[ Thanks to Steven J.
Vaughan-Nichols for this link. ]
“Right next to my desk in a bookshelf is my 1988 copy
of Kernighan and Ritchie’s second edition of The C Programming
Language. I’ve kept this book, the urtext of C programming, because
C has always been the first language of Unix and Linux, and I like
to be able to read source code. I know that, over the years, C had
declined in use. What I didn’t know was that, old as it is, C has
actually maintained more of its popularity than I had thought and
that it’s now once more the number-one programming language in the
world.“In a survey of programming language use by TIOBE Software, an
analysis company focusing on software quality, they found that
“After more than 4 years C is back at position number 1 in the
TIOBE index.” It’s not that C has suddenly gained new developers:
“The scores for C have been pretty constant through the years,
varying between the 15% and 20% market share for almost 10 years.”
The real reason C’s is back on top is because Java use has been
declining.”