The following table compares general and technical information for the most popular programming languages as determined by the TIOBE Programming Community index. PHP, Javascript, SAS, PL/SQL, Visual FoxPro, Lisp/Scheme, and VB.NET are temporarily omitted. Please see the individual products' articles for further information.
Language | General model of execution | Influences | Principal paradigm | Typing discipline | Introduced | Popularity[1] | Usage trend[2]
|
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Ada | Compilation | Algol, Pascal, C++ (Ada 95), Smalltalk (Ada 95) | multi-paradigm: concurrent, distributed, generic-programming, imperative, object-oriented | static, strong, safe, nominative | 1983 | 18 | 0 |
Visual Basic | ? | FORTRAN II, ALGOL 60 | ? | ? | 1963 | 5 | +1 |
C | Compilation | Algol, BCPL | Structured, Procedural, Flow-driven | Static, weak | Early 1970 | 2 | -1 |
C++ | Compilation | C, Simula, Algol 68 | Principly Object-oriented, multiple paradigms | Static, weak | 1979 | 3 | +1 |
C# | Compilation | Java, C++ | structured, imperative | dynamic, strong, both safe and unsafe, nominative | 2001 | 7 | 0 |
COBOL | Compilation | ? | ? | ? | 1959 | 15 | -1 |
ColdFusion | Compilation | ? | ? | ? | 1995 | 16 | +9 |
D | Compilation | C++ | ? | ? | 2000 | 19 | +8 |
Delphi/Kylix | ? | ? | ? | ? | 1995 | 10 | -1 |
Java | Interpretation/JIT compilation/Dynamic compilation | C++, Objective-C | Object-oriented | Static, strong | 1996 | 1 | +1 |
Perl | ? | C, shell, awk, sed, lisp | ? | Dynamic | 1987 | 6 | -3 |
Python | Interpretation | ABC, Perl | Object-oriented | Dynamic, strong | 1990 | 8 | 0 |
Ruby | Interpretation | Smalltalk, Perl | Object-oriented | ? | 1995 | 20 | +10 |
- ^ From the first column of the May, 2006 TIOBE Programming Community Index. Languages are ranked sequentially from most popular to least popular based on the world-wide availability of skilled engineers, courses, and third party vendors. Google, MSN, and Yahoo are used to calculate the rank. In determining popularity for a language, the language may include or exclude other languages or derivatives. See what languages are included or excluded in the Groupings and exceptions chart below or here.
- ^ From the Delta in Position column of the May, 2006 TIOBE Programming Community Index. This number indicates the language's change in popularity over the last year. In determining the usage trend for a language, the language may include or exclude other languages or derivatives. See what languages are included or excluded in the Groupings and exceptions chart below or here.
Language |
Exceptions/Inclusions |
---|---|
Awk |
Included: awk, gawk, mawk, nawk |
C# |
Included: C#, C-Sharp, C Sharp |
ColdFusion |
Included: ColdFusion, Cold Fusion, CFMX, CFML |
D |
Exception: "3-D Programming" |
Delphi/Kylix |
Included: Delphi, Kylix |
IDL |
Exception: "corba" |
Lisp/Scheme |
Included: Lisp, Scheme |
Python |
Included: Python, Jython, IronPython (Jan Persson) |
T-SQL |
Included: T-SQL, Transact-SQL |
Tcl/Tk |
Included: Tcl/Tk, Tcl, Tk |
VB.NET |
Included: VB.NET, Visual Basic.NET, Visual Basic .NET, Visual Basic 2005, VB 2005 |
Visual FoxPro |
Included: FoxPro, Fox Pro, VFP |