
Is Java Really Losing Popularity Among Developers? - jcwentz
http://weblogs.java.net/blog/editor/archive/2011/10/22/java-really-losing-popularity-among-developers
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Joakal
Job ads at indeed:
[http://www.indeed.com/jobanalytics/jobtrends?q=Java%2C+C%2B%...](http://www.indeed.com/jobanalytics/jobtrends?q=Java%2C+C%2B%2B%2C+C%23%2C+Visual+Basic%2C+Perl%2C+C%2C+PHP%2C+Objective-C%2C+Python%2C+JavaScript&l=)
(Click Relative to see which are increasing compared to others more easily)

Doesn't seem to be losing popularity among employers.

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chrisledet
That's because their apps are written in Java and they need people to maintain
them. Java isn't going anywhere for a while.

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super_mario
That's true only if by "apps" you mean web only. Java is not the most popular
language/technology to turn to unless you are facing amazingly large scale or
performance is critical.

For startups developing in Java is probably not a great idea, because startups
need to respond to change fast and get things up and running fast, and
languages like Python, Ruby, some kind of LISP are way better at that. You can
always re-write your application in Java/Scala if performance/scale becomes an
issue (a lot of startups dream about having those kinds of problems :D).

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chrisledet
I actually worked for a startup who wanted who wanted their apps written in
Java because it "scales". To this day they don't realize hardware is cheaper
than deveopers.

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ComputerGuru
Hardware isn't cheaper than developers when working on massive scale.

See this: [http://channel9.msdn.com/posts/C-and-Beyond-2011-Herb-
Sutter...](http://channel9.msdn.com/posts/C-and-Beyond-2011-Herb-Sutter-Why-C)

~~~
chrisledet
Thanks for the video. I'll take a look.

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stickhandle
According to
[http://www.tiobe.com/index.php/content/paperinfo/tpci/index....](http://www.tiobe.com/index.php/content/paperinfo/tpci/index.html)
still #1 in usage in a virtual dead heat with C. 4x usage of Python. 11x usage
of Ruby. Its a silly bit of naval gazing akin to ... Is Blue Really Losing
Popularity Among Painters?

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stickhandle
Java is the "hammer" in the metaphorical IT toolbox. Sure, niche and very
useful tools are in the toolbox too, and all have their place, but ... to
stretch the metaphor a little further, no toolbox is complete without a
hammer. <sidenote>to any real developer, popularity is an irrelevant
metric</sidenote>

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swah
How could popularity be an irrelevant metric? Why you know the languages that
you know and not the other 99%?

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stickhandle
popularity doesn't matter - it's about the task + environment (if its not,
then your doing it wrong)

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city41
How often do developers get to truly choose the language they use? Developers
usually go where the jobs are. There are a lot of Java systems out there.
Doesn't necessarily mean Java is or isn't a "popular" language. I'd be more
interested if there is any data on how many newly started projects are using
Java compared to other environments.

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cubicle67
_How often do developers get to truly choose the language they use?_

Every day

There's absolutely nothing stopping any developer from learning other skills
and changing jobs. I was an enterprise dev that taught myself Ruby in the
evenings until I had enough skill to move away from the enterprise world. I've
been making a living from Ruby coding for just over 3 years now (probably
worth noting that I'm almost 40 and have 4 kids). Pay is slightly less, but
work satisfaction is so much higher is't a joke.

Seriously, your current employer might not let you change, but you don't have
to stay with them forever. It's your life, not theirs

[Edited to add: I see comment here about job ads. What I discovered early on
is that in the Ruby world, and probably Python et al, most jobs are got via
reputation or mailing lists. pretty much never on mainstream job boards]

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city41
_There's absolutely nothing stopping any developer from learning other skills
and changing jobs._

Sure, that works to an extent. I was a .NET developer and now I work in Ruby
and JavaScript. But if I really had my druthers I'd be writing games for a
living. But we can't all work for Valve. So it still remains that for many
developers they take what they can get. Some aren't talented enough to get the
job they really want. Others have other obligations that prevent them (such as
families, geography, the economy, etc).

So it still remains that many people code in Java because there are large,
entrenched systems written in Java that need maintaining. I of course have no
research to support this, but something tells me most developers -- especially
passionate ones -- would not choose to work in Java over all other
possibilities in 2011.

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rbanffy
I don't think I'll base my choice of language for the next project on how
popular it is among developers.

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djb_hackernews
It certainly matters though, right?

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rbanffy
Popularity is a factor, but, among the 20 or so top languages it's hard to
find one that's not "popular enough".

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manojlds
What is more interesting is how much Objective-C has grown since 2009.

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skeptical
Javascript have had a massive popularity explosion yet the graph doesn't show
any sign of it.

This kind of metrics has limited value. Not only popularity is not an absolute
thing, it's also difficult to measure.

Us, hacker news readers, have fun with our javascript, coffesecript, ruby,
etc. projects. But if you're in the corporate world you need to pull the heavy
guns, not the good looking ones.

Many are saying tat java is the new cobol, that's a good metaphor IMO. And if
it is, it's not going to go anywhere.

As for me, I wouldn't mind continuing firing up eclipse every day and proceed
with my daily usage of java for the next 5-10 years.

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uriel
Java is the new COBOL.

