RedMonk’s third-quarter 2024 programming language rankings are out and among the top 20 languages, things have remained pretty stable, with JavaScript, Python and Java remaining in the top three in that order.
PHP ranked fourth and C# was fifth, followed by its fellow Microsoft-created language, TypeScript, that holds the sixth spot by itself in this report.
“Technically TypeScript didn’t move, as it was ranked sixth in our last run, but this is the first quarter in which it has been the sole occupant of that spot,” wrote Stephen O’Grady, principal analyst and co-founder of RedMonk, in the report. “CSS, in this case, dropped one place to seven leaving TypeScript just outside the Top 5. It will be interesting to see whether or not it has more momentum to expand or whether it’s topped out for the time being.”
C++ tied with CSS at seventh, Ruby ranked ninth, C was 10th and Swift was 11th while Go tied with R at 12th.
After that, Shell, Kotlin and Scala shared a three-way tie for the 14th spot in the ranking.
Both Kotlin and Scala – two languages that run on the Java Virtual Machine (JVM) – rose in the ranking. Scala jumped up two spots and Kotlin rose three spots.
“Scala’s rise is notable because it had been on something of a downward trajectory from a one-time high of 12th, and Kotlin’s placement is a mild surprise because it had spent three consecutive runs not budging from 17, only to make the jump now,” O’Grady wrote. “The tie here, meanwhile, is interesting because Scala’s long history gives it an accretive advantage over Kotlin’s more recent development, but in any case, the combination is evidence of the continued staying power of the JVM.”
Objective-C dropped to its lowest ranking at 17th and Rust and Dart tied at 19th, showing no movement for five quarters.
Beyond the top 20 languages, RedMonk singled out languages such as WSO2’s Ballerina (61), along with Bicep (78), Zig (87), Grain and Moonbit for recognition. Bicep is a domain-specific language for deploying Azure Resources. Grain and Moonbit are two languages optimized for WebAssembly, and Zig is a language that follows in the footsteps of C++ and Rust, O’Grady said.
“Grain and Moonbit still haven’t made it into the Top 100, but Bicep jumped eight spots to 78 and Zig 10 to 87,” O’Grady wrote. “That progress pales next to Ballerina, however, which jumped from 80 to 61 this quarter. The general-purpose language from WS02, thus, is added to the list of potential up-and-comers we’re keeping an eye on,” he said.
Meanwhile, the TIOBE index of programming languages told a different story. In the September 2024 TIOBE ranking Python, C++, Java, C and C# made up the top five languages in that order, followed by JavaScript, Visual Basic, Go, SQL and Fortran rounding out the top 10 in the order listed.
At fourth, the C language dropped to its lowest position ever since the TIOBE index began in 2001. According to Paul Jansen, CEO of TIOBE, among the reasons for C’s decline include the lack of object-oriented features, which makes large C programs hard to maintain; embedded systems are shifting to C++ as they grow in complexity; and the U.S. government’s push for memory-safe languages like Rust.
“The U.S. government wants to put a ban on memory-unsafe languages such as C in favor of memory-safe languages such as Rust. This is the other tendency I observe,” Jansen wrote in a post. “Companies are checking out Rust as an alternative for C. C might lose its mojo, but it will stay in the TIOBE index top 10 for a very long time. Its installed base is incredible, and it is part of a zillion of safety-critical systems around the world.”
