Most popular programming languages 1965-2019 (visualised)

[Chris]

On Friday, 11 October 2019 at 10:06:46 UTC, Chris wrote:

> Now, this begs the question: To which extent do PLs influence 
> the course of technology (e.g. C in the 80ies) and to which 
> extent does the demand / the market created by new technologies 
> influence PLs and their use? It's a bit like the hen and the 
> egg, ain't it?
>


Oh, another thing, when and how did the general availability 
(open source and "powerful" PCs) of PLs begin, i.e. when did 
people (nerds) start to write software at home, this, of course 
influenced the course of IT big time. The usual hen and egg: more 
powerful machines (reasonably prized), more nerds/devs, more 
nerds/devs more PCs etc.

Interesting fact (Europe): it wasn't until the late 2000s that 
companies no longer demanded a CS degree but realized that a lot 
of people where literate in terms of programming just because 
they would do it at home as a hobby. I was really surprised the 
first time I read something like "degree in CS or experience in 
XYZ programming". And I remember the flamewars on the internet 
after Apple had introduced Xcode ("Now every idiot can program, 
the standard of software will go down!" - didn't happen, btw). 
Nowadays if you don't have something like Xcode (cf. Android 
Studio), you're out of the race. I.e. corporations empower people 
and lock them in at the same time (market share), people break 
out with the help of OSS and other corporations. I remember the 
dark days when OSS was considered the "great unwashed", now no 
corporation can do without it. Apple was one of the first, before 
that Sun with Java? Please correct me, if you know more. I don't 
have the whole picture.

Anyway, corporations create demands, users create demands. An 
interesting feedback loop, to me it's nowhere clearer than in 
software, it could  be used for courses in economics.