Most popular programming languages

[TDarcos]

Good morning everyone, my name is Paul, TDarcos is the username I've been using in one place or another going all the way back to the BBS era of the 1990s. This is my first posting here. Basic was the first language I ever learned to write programs using. Since then, I've probably learned a dozen different languages, each having strengths and weaknesses.

Now, as for the topic here, what is meant by "most popular programming language"? Does that mean
* Most favorite to write programs in?
* Largest number of people who know the language?
* Most number of applications written using? or
* Most often used language to write programs by number of lines of executable code?"
Each of those will produce a different answer, depending on when you ask the question.

Up to probably 1980, if you asked these questions then, you'd probably get something like this:
* Most favorite to write programs in? Some form of Basic was probably the case.
* Largest number of people who know the language? or
* Most number of applications written using? and
* Most often used language to write programs by number of lines of executable code? The answer for all three was almost certainly COBOL, most applications were in-house done by employees of a business. It didn't hurt, back then, that any company that wanted to sell computers to the US Federal government, had to have a COBOL compiler. that met ANSI Cobol standards

With the development of the PC this might have changed. Going up the 1990s it was probably something like
* Most favorite to write programs in? If I have to guess either Basic or Pascal
* Largest number of people who know the language? Cobol still might have been popular - we still had a lot of apps on mainframes and minicomputers, but some of the others like Basic or Pascal, possibly C. Or if we include people who didn't consider themselves programmers, but did write some form of code to automate a task, then it's probably Lotus 1-2-3 macro language.
* Most number of applications written using? Probably same as previous question, This was "the last hurrah" of Cobol, but other languages like Basic, C, and Pascal were gaining. This would also be the high-water mark for Pascal.
* Most often used language to write programs by number of lines of executable code? Probably still Cobol, but C was becoming a choice for portable programming languages, plus less programming was done on "big iron" (minicomputers and mainframes) or "dinosaur mainframes."


Going up to 2000

* Most favorite to write programs in? and*
* Most number of applications written using? C or C++
* Largest number of people who know the language? C
* Most often used language to write programs by number of lines of executable code? C
I'm not talking about by huge numbers. C might be #1 with 10% or 20% of all applications (as a wild guess) but the other 80% is split among probably 50+ different languages.

Now? There are surveys and if I remember it would be something like

* Most favorite to write programs in? Python, Javascript or C#
* Most number of applications written using? Java, Javascripot, C# or C++
* Largest number of people who know the language? Java or C++
* Most often used language to write programs by number of lines of executable code? C++, with Java close behind

How many programs which are published (used by people other than the author) nobody knows, but the Android App store has 2 million+, almost all written in Java. Virtually every web page is using some Javascript. Desktop apps most often use C++.

The real question isn't what's popular, the real question is "what language are you most productive for writing and maintaining application"? Because, in the end, what language are you capable of getting the most done to solve whatever problem you need to write code to solve, is the moist important language to use.