Python surpassed JAVA in the TIOBE rankings for the first time

For the first time in the nearly two decades since the TIOBE ranking was created, Java and C language no longer hold the top two places.

C Language is still number one, but Python has now replaced Java as number two.

This month's latest rankings are C language, Python, Java, C++, C#, Visual Basic, JavaScript, PHP, R and SQL. Probably no one knows why R entered top ten. In addition, Java remains one of the most comprehensive programming languages in the program development community and ecosystem and will remain at the top place for a long time.

Some people say Python's recent surge in popularity is due to booming fields such as data mining, AI, and numerical computing.

But I (TIOBE's CEO) have my own opinion towards this. I think the popularity of Python has relationship with general requirements. In the past, most programming activities were done by software engineers. But programming skills are still in short supply and good software developers are in short supply. So we need something simple that non-software engineers can process, something that's easy to learn, quick to edit, and smooth to deploy.

The TIOBE Programming Community Index is an indicator of the popularity of programming languages. The index is updated monthly. Ratings are based on the number of skilled engineers, courses and third-party vendors in languages around the world. Major search engines such as searching index on Google, Bing, Yahoo!, Wikipedia, Amazon, YouTube and Baidu are all used to calculate ratings. It is important to note that the TIOBE index does not answer the question "Which is the best programming language?” It doesn’t  refer to the actual amount of code either.

If you want to know whether your programming skills are up to date, or whether you need advice on what programming languages to use and what languages to master when you start building a new software system, take a look at this ranking list. The industry believes that although the index is not the most popular or the most widely used language, but the trend of the development of language worldwide still has important reference purpose.