According to Stack Overflow’s 2020 Developer Survey, JavaScript currently stands as the most commonly-used language in the world (69.7%), followed by HTML/CSS (62.4%), SQL (56.9%), Python (41.6%), and Java (38.4%). And you can see this list represented in the group's content, too.
Simply put, JavaScript is used to manage the behavior of web pages. With it, coders create dynamic web elements such as animated graphics, interactive maps, clickable buttons, and so on.
Programmers who use HTML, CSS, and JavaScript in tandem obtain an even higher level of website control and can provide a better user experience in terms of navigation and readability.
Python, on the other hand, is a general-purpose programming language that empowers developers to use several different programming styles (such as functional, object-oriented, reflective, etc.) when creating programs.
Several popular digital tools and platforms were developed with Python, including YouTube, Google Search, and iRobot machines.
As one of the easier-to-learn and -use languages, Python is ideal for both beginners and experienced coders alike. The language comes with an extensive library that supports common commands and tasks, and its interactive qualities allow programmers to test code as they go, reducing the amount of time wasted on creating and testing long sections of code.
Another increasingly common theme in the group is artificial intelligence (AI) and all the ways programmers are utilizing it. And it's easy to understand why if we compare a few surveys.
In January 2023, Fishbowl, a social platform owned by employer review site Glassdoor, found that almost 30% of the nearly 4,500 professionals surveyed this month have already used OpenAI’s ChatGPT or another artificial intelligence program in their work. Respondents included workers from Amazon, Bank of America, JPMorgan, Google, Twitter, and Meta.
Flash forward to this month, and according to a new GitHub programmer survey, 92% of US-based developers are now using AI coding tools both in and outside of work.
After partnering with Wakefield Research to question 500 US-based enterprise developers, GitHub also discovered that 70% of programmers believe AI is actually providing significant benefits to their code.
Specifically, developers explained that AI coding tools can help them meet existing performance standards with improved code quality, faster outputs, and fewer production-level incidents.
This is more than just people working on external open-source projects or just messing around. Only 6% of developers said they solely use these tools outside of work, so in other words, today, AI programming tools have become a part of today's business IT.
