Tiobe, the software-checking company has called Python the top programming language of 2020 because it became more popular in its index than any other language last year. Tiobe uses programming-related questions on search engines that calculate rankings.
Python rose by 2.1% in 2020 while Java declined by 5%. Python may be the star but Tiobe’s January rankings for this year, place C at the top of the pile, with Java, Python, C++, and C# following consecutively.
Why is Python, a 35-year-old language so popular today and why is Java seeing decreased use among enterprise software engineers? Paul Jansen, the CEO of Tiobe, says it all has to do with versatility.
Python is popping up everywhere
It’s not just versatility that is pushing Python into the limelight. It is also an easy language to learn and yields higher productivity. The only thing that is keeping Python from being proclaimed King of the languages, is that C is still the best option for enhanced performance.
All over the place, Python is rearing its head. It has its beginnings as a competitor of Perl to write scripts used by sysadmins over the years.
Nowadays, it is the preferred language in machine learning, web development, backend programming, and data science.
Python might not be the ultimate king
The language is growing into the mobile app domain and is seeing use in more extensive embedded systems. Jansen predicts that the question of performance could keep it from moving from being the language of the year to being at the very top.
However, he also predicts that Java will not keep its position for too long. Python could rise to become the second most popular language.
Back in November, the rankings showed that Python overtook Java for the first time in 20 years. Expected to grow and enter the top 20, is a new language out of MIT, named Julia.
7 hours ago
