridges_Law_of_Headlines>

