what is the most used language and why?

Question

question

Answer 1

It used to be easy to answer this question because the number of code producers was limited. Now days, anybody can produce code on their phone so guesses is the best you could do.

Used by programs running actively would likely pick a different set (2008 listed: C++, Cobol, and Assembler) than languages actively being coded in (2018 lists: Java, C++, Python). Given most financial institutions still use their decades old Cobol, it's definitely going to be up there in actively running programs. But, nobody wants to deal with it.

Answer 2

John Wells Speaking purely on conjecture, even if the top 10% of the world's largest companies were still using COBOL systems, I would speculate that not a lot of new development, beyond mostly maintenence related updates, is taking place.

I'd also argue that the collective code base for COBOL is significantly smaller compared to the collective code base of more modern languages that are far more accessible to the general public on desktop systems.

Therefore, I would be surprised to see COBOL ranked even in the top 20 of languages most used in either actively running or new applications.

Of course... I could be completely flawed in my thinking. However, it is an alternative viewpoint to consider regarding COBOL. 🤷‍♂️😉

Answer 3

Heriberto Domínguez Ramírez I couldn't even begin to imagine which language is more used across all applications.

Consider the number of apps for Apple and Android alone. The volume of code from these must be enormous.

I'd speculate the top used languages in active systems would be Java, PHP, Javascript, Objective-C or Swift, C, C++, and C# ordered from highest to lowest. But this is purely based on anecdotal speculation. 😉

Answer 4

thank you so much John Wells 🙌

Answer 5

machine language, because every language is translated into it for code to be able to run on a device.