TIOBE index
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TIOBE programming community index is an ordered list of programming languages, sorted by the frequency of web search using the name of the language as the keyword.[1] The index covers searches in Google, Google Blogs, MSN, Yahoo!, Wikipedia and YouTube. The index is updated once a month. The current information is free but the long term statistics over many years of observation is for sale. The index authors think that it may be valuable when accepting various strategic decisions. TIOBE focuses on Turing complete languages, so it does not provide information about the popularity of, for instance, SQL or HTML.
According to the site, TIOBE index is not about the best programming language or the language in which most lines of code have been written,[2] However the site does claim that the frequency of searches may reflect the number of skilled engineers, courses and jobs worldwide. Tim Bunce, author of the Perl DBI, has been critical of the index and its methods of ranking.[3]
TIOBE index is sensitive to the ranking policy of the search engines on which it is based. For instance, in April 2004 Google performed a cleanup action to get rid of unfair attempts to promote the search rank. As a consequence, there was a huge drop for languages such as Java and C++, yet these languages have stayed at the top of the table. To avoid such fluctuations, TIOBE now uses more search engines.
The ranking of the 20 most frequently used programming languages according to the TIOBE Index for February 2012 is as follows:
- Java
- C
- C#
- C++
- Objective-C
- PHP
- (Visual) Basic
- Python
- Perl
- JavaScript
- Delphi/Object Pascal
- Ruby
- Lisp
- Transact-SQL
- Pascal
- Visual Basic .NET
- PL/SQL
- Logo
- Ada
- R
See also
References
- ^ Jackson, Joab (2010-04-13). "Google exec worries over 'rudderless' Java". IT World Canada. Retrieved 2011-08-07.
- ^ TIOBE index web site, www.tiobe.com; requires JavaScript
- ^ Bunce, Tim (2009-05-17). "TIOBE Index is being gamed". TimBunce.org. Retrieved 2011-08-08.