Programming language subreddits and their choice of words

https://github.com/Dobiasd/programming-language-subreddits-and-their-choice-of-words

by quantisan • 12 years ago

176 55 12 years ago

josteink• 12 years ago

I know PHP-bashing isn't particularly creative nor nice, but I wasn't surprised when I saw the word-analysis at the end there :)

That said, I don't think the findings for C was shocking either.

You're not going to be writing kernel-modules in Clojure. It's going to be some sort of C. And the chances of it involving hardware (performant code or not) is significantly higher than other non-systems languages.

tormeh3• 12 years ago

Why are no one using JSP, by the way? Isn't it a better, more secure direct competitor to PHP?

lmm• 12 years ago

JSP is more like a library or framework than a language, though I guess it's harder to make that distinction in PHP which is kind of both. But this diagram won't separate JSP from other Java (which you'll see is used quite a lot - some of that will be JSP).

"better" is subjective. While there are good things about the Java/JSP stack, its templating language is IMO cumbersome and unsafe, and its test-edit cycle can be quite long.

ptx• 12 years ago

The thing PHP and JSP were designed to do seems to be generally seen as a bad idea nowadays. PHP is used anyway only because it's already installed everywhere, so those who would be able to set up JSP can also choose something else (i.e. neither PHP nor JSP) and probably do.

chrisweekly• 12 years ago

JSP is really just Servlet. JSP is used in the context of Java Servlet Engine frameworks like SpringMVC or Struts. It is definitely still being used.

carlob• 12 years ago

I also want to point out that the mathematica community never swears. :)

LukeB_UK• 12 years ago

Because PHP is so readily available (installed on pretty much every free web host), it may also be related to people starting out with programming and getting frustrated about it.

noir_lord2• 12 years ago

I use PHP daily and I like it's features and tooling but it really isn't a very good language (it's finally passable but far from good).

In addition to the reasons you mentioned it's also possible their are other demographic differences among languages in terms of age, experience etc. (I suspect though can't prove that the average C programmer is older than say the average PHP programmer).

th3iedkid• 12 years ago

looks like users of PHP are most offensive when given to choice of words to hate the language and users of mathematica are least offensive ! Funny but not unexpected

clojure users seem very happy with what they use!

On the mutual mentions java users have near zero mention of haskell?

krapp• 12 years ago

looks like users of PHP are most offensive when given to choice of words to hate the language (...)

PHP offers a wealth of creative possibilities in that regard which other languages seem to lack ;)

BrianEatWorld• 12 years ago

I started using Clojure about a month ago, after spending a lot of time with Python and I have to say it does make me oddly happy. Once you have paredit set up, the way you can move code around is just mesmerizing.

tel2• 12 years ago

http://daiw.de/github/programming-language-subreddits-and-th...

Java mentions Haskell quite a lot, Haskell mentions Java almost not at all.

tormeh3• 12 years ago

This is really cool. I wonder how the "buzzfactor" of Haskell would measure up against Idris.

ivoras• 12 years ago

An interesting indicator from the "mentions" graph: how compatible or co-used two technologies are in practice.

For example: C++ programmers apparently don't mention SQL at all, while it's very popular with PHP (which doesn't have a built-in ORM). There is also no overlap between C++ and JavaScript programmers.

Rust is obviously very influenced by C++ and Haskell, but the C++ community doesn't even know about its existence. Somewhat naturally, the Matlab and PHP communities really don't have much in common.

mcguire• 12 years ago

Anyone know what the unlabelled languages are in that graph?

[Edit: Sorry, I was dragged away to a meeting before I could finish.]

Specifically, what is the blue language between C# and Haskell? It has a strangely strong link to Rust and Python.

3ifbyw• 12 years ago

Go, Objective-C, Swift, and Visual Basic.

sp332• 12 years ago

Pretty sure it's Go. The order around the circle seems to match the chart right under it.

ll123• 12 years ago

None of these languages have a built in ORM.

dubcanada• 12 years ago

Does any language have a built in ORM? I was thinking maybe Ruby, but even that is a gem.

fenomas• 12 years ago

I agree with the author that the top graph may not be hiding any important insights, but the interactive version (linked from the image) is sexy as all get-out.

dbbolton2• 12 years ago

I wonder why Perl was excluded. A quick search reveals that /r/perl has more subscribers than lua, matlab, objectivec, scala, sql, and visualbasic.

gamegoblin2• 12 years ago

I suspect the answer to "Why was ___ excluded" in most of these cases is "accidental oversight".

enraged_camel2• 12 years ago

>"accidental oversight"

Which is just another word for "conspiracy."

kbenson• 12 years ago

Interestingly, Perl does make appearances in much of the word usage section. It's absence from the rest of the article is curious.

Dobiasd4• 12 years ago

The same reason why I left out C and D in the mentions. Their name is too often used to mean something else. :/

dbbolton2• 12 years ago

What other meaning does "Perl" have?

tel2• 12 years ago

I wish the colors indicated not absolute comparative volume (more X talk happens on Y forum, than visa versa, so it's colored Y) but instead comparative relative volumes

    Forum X spends a great percentage of their time
    talking about Y than visa versa so it's colored X

Basically, who obsesses over who more.

huangc10• 12 years ago

nice job. as a user of PHP. no comments. :)

LukeHoersten• 12 years ago

That's really clever. I had a good laugh at some of the results. Well done.

josephschmoe• 12 years ago

I feel like Haskell gets name dropped a lot more - when you mention something from a C-language you can have a reasonable expectation the other person knows what that thing is.

gamegoblin2• 12 years ago

I tend to agree -- I feel like the C-family concepts are the default, and when you go outside of that range, you specify.

e.g.

"I think function application is super easy, you just do f(x,y,z)!"

vs.

"I think Haskell style function application is super easy, you just do f x y z!"

But I also suspect Haskell is just getting more attention these days -- it's quite trendy for sure.

WayneS• 12 years ago

"But what is up with the Visual Basic community? They are neither angry nor happy. They just ... are? :)"

This is answered by the mentions relative to TIOBE graph. They use VB, but they are careful not to talk about it.

Spearchucker• 12 years ago

Not sure if "careful" is the right word. I've gone through many, many languages over the last 20 years, and VB has become my first choice (when the choice is up to me). Most other VB devs I know (there aren't many) just seem... uninterested in arguing over it vs. C#, or anything else for that matter. It's part of the appeal to me - shipping, and the journey are worthy of discussion. Language is incidental.

amcnett• 12 years ago

My kingdom for a sarcasm detection algorithm!

ChikkaChiChi2• 12 years ago

This is awesome. It almost paints a picture from PHP => Python => cpp & Java.

Considering that would be considered a growth path of a developing programmer, I find that fascinating.

PS: Go will always have problems with stuff like this. They should have just named the language string or var or something equal toxic to machine collection.

byuu2• 12 years ago

I'm not defending the name choice; but to be fair, nearly all of the major languages have put zero consideration into their name SEO: Java competes with coffee, Ruby with the gemstone, Python with the snake, C# with the musical note, and C ... C is just a damned letter :P

ChikkaChiChi2• 12 years ago

Maybe this just means engineers shouldn't name things! :)

Then again marketing people would have made choices like RadPython, RubyGrunge, and CFlowerPower...

virtualwhys• 12 years ago

There's a language that everybody is talking about; yet nobody uses it.

Kind of a spinoff of Stroustrup's, "there are languages everybody complains about, and languages nobody uses".

squirrelthetire• 12 years ago

It's great to look at correlations between Rust, C++, and Haskell. Rust programmers are very interested in Haskell, and Haskell programmers Rust; which indicates that Rust's design has a lot of influence from Haskell. C++ programmers are talking about Rust more than anything else; which shows that they are likely interested in moving to Rust.

This is very exciting to me, because I believe Rust is going to be a great replacement for C/C++, and if anyone understands how to create quality programming languages, Haskell programmers do.

TL;DR Rust is going to be the new C++, and the new Lisp. These are exciting times.

Programming language subreddits and their choice of words

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