Poll: What is your primary programming language?

54 points by johnyzee ↗ HN
Interested in how it breaks down on HN. Add/upvote missing choices in the comments. I added Ruby-on-Rails as a separate item to compare it with non-ROR Ruby.

97 comments

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Javascript.

Is there an alternative for web that includes jquery-like functionality?

Anyone using brython?

Go
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After years of php, javascript, python and different frameworks and others I switch to java.
Hard for me to vote for a single language here. Recently I've been flipping between Go, C and Lua in fairly equal measures. My 'primary' language only exists for some short sample period as by necessity I'm flipping between languages as needed by projects.
Kind of the same problem here. At work everyone splits their time between several projects, and my work is distributed as:

- 45% python (1 project)

- 45% C# (1 project)

- 5% R

- 5% JS (1 very small project - data visualization using dc.js)

I voted for more than one.
Fully agree.

The customers from our consulting projects dictate what languages get used, not me. So each new project usually means complete context change in terms of OS and Languages, in regard to the previous one.

Additionally all projects tend to be polyglot to a certain extent.

Why is there Ruby on Rails? Rails is not a language
I'm guessing it's a reflection of the perceived notion that a non-trivial number of Ruby developers would be completely lost if asked to write even the most trivial CRUD app without using Rails. Basically capturing people who tread ruby as the DSL that Rails happens to use a scripting language, rather than treading Ruby as a freestanding language.
I would be very interested in getting in touch with people using Common Lisp as a primary programming language (as in, "job programming language").
I've spent the last five years in Rails, but finally got the whole "the browser handles the MV* framework" thing with Node.js, and now I've converted myself totally to javascript.

Write backend and frontend code in the same language? Yes please. Longing for that fantastically delicious Ruby syntax? Do everything in coffeescript.

"Write backend and frontend code in the same language? Yes please."

It's an awesome goal. I just wish that language wasn't Javascript...

(Smart)GWT makes this possible with Java. I like my languages for big projects strict and unforgiving ;)
I love GWT for this reason. Working with the same classes and objects in server and client-side code transparently is such a treat.
CoffeeScript alleviates the issue. Seriously. I don't really like Ruby/Python (which CS seems to be heavily inspired on) but it's WAAAY better than JS.

It's seamlessly integrated with Node.js. I don't even notice I'm doing coffee, even my files are auto-compiled and minified to JS via express-coffee-script without me or the user noticing.

Or try one of the many alternatives: LiveScript, Coco...

CoffeeScript still suffers from many of the same problems that JavaScript does, as it's basically a very thin syntactic veneer over JavaScript.

Like CoffeeScript's homepage current states, 'The golden rule of CoffeeScript is: "It's just JavaScript".'

The problems with JavaScript are very inherent and at its very core. They aren't the kind of things that are fixed by changing the syntax. While languages like Dart and TypeScript go far beyond where CoffeeScript does, the mere presence of JavaScript underneath still causes problems and forces in limitations.

Which are the problems in your opinion? You mention Dart and TypeScrypt. Does that mean that typing is an issue for you? I actually like dynamic languages, that's why Coffee solved my problem.
I voted C++, but regretfully the truth is probably closer to LaTeX :/
Writing good docs is not a bad thing :) Are you actually writing packages or the usual text plus macros plus package list?
I imagine there is a large correlation between the language you know best, and the language you use most, since they reinforce each other.
Where is Bash ;(

(half kidding. only half :P)

Why not? Unless a task is complex enough to take the time to write some Python, I'm doing most of my automation using zsh scripts.
R, since I'm developing libraries for that language.

- 80% R - 20% JS

By "Lisp", is it meant to refer to Common Lisp, or just a generalized term for both Common Lisp, Scheme, Shen etc.?
Clarified as Lisp + dialects (although Clojure has its own entry).
Is lisp meant to be "the lisps", or is common lisp to be assumed and scheme a seperate choise?
Interesting that python is winning at the moment. Again, perhaps we need to wait for Silicon Valley to wake up and vote for ruby and rails.
is Python really so much more popular than Ruby (RoR), or this is HN case? As I regularly check Germany startup jobs and see Python jobs much less than Ruby/ROR ones.
Python is popular outside of web-development, unlike Ruby.
Tons of researchers (biology, physics, etc) use Python. It's not just startup jobs.
If you limit yourself to web development at startups then Ruby is probably more popular. If you look at all fields where code is written to solve problems I'm not at all surprised that Python dominates Ruby. In fact I imagine the difference between the two is much larger than the poll shows if you look outside of the HN sphere
Wow, lots of python. I use it quite a bit too but mainly for scripting. What are you guys using it for?
Science!

Linguistics and machine learning. I just finished implementing a swipe trajectory recognition for a Swype-like keyboard. It's my thesis.

Currently I don't do much 'proper' programming and use it mainly for GIS and data analysis and numerical modelling, and occasionally using it for chucking up a simple web front-end to either run or view the results. I have however in the past used it for writing non-trivial desktop GUI applications and web services.