TIOBE: C is back on top... just

The TIOBE Programming Community index for April 2012 places the C programming language at the top of the table, knocking Java off the top spot. The index is compiled using search engines such as Google, Bing and Yahoo or by searching sites such as Wikipedia, Amazon and YouTube for references to the various languages.

For the last ten years, except for a curious dip in 2004-2005, Java has held the top spot, but has been on a steady decline. It has now dropped to a 17% rating, just under C's 17.5%; next in the table is C++ holding steady at 8.9%, a rising Objective C at 8.2% (up 3.8%) and a slightly down C# at 7.3%. The TIOBE compilers believe that C will hold the number one spot for at least a couple of months, but expect Java will not decline much further because of the popularity of Android and its Java-based development environment.

New entries in the top 20 include PL/SQL in 12th position (from 24th last month), Visual Basic .NET at number 14 (from 35) and NXT-G (for programming Lego Mindstorms) at 20 (up from 52). New entries into the Top 50 include Visual FoxPro (42), Scale (45) and Alice (48), while Eiffel, PL/1 and Tcl have left the top 50.

(djwm)