GitHub

Thousands of programming languages exist, but there are some trusty ones that developers turn to again and again.

GitHub, the startup at the center of open-source software development, tracks these programming trends. After all, it’s a hub for software projects that developers can browse and contribute to with over 3.1 million developers and 2.1 million organizations. Its annual Octoverse report has top insights on the the inner goings-on in the world of software developers. 

GitHub is about to be acquired by Microsoft for $7.5 billion, and it’s quickly growing. There were 8 million new users on the platform this past year — that’s more than in GitHub’s first six years combined. And it’s growing quickly globally, especially in countries like China, India, Singapore, Nigeria, Brazil, and more.

Here are the top languages they're using, according to GitHub:

Ruby is a dynamic, open source programming language that focuses on simplicity. It’s been used to build some of the apps we use each day. Ruby on Rails, a popular web-application framework, is implemented in Ruby. In fact, apps like Twitch, SoundCloud, Hulu, Zendesk, Square and GitHub were built with Ruby on Rails.

C is an old one, but a good one. One of the oldest programming languages, it was invented in the 1970s. Even today, it has become one of the most widely used programming languages of all time.

A shell script is a computer program that’s designed to instruct an operating system to run certain commands. Shell scripts can manipulate files, execute programs and more. It's especially popular with systems administrators. 

TypeScript has been described as being like JavaScript with superpowers. With similar syntax and semantics, it’s closely related to JavaScript and can support large-scale applications. This language was created by Microsoft and is becoming more popular, and it’s up from #11 last year.

Stephen O'Grady, an industry analyst with RedMonk, points out that its similarities to JavaScript makes it popular. “We’re able to build off of that fundamental strength [of JavaScript],” O’Grady said at the GitHub Universe conference on Tuesday.

C#, pronounced C Sharp, was developed by Microsoft and used to build enterprise applications and software used by corporate clients. This object-oriented programming language is similar to Java.

See Also:

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• Microsoft will let anyone use 60,000 of its key software patents as it moves to play more nicely with open source developers
• LinkedIn is using AI to make recruiting diverse candidates a no-brainer