Rust Continues Its Climb in Popularity
Rust, the fast and memory-safe programming language originally developed by Mozilla, continues its steady climb in popularity, as reflected in the October edition of the Tiobe index of programming languages. While Rust has yet to break into the top 10, it has reclaimed 13th place, its highest ranking to date. Rust previously hit this milestone in July, before slipping to 14th place in August.
According to Paul Jansen, CEO of Tiobe, Rust’s emphasis on security and speed is driving its upward trajectory, despite its reputation for being difficult to learn. Jansen contrasts Rust with Python, the long-standing leader of the Tiobe index, noting that Python is both secure and easy to learn, but lacks the speed that Rust offers. Jansen is optimistic that Rust will soon make its way into the top 10.
The Tiobe index measures the popularity of programming languages by evaluating the number of skilled developers, available courses, and relevant third-party vendors. These ratings are compiled by analyzing popular websites such as Google, Amazon, Wikipedia, and Bing.
Meanwhile, Rust has already secured a spot in the top 10 of the Pypl Popularity of Programming Language index, where it has consistently ranked 10th since April 2024. The Pypl index gauges language popularity based on the frequency of Google searches for language tutorials.
In other notable developments from the Tiobe index, the Mojo programming language made its debut in the top 50, securing 49th place. Jansen described Mojo as a combination of Python and Swift but significantly faster. He highlighted the language’s rapid rise, considering that Mojo is only a year old.
Tiobe index top 10 for October 2024:
1. Python, 21.9%
2. C++, 11.6%
3. Java, 10.51%
4. C, 8.38%
5. C#, 5.62%
6. JavaScript, 3.54%
7. Visual Basic, 2.35%
8. Go, 2.02%
9. Fortran, 1.8%
10. Delphi/Object Pascal, 1.68%
Pypl index top 10 for October 2024:
1. Python, 29.56%
2. Java, 15.66%
3. JavaScript, 8.16%
4. C/C++, 6.76%
5. C#, 6.58%
6. R, 4.64%
7. PHP, 4.2%
8. TypeScript, 2.95%
9. Swift, 2.64%
10. Rust, 2.55%
With Rust making strides in both indices, and new languages like Mojo showing promise, the programming landscape continues to evolve, offering developers more tools and opportunities to meet the demands of modern computing.