Java Is #1 In OpenSource …And Still Climbing
Java has the most commits made by open source developers, followed by HTML, C, PHP, Ruby… (Scala, Clojure and Groovy are not visible in the graph).
It seems like Java is not only the most popular language, but also the most used language for OpenSource development [according to: http://www.ohloh.net].
When you look at GitHub you get quite another impression:
https://github.com/languages
Probably Java-Devs don't love GitHub, which is a pitty...
Posted by jbandi on September 08, 2011 at 04:15 PM CEST #
@JBandi,
...you will get another impression on: http://www.codeplex.com/ as well :-)
Some Java-Devs already started on source forge, google code, Java.net, kenai.com CodeHaus (...) before github even existed.
But we should not underestimate the Jboss guys. They are hacking on github like crazy :-)
thanks!,
adam
Posted by Adam Bien on September 08, 2011 at 04:37 PM CEST #
There are many different statistics. Here is on about usage of server-side languages for websites:
http://w3techs.com/technologies/overview/programming_language/all
Posted by Bernd on September 09, 2011 at 01:33 PM CEST #
@Bernd,
ASP.net amazed me. But even in your statistic Java is way ahead all the esoteric languages. Even before ruby!,
thanks for your opinion!,
adam
[...and I never heard about w3techs before],
Posted by Adam Bien on September 09, 2011 at 04:05 PM CEST #
Any reason why you didn't include C++ or C# in your comparsion?
Posted by Christoph on September 09, 2011 at 05:58 PM CEST #
@Christoph,
yes: C# is significantly worse than Ruby and C++ seems to be identical to C.
But: with the inclusion of C++ and C# Java looks even better:
http://www.ohloh.net/languages/compare?measure=commits&percent=true&l0=c&l1=clojure&l2=groovy&l3=java&l4=javascript&l5=php&l6=ruby&l7=scala&l8=cncpp&l9=csharp&l10=-1&commit=Update
thanks for your comment!,
adam
Posted by Adam Bien on September 09, 2011 at 07:13 PM CEST #
http://www.ohloh.net/languages/compare?measure=commits&percent=true&l0=c&l1=cpp&l2=java&l3=cncpp&l4=-1&commit=Update
Posted by Jarek on September 10, 2011 at 06:44 PM CEST #
@Jarek,
still remarkable. Your version means: C and C++ together have the same amount of commits as Java. If you consider that Linux is written in C / C++ -> the result is more than great.
Is C your favorite language? :-)
thanks!,
adam
Posted by Adam Bien on September 10, 2011 at 08:10 PM CEST #
C++ is currently higher than Java, and this represents a bad dataset, since it falsely splits C commits (and there's a third, c/c++, which doesn't roll into either.)
Weirdly, you seem to believe that C++ somehow includes C. It does not. That C and C++ should be counted together, but instead are counted separately, shows that the BCPL family is actually quite a bit stronger than the Java family. They're both just spitting distance from Java; that's a clear indicator that C/C++ code is actually currently accepting twice the open source work that Java is.
Also, there's quite a serious question of whether this is a legitimate measurement. If you look through Ohloh's various datasets - including the one you presented here - it's quite common that some language frequently spikes large. That's because Ohloh is a social network, and follows Metcalfe network rules; it isn't a random sampling, but rather a proximity biassed sampling.
Proximity will be defined in terms of projects and programmers, both of whom are intensely language-specific; blub programmers tend mostly to speak to other blub programmers.
It's also worth noting that Java is *not* climbing. It was reliably higher in commit count from 2007 through 2010 than it is right now.
Above and beyond that, it's several weeks since Java released its first major version in years; observing the uptick that comes from the various updates to libraries for compatability as Java growth is deeply disingenuous.
The most reliable way to find out about language position is to look at the classified ads - even in open source - and on Monster, Java's been shrinking for years.
Posted by 71.191.249.112 on September 15, 2011 at 04:27 AM CEST #
@71.191.249.112,
"They're both just spitting distance from Java; that's a clear indicator that C/C++ code is actually currently accepting twice the open source work that Java is."
I would actually expect that. C / C++ is the base for operating systems and databases (Linux, BSD, mysql), and Java is usually not. Still: the distance between Java and C is really small.
"It's also worth noting that Java is *not* climbing. It was reliably higher in commit count from 2007 through 2010 than it is right now."
You are right. My title is not correct. Java is is not climbing, but the others seems to are loosing more - so it looks like a climb.
"The most reliable way to find out about language position is to look at the classified ads - even in open source - and on Monster, Java's been shrinking for years."
And this is absolutely not my observation. I have no idea about ads - but the demand for Java programmers is huge. At least in Europe: most of the Java conferences are still growing - with lots of sold-out slots...
It really does not look like a shrinking language.
I get also constantly asked about skilled Java programmers. I personally encounter more prospering, than shrinking :-)
But thanks for your constructive comment!,
adam
Posted by Adam Bien on September 19, 2011 at 01:27 AM CEST #
I have been programming in Visual Studio (MFC and VB) for the last 11 years mostly in the factory automation domain. In order to move to to another line I have taken up java seriously, as I feel it is an honest language with examples and open source packages that are impressive and pedagogical. As far as the fate of Java is concerned, I believe that with the release of powerful IDEs such as that from NetBeans and the JDK 7 parallel extensions it will fend off any challenges from the likes of C# - a language that for some obscure reasons I have always disliked. Java's main competitor continues to be the .Net platform, whose own uptake seems to have hit a plateau after all the hype. There was a spot of trouble when Oracle came in, they have however sensibly shown themselves to be commited to supporting the language and the wider interests of the community.
Posted by Ivan on September 20, 2011 at 01:14 PM CEST #
to know something really interesting, i would like to see the language choosen in new projects. the impression is that java has a "huge" code base on the planet, and its maintenance biases this diagrams singnificantly. talking with developers, the impression is that java is loosing its appeal because of its "laborious" and "frayed" approach, and in this moment even big companies working on big projects, put beside a java team a php or ruby team with the idea that it is a more streamline approach. while big companies are "looking around" this way, i know several start up (little) software houses, and no one even think to java, preferring php, ruby, asp.net and .net for desktop.
Posted by Agostino on September 20, 2011 at 06:25 PM CEST #
@Agostino,
I would answer again: http://www.adam-bien.com/roller/abien/entry/ruby_on_rails_was_supposed#comment-1302611717809
What I can tell you: Java (EE) developers tend to over-engineer their applications for unknown reasons. Java EE done right (=KISS, DRY and DIE) can be amazingly productive :-)
enjoy hacking!,
adam
Posted by Adam Bien on September 22, 2011 at 02:04 AM CEST #
Python has a strong following - there are some great frameworks out there like django
@Angostino it's a throwback to "J2EE Blueprints", trying to work around/abstract the problems with EJB < 3. Even now I have to keep pointing designers towards using the latest features of EJB3.1 instead of applying those old patterns everywhere
Posted by Dave Martin on September 30, 2011 at 10:22 PM CEST #