Sam Oliver
Less than a year after its unveiling, Apple's Swift programming language has not only received widespread acceptance but has also become one of software developers' favorite tools, data from a recent survey shows.
Some 78 percent of programmers currently working with Swift were eager to continue developing with it, according to Stack Overflow's 2015 Developer Survey. The data was collected from over 26,000 Stack Overflow visitors in 157 countries, though not all of those respondents were Swift users.
Already one of the most popular languages, Swift is featured in apps from numerous well-known brands including American Airlines and LinkedIn. The most recent iOS 8.3 update brought "noteworthy" updates to the language, which has quickly progressed to version 1.2.
Swift's older cousin, Objective-C, did not make the top ten most-loved list. Objective-C developers did make the most money among U.S. respondents, however, with an average pay — Â including bonuses — Â of just under $99,000 per year.
Of those who identified themselves as full-time mobile developers, 33 percent worked primarily on iOS, compared to 45 percent who worked primarily on Android. 20 percent were nonpartisan.
Mac OS X was the operating system of choice for 22 percent of respondents, slotting Apple's desktop platform in behind Microsoft's Windows 7, which took 39 percent of the vote, and just ahead of Linux's 21 percent.
Andrew Orr
Amber Neely
William Gallagher
Christine McKee
AppleInsider Staff
25 Comments
This survey is not very useful. So about one third of the developers currently working with any of the languages are not eager to continue working in that language. It seems that they are all about the same. A more useful survey would be what percentage of full time developers are working in each language. You know a survey that adds up to 100%.
A more useful survey would be what percentage of full time developers are working in each language. You know a survey that adds up to 100%.
Assuming developers only work with one language, sure...
This survey is not very useful. So about one third of the developers currently working with any of the languages are not eager to continue working in that language. It seems that they are all about the same. A more useful survey would be what percentage of full time developers are working in each language. You know a survey that adds up to 100%.
That survey would show what people HAVE to use, not what they WANT to use; and it would show info on the present state, not looking forward to future intentions.
Might be interesting too, but for very different purposes.
(At one point, around 100% of iOS developers would have been using WebKit. Interesting, but not a prediction of what they really wanted, nor what the future would hold.)
Swift language could become defacto software development language like C, Java especially in mobile. May be Apple will offer to open standard body for further adoption.
[quote name="mstone" url="/t/185739/apples-swift-takes-crown-of-most-loved-language-among-developers#post_2709017"]This survey is not very useful. So about one third of the developers currently working with any of the languages are not eager to continue working in that language. It seems that they are all about the same. A more useful survey would be what percentage of full time developers are working in each language. You know a survey that adds up to 100%. [/quote] Some alternate survey/statistics: How many tutorials on a given language are searched in Google http://pypl.github.io/PYPL.html Language popularity on github http://githut.info/ TIOBE index (more related to people working on a certain language): http://www.tiobe.com/index.php/content/paperinfo/tpci/index.html