Java Programming Language Popularity and Usage Trends
The Java programming language has been around long enough. Some have deep sentiments for it, others dislike it violently. The fact that Java is running just about everywhere remains. From mainframes to mobile phones, amazingly enough, Java is found in every aspect of our life.
It is still successful after 20 years and has a great future ahead in cloud computing, Android and mobile, web and embedded technologies. Java is not just a language. It is the Sun (Oracle) implementation of marketable “everything is an object” approach that is safety and familiarity bundled into an impressive do-everything library and obviously the core enabler of Java’s ecosystem – Java Virtual Machine.
There are good reasons for the sustainable appeal of Java. Most technologists admire its sophistication. In the vast community of practitioners, Java has been duly positioned as an go-to language for developing network-based applications. It also contains good design decisions that place it above most of its competitors. Despite some critical points, Java’s popularity is not fading in the programming world. On the contrary, it holds its position firmly starting from 1996 when it was first recognised as The Product of the Year by Time magazine.
Numerous researches have been conducted for the past decade, analysts produce and aggregate indices every month. Some languages climb up in popularity (Swift), some move down (Ruby) depending on market and modern world development trends. There is one that serves the idea of a powerful yet easy learn-and-work-with programming language precisely. And that is Java.
According to TIOBE Programming Community index Java increased in popularity by 5,94% in 2015.
One more respectable source that tracks the popularity of programming languages IEEE Spectrum states that Java remains on top a couple of years in a row.
The latest RedMonk Programming Language Ranking, another barometer of programming language popularity also has Java topping the list.
In January 2016 PyPL Index Java tops with 24,4% share.
Having stormed into the business world at the dawn of the Internet era, it is now there in Microsoft Azure cloud. It is an important language and mature platform behind many social sites like Twitter, Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn and many more.
In the 2000s, Java became a leading language thanks to its penetration into the enterprise world. Java has been well-accepted in application development for various business domains (banking, finance, healthcare, agriculture, education and diverse technologies). Thanks to its tremendous spread there are thousands of positions waiting for the programmers. The never-ending interest in Java skills is giving recruiters and IT directors hard times. It is now the second most sought-after skill in the IT recruitment market, according to Computer Weekly’s Survey of Appointment and Trends. It never ceased to stay trendy in the job market. According to one of the most popular IT job sites, the Dice.com Java is the most requested skill.
“More than 16,000 Java positions are open on any given day”, says Shravan Goli, Dice president, “and demand for Java is only heating up. Java was named one of the Top 10 skills hiring managers search for when in the market for cloud candidates, …and considering it’s a basis for so many open source projects, demand for tech pros with this programming language doesn’t appear to be slowing down anytime soon.”
It runs on almost every modern tech device. Java is an undoubtedly preferred language in the business world. But, as duly marked by the professionals, it can be slow to support some vital features of contemporary languages in many areas. This brings an increasing pressure on Java as a conventional language. So its future depends directly on the ability of Java to keep up with the demands of the technology world.
Oracle will not let Java stand still. It consolidates and integrates proven technologies and elements from other modern languages. Take generics or enumerations or lambda expressions.
Programmers often meet these ideas in Java for the first time. Many computer experts admit that everyone today is influenced by it regardless of Java knowledge.
“The Java language is changing nowadays….it’s closing the gap with functional programming languages thus making life much easier”, says Paul Jensen, TIOBE Managing Director.
Java started as a language for embedded systems. Its first versions mainly interacted with the devices and appliances used at home. James Gosling originally envisioned Java as a means of communication between devices. After almost two decades those once unique ideas are ready to support the Internet of Things. Oracle is investing massive resources in Java ME and associated technologies with the purpose of gaining more significance and meet the upcoming boom in IoT area.
There is a trend today to call Java the future king of Internet programming.
Another telling advantage of Java booming is mobile and web apps developmente.The outstanding popularity of Android has gained kudos for the Java ecosystem. Java on Android in its turn continues to evolve thus driving an enormous growth and acclaim of modern Java programming. Few languages implicate equal chances of device-developer /developer-device communication. This crucial experience in Android development leads to creating valuable Java applications on other platforms. Java preserves a vast amount of mobile code as well. That is another reason why a vast majority of beginner programmers choose to learn Java.
Nowadays a large number of experienced programmers claim they feel very comfortable developing games for the Android and IOS platforms in Java language. Super popular Angry Birds, Temple Run or Runescape are not exclusive examples of using it.
Some skeptics claim that the number of commercial Java games is still unimpressive compared to those built in Cs. But the market is growing rapidly and there are incredible opportunities for expansion. Recent updates to Java and particularly Java3D gave developers the chance to write extraordinary gaming apps and applets.
And last but foremost Java is evolving non-stop and holds its position as a great tool for problem-solving. After 20 years and with nearly 10 million active developers it prevails in the programming world. There is no question the triumph of Java is yet to come. The IT Gurus expect that Java will be among the top ten most popular languages in 2016 as well. Benefiting from all the promising existing improvements and innovations of the Java ecosystem, they foresee the next year to maintain sustainable growth of the Java language.
