TypeScript, Microsoft’s language for building JavaScript to scale, is making progress. Since its launch in 2012, the free open source programming language has ranked 12th on the Programming Language Rankings Q1-2019 of developer-analyst RedMonk.
The ranking is published twice a year. TypeScript has risen four points since RedMonk’s last ranking last August. The year before, the programming language took 17th place. TypeScript is currently located just behind Swift, which according to RedMonk is the fastest growing programming language ever. The top three languages in RedMonk’s current ranking have remained unchanged since last summer. The number one JavaScript is followed by Java and the increasingly popular Python takes third place.
TypeScript certainly benefits from its JavaScript proximity, as well as security features such as the optional static type check. But functions alone are never enough to drive a language so far, it must be exploited by a broad base of projects. All that explains why the TypeScript path is significant and durable, says Stephen OGrady of RedMonk.
Prediction based on correlations
The rankings are not representative of the general use of a language. RedMonk uses so-called code repositories to rank programming languages. They are hosted among others GitHub. However, the company believes it can predict future trends in language adoption by using correlations between two large developer populations. That is, using a language on GitHub and discussing a language on Stack Overflow. These discussions are also taken into account.
According to the ranking, the Kotlin programming language is growing even faster than TypeScript. Kotlin has risen eight places since last August and is now in 20th place. According to OGrady, Kotlin grows almost as fast as Swift. GitHub made a similar observation in his 2018 Octoverse report. Although Kotlin is the fastest growing language among developers using GitHub, where the fully supported Android language Kotlin is popular with developers of Android apps. The language would still be 27 percent away from the top 1000 Android apps on Google Play.
Julia
As regards the use of Julia, a programming language that was released via MIT in 2012, there is also an upward trend. Julia climbed two places on Redmond’s ranking and is now in 34th place. According to ZDnet, OGrady remarked last August that the esoteric nature of the language might even degrade it to niche status. Yesterday he would have said that Julia’s growth was more of a turtle than a hare, but at the same time OGrady also pointed to the growth of TypeScript. That as a reminder that it is rare, but according to him it is still possible for languages to move quickly from periods of slow, barely measurable growth to high, sustained growth quarter after quarter.
RedMonks top 20 of the Programming Language Rankings Q1-2019:
1 JavaScript
2 Java
3 Python
4 PHP
5 C#
6 C++
7 CSS
8 Ruby
9 C
10 Objective-C
11 Swift
12 TypeScript
13 Scala
14 Shell
15 Go
16 R
17 PowerShell
18 Perl
19 Haskell
20 Kotlin
Related: Microsoft unveils roadmap for TypeScript in 2019
This news article was automatically translated from Dutch to give Techzine.eu a head start. All news articles after September 1, 2019 are written in native English and NOT translated. All our background stories are written in native English as well. For more information read our launch article.
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