Python is still one of the fastest growing and most preferred programming languages but don’t count C++ out just yet. The TIOBE April 2019 Index released last week had C++ in the number three spot swapping spots with Python.
“C++ is still far away from its popularity in the beginning of this century when it had a market share of more than 15%. The complexity and the delay of releasing the new language definition C++0x pulled the language back at that time,” according to the TIOBE, which tracks quality and use patterns of programming software. TIOBE, founded in 2000, stands for “the importance of being earnest” in a nod to Oscar Wilde, author of the play of the same name, according to the company web site.
Here’s snapshot of the top ten scorers in April:
The TIOBE Programming Community index, updated once a month, is an indicator of the popularity of programming languages. As described by the company, the ratings are based on the number of skilled engineers world-wide, courses and third party vendors. “Popular search engines such as Google, Bing, Yahoo!, Wikipedia, Amazon, YouTube and Baidu are used to calculate the ratings. It is important to note that the TIOBE index is not about the best programming language or the language in which most lines of code have been written,” according to the company.
In examining the C++ resurgence, TIOBE reported, “That new language standard, eventually named C++11 after its release in 2011, has made the language much simpler, safer and more expressive at the same time. It took some extra years before the C++11 standard was adopted because the community had to wait for proper compiler support. But now that the C++11, C++14 and C++17 standards are supported by the most important C++ compilers, i.e. Gcc, Clang and Visual Studio, the popularity of C++ is reviving,”
Link to the TIOBE April 2019 Index: https://www.tiobe.com/tiobe-index/