From: Phlip <phlip2005@...>
Date: 2009-04-12T01:25:08+09:00
Subject: Re: Can Ruby stay ahead ?

Robert Dober wrote:

> Forgive my ignorance, should language X be on the Tiobe Index? For
> what reason? Never heard of that one before (duking, but that is the
> truth).

http://www.tiobe.com/index.php/content/paperinfo/tpci/index.html

Java is number 1 due (in my exalted opinion) to corporate support, a huge 
critical mass of active projects using it, academic support, and "enterprise 
support". The latter is roughly equivalent to "we had to spend a quintillion 
dollars on it last quarter, so it must be powerful stuff!"

C is number 2 due to almost complete saturation of the systems and OS 
programming layers. The next layer above machine language is C, so if you have 
silicon, you need C between it and your higher level systems.

C++ is number 3 due to complete bidirectional integration with C, plus all the 
same reasons as Java, plus C-like (or better) performance.

PhP is 4 because - until Rails - it was the default choice for RAD website 
development. Non-RAD website development is very rare...

Visual Basic is 5 because MS markets it to your non-technical boss as "simpler 
than all those fragile languages that cause bugs." 'nuff said.

JavaScript is on the list because it extends HTML to make your browser actually 
do stuff. It goes where HTML can't go.

C# made the list because it's a Java clone, and hence a "duopoly" in the same 
Enterprise space.

And the Duck Typing languages - Perl, Python, Ruby - are on the list due to the 
LAMP website architecture, where P stands for any interPreted language.

Lua is on the list because it provides the scripting layer - and Duck Typing - 
for video games.