One of the oldest ways to write software is finally starting to fade
Wikimedia Commons
By the same token, the TIOBE Index is also a great way to keep your fingers on the pulse of the programming world, as upstarts like Google's Go and Apple's Swift languages make steady gains, pushing old-timer heavyweights like COBOL and Fortran even further down the list.
Now, judging from the August update to the TIOBE Index, it looks like C - the legendary programming language invented in 1972 and still widely used - is showing signs of being left behind as the bulk of new software development gets done on the web and on the smartphone.
"The C programming language has a score of 11.303%, which is its lowest score ever since we started the TIOBE index back in 2001," writes Paul Jansen, who manages the TIOBE Index, in a preface to the August listings.
Overall, C is still doing pretty well. By TIOBE's reckoning, it's still the second most popular programming language in the world, behind only Java, which is widely used in both Android apps and in business software development.
But, by TIOBE's reckoning, this could be a sign of things to come, with C a " bit stuck" amid larger changes to the technology landscape.
C, evolved
Over the years, Java has evolved - originally intended as an operating system for smart televisions, it eventually became massively popular for its rock-solid stability, making it a go-to programming language even during the emergence of the smartphone era.
Meanwhile, C has stayed largely the same, not least because the community of volunteer developers who shepherd the language have focused squarely on performance, rather than adding new features. And so, while C is still being actively developed, it's possible that programmers are finding it less and less suitable for their day-to-day projects as time goes on and computing keeps changing.
Flickr
And C++, an offshoot of C championed by the likes of Microsoft and Intel, already represents the changes that C would have to make to stay relevant. As the TIOBE Index notes, if C put in those C++ features, it would basically just be...C++, which is to say, redundant.
Finally, the TIOBE Index notes that unlike most other major programming languages, C doesn't currently have a major corporate sponsor. Oracle makes a lot of money from Java; Apple pushes both Swift and Objective-C for building iPhone apps. But no big tech company is getting on stage and pushing C as the future of development. So C's problems could be marketing as much as anything.
This is all extrapolated from one month of data, and it's possible that next month, C will have a massive comeback to top the charts. Regardless, this raises fascinating questions about the future of one of the oldest programming languages that's still widely used.
- 2 states where home prices are falling because there are too many houses and not enough buyers
- US buys 81 Soviet-era combat aircraft from Russia's ally costing on average less than $20,000 each, report says
- A couple accidentally shipped their cat in an Amazon return package. It arrived safely 6 days later, hundreds of miles away.
- 9 health benefits of drinking sugarcane juice in summer
- 10 benefits of incorporating almond oil into your daily diet
- From heart health to detoxification: 10 reasons to eat beetroot
- Why did a NASA spacecraft suddenly start talking gibberish after more than 45 years of operation? What fixed it?
- ICICI Bank shares climb nearly 5% after Q4 earnings; mcap soars by ₹36,555.4 crore
- Nothing Phone (2a) blue edition launched
- JNK India IPO allotment date
- JioCinema New Plans
- Realme Narzo 70 Launched
- Apple Let Loose event
- Elon Musk Apology
- RIL cash flows
- Charlie Munger
- Feedbank IPO allotment
- Tata IPO allotment
- Most generous retirement plans
- Broadcom lays off
- Cibil Score vs Cibil Report
- Birla and Bajaj in top Richest
- Nestle Sept 2023 report
- India Equity Market