C Is Now the Most Popular Programming Language, Claims TIOBE

Charlotte Web writes: Since 2001 the TIOBE Index has been ranking top results for the search query +"<language> programming" on the top 25 search engines. "This month, C moved up past Java and entered the number one position," reports JAXenter. "There's a new number one. (Or, should we say an old number one?)" "Java and C were already very close in April, but this month C surpasses Java again," explains Paul Jansen CEO TIOBE Software. He also points out that the last time C was number one was back in 2015, suggesting that today embedded software languages like C and C++ "are gaining popularity because these are used in software for medical devices." "On another note, it is also worth mentioning that Rust is really getting close to the top 20 now (from #27 to #21 within one month)." "Perl, on the other hand, might be on its way off of the charts," argues JAXenter, "if it continues its downward trend. This month it saw a rate of change of -0.51%. It is currently number 18 on the list, but in May 2019 it was number 13." Python also passed C++ to take the #3 spot, while C# overtook Visual Basic for the #5 spot. ("Classic Visual Basic" also lost the #16 spot to PL/SQL). Even PHP rose a notch, pushing past SQL to take the #8 spot, and Scratch also moved up one, overtaking Objective C for the #19 position.

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