The beauties and the beasts in Stack Overflow survey 2018

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The beauties and the beasts in Stack Overflow survey 2018

Engineering Insights & Web Platforms

This year, Stack Overflow asked 100,000 developers worldwide how they feel about the tools they use and about their working environment. The 2018 survey also covered some new topics ranging from artificial intelligence to ethics in coding.

But the rising superstar of the last years, Python, commanded the most attention.

Languages

For the last years, Python has been the fastest-growing major programming language, surpassing C#, the same way it surpassed PHP last year. Still, JavaScript is the most popular language, followed closely by HTML and CSS, the survey’s conclusion being that we see an alignment this year between professionals and the developer population overall.

Currently, Python is the fastest-growing programming language both in high-income countries (US, Canada, UK, Germany) and non-high-income states (Brazil, India, China, Russia), though Python started at a lower level in the latter stages and the growth began two years later (in 2014 rather than 2012). In fact, Python growth accelerates more year by year in non-high-income countries. The same remains true for R and other languages whose usage is correlated with the GDP.

Languages

Thumbs up or down?

It’s worth noting that the number of users of a language doesn’t imply anything about its quality and certainly can’t tell you which language is best suited for a particular situation.

However, for the 3rd year in a row developers are showing the least interest to continue working with VisualBasic 6. At the opposite end is Rust, the most loved language for the third year in a row. Surprisingly, Kotlin comes in second, which was included for the first time in the survey. This means that developers want to continue using these technologies.

Given Python’s accelerated growth rate in preferences, it comes as no surprise that it is the most wanted language for the second year in a row.

Frameworks, libraries, tools, databases

No big surprises here vs. 2017. Node.js scores highest in this category with AngularJS and React in second and third place and.NetCore is still important for many developers.

Frameworks tools

Same as last year, MySQL and SQL Server are the most commonly used databases. For the second year in a row, Redis is the most loved database, meaning that more developers want to continue working with it than any other database; MongoDB is the most wanted database.

IBM’s Db2 seems to be the most dreaded one though.

TensorFlow, one of the fastest-growing technologies on Stack Overflow, is most loved by developers, while Cordova is most dreaded. React is the framework developers say they most want to work with if they do not already.

Databases

Platforms and operating systems

Nothing has changed much in the last couple of years on this topic. Linux and Windows Desktop or Server are still the most common choices for developers in 2018.

Also, Linux is once again the most loved platform for development with Serverless coming in close, scoring 75% in the preferences. Android and Raspberry Pi are the most wanted ones meaning more and more respondents say they want to start developing for these platforms. And yes, for the second year Sharepoint is the most disliked development platform.

Platforms

As for OS, Windows scores twice as much as macOS meaning a hefty 49.9%. Linux is almost on par with macOS, scoring 23%.

Operating Systems

Ok, so these are the main tech data for the tech people this year. But the Stack Overflow survey contains many more insights that might interest you. And we’re not just talking about top paying technologies or the correlation between them but ethical issues regarding AI and society, gender and equality issues, or even the fact that standing desks are trendy not just in Silicon Valley. So check out the Stack Overflow survey and also check out Tremend presentation for a full list of technologies and frameworks that we are experts in.

Tremend is an organization with a pure engineering DNA and a structure facilitating the transfer from idea to execution. It has more than 300 projects under its belt for major EU telecom operators, automotive companies, media, leading retailers, and banking clients, which translates to more than 60 million end-users in 15 countries on 3 continents.  A purebred tech company with the accelerated adoption of the latest tools and technologies such as AI, Machine Learning, IoT, and Biometrics.