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Python overtakes JavaScript as most queried language on Stack Overflow

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A new study from crowdsourced QA testers Global App Testing has explored developers’ biggest pain points, with Python dethroning JavaScript as Stack Overflow’s most questioned programming language.

The research focused on JavaScript, Python, R, Ruby, C#, C++, Java, Objective-C, Swift, PHP and SQL – not so much 11 languages but 10 languages and a database – and went through a semantic route to determine major issues.

In terms of sheer numbers, JavaScript came out on top with more than 1.75 million questions asked over Stack Overflow’s more than 10-year history. Java came second with 1.51m, with C# (1.28m), PHP (1.26m) and Python (1.1m) the others to break the million mark. Yet with regard to today, Python is top of the shop, having overtaken JavaScript for questions asked in late 2018.

Digging down into what developers were looking for in each language – the data cleaning was done in Python and the word cloud builder was in JavaScript, just to be fair – led to arguably few surprises. For JavaScript, ‘jQuery’ was by far the most questioned framework, with ‘function’, ‘duplicate’ and ‘string’ also popular words. For Python, the latter two were the most popular, but of interest to note was ‘django’. “Python is a general purpose duct-tape language and gets involved in many different domains of tech,” as the researchers put it.

The other languages analysed came up with some more interesting results. For Ruby, the most popular word was ‘rails’; hardly surprising, but it was the most popular by a street. More niche-purpose languages such as R, for data scientists, came back with more specific terms, including ‘dataframe’, ‘datatable’ and ‘ggplot’.

Global App Testing assessed the overall research thus. “Each programming language has over time been geared toward – or was even designed for – a particular niche within tech,” the company noted. “R is to data science as Swift is to iOS development as C++ is to video game development. This explains some of the differences in the types of problems that arise… why we see ‘database’ a commonly questioned concept in SQL but not, for example, Objective-C.

“Despite these obvious differences, these visualisations represent some fundamental similarities within the different domains,” the company added. “Base-level data types such as strings and arrays – but not integers, floats, or Boolean values, apparently – are frequently pain points that cause developers of all stripes and creeds to turn to Stack Overflow.”

The developer portal has previously noted some of these trends. A report from Stack Overflow last January noted how jQuery remained the most popular JavaScript framework while adding the share for market voice was ‘brutal’, while as far back as September 2017 the company was assessing what it called ‘incredible’ growth in Python.

You can read the full Global App Testing analysis here.

Interested in a career change using Java, Javascript or Python, check out some of our latest jobs here!

 

 

James Bourne – Developer Tech

Q1 2019: Tech Industry Round Up

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Can you believe that we’re already at the start of Q2 2019? Filled with warm weather, cold weather, Brexit (still) and plenty of IT news and developments, let’s take a look at the highlights from Q1.

 

Let’s hear IT for inclusion

Diversity and equality in IT have been in the spotlight for good reasons this quarter. Amazon launched Amazon Amplify — firstly, a program of initiatives to increase the number of women in its UK technology and innovation roles. Also the Learning Foundation and Nominet joined forces to ensure that all children in the UK have equal access to digital information and education.

 

IT salaries on the rise

An increase in IT and tech jobs wasn’t the only growth in the UK last year. We saw a significant surge in salaries within the IT sector, most noticeably within machine learning, AI, DevOps, big data, data science and CIO roles.

 

Cloudy with a chance of change

This quarter saw the launch of the FinOps Foundation. The non-profit consortium, consisting of big names including Spotify and JustEat, aims to help enterprises manage their cloud costs better by sharing financial management strategies. It is hoped that this leads to faster cloud adoption and better utilisation of cloud resources across the globe.

Speaking of the weather, the 2019 State of the Cloud Report was released, with some interesting data on the adoption of Azure. While AWS still leads when it comes to the public cloud market, Microsoft Azure is catching up, with interest in Google Cloud on the rise.

Cybersecurity headlines

Cybersecurity remains firmly in the news this quarter, following cyber incidents and data breaches involving Airbus and the Student Loans Company, who suffered a shocking 965,639 cyber attacks in 2017/2018.

In more positive cybersecurity news, Tech Nation launched the UK’s first cybersecurity scale-up accelerator program, and Orange acquired SecureData — making them a leading player in the European scene.

 

 

Speedy Gonzales

Speed enthusiasts will be pleased to hear that Virgin Media began testing 8Gbps this quarter. Eight homes in Cambridgeshire experienced what it was like to download a 20GB ultra-high definition 4K film in 20 seconds. Meanwhile, O2 announced that it will begin rolling out its 5G network this year — a year earlier than planned, and just in time for the new broadband speed regulations. It will also be launching a number of 5G innovation spaces across the UK, allowing businesses to begin testing their devices.

 

 

Hackaone

Stack Overflow hosted its first ever hackathon. Employees working on Stack Overflow products or with the Stack Overflow community were all encouraged to get involved learning where issues were and thinking about how to tackle them next time. Part two TBC

 

It’s been a positive and strong start to 2019! Good luck to all of you for Q2 and thank you again for all your support! If you need any help or advice with your career or your business, please get in touch!

Don’t forget to take advantage of our April promotion and have your CV updated by one of our professionals. Let us take the time, stress and hassle out of changing jobs.

 

  • Data Driven Investor
  • Evolution 

Why Companies Prefer To Use Python?

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Python is one of the most popular high-level languages for programmers. It is designed to be both readable and accessible. The syntax in Python helps the programmers to do coding in fewer steps as compared to Java or C++. The language founded in the year 1991 by the developer Guido Van Rossum has the programming easy and fun to do. Python is widely used in bigger organisations because of its multiple programming paradigms. They usually involve imperative and object-oriented functional programming. It has a comprehensive and large standard library that has automatic memory management and dynamic features.

Why Companies Prefer Python?

Python has top the charts in the recent years over other programming languages like C, C++ and Java and is widely used by the programmers. The language has undergone a drastic change since its release 25 years ago as many add-on features are introduced. Python 1.0 had the module system of Modula-3 and interacted with Amoeba Operating System with varied functioning tools. Python 2.0 introduced in the year 2000 had features of garbage collector and Unicode Support. Python 3.0 introduced in the year 2008 had a constructive design that avoids duplicate modules and constructs. With the added features, now the companies are using Python 3.5.

The software development companies prefer Python language because of its versatile features and fewer programming codes. Nearly 14% of the programmers use it on the operating systems like UNIX, Linux, Windows and Mac OS. The programmers of big companies use Python as it has created a mark for itself in the software development with characteristic features like-

  • Interactive
  • Interpreted
  • Modular
  • Dynamic
  • Object-oriented
  • Portable
  • High level
  • Extensible in C++ & C

Advantages or Benefits of Python

The Python language has diversified application in the software development companies such as in gaming, web frameworks and applications, language development, prototyping, graphic design applications, etc. This provides the language a higher plethora over other programming languages used in the industry. Some of its advantages are-

  • Extensive Support Libraries

It provides large standard libraries that include the areas like string operations, Internet, web service tools, operating system interfaces and protocols. Most of the highly used programming tasks are already scripted into it that limits the length of the codes to be written in Python.

  • Integration Feature

Python integrates the Enterprise Application Integration that makes it easy to develop Web services by invoking COM or COBRA components. It has powerful control capabilities as it calls directly through C, C++ or Java via Jython. Python also processes XML and other markup languages as it can run on all modern operating systems through same byte code.

  • Improved Programmer’s Productivity

The language has extensive support libraries and clean object-oriented designs that increase two to ten fold of programmer’s productivity while using the languages like Java, VB, Perl, C, C++ and C#.

  • Productivity

With its strong process integration features, unit testing framework and enhanced control capabilities contribute towards the increased speed for most applications and productivity of applications. It is a great option for building scalable multi-protocol network applications.

Limitations or Disadvantages of Python

Python has varied advantageous features, and programmers prefer this language to other programming languages because it is easy to learn and code too. However, this language has still not made its place in some computing arenas that includes Enterprise Development Shops. Therefore, this language may not solve some of the enterprise solutions, and limitations include-

  • Difficulty in Using Other Languages

The Python lovers become so accustomed to its features and its extensive libraries, so they face problem in learning or working on other programming languages. Python experts may see the declaring of cast “values” or variable “types”, syntactic requirements of adding curly braces or semi colons as an onerous task.

  • Weak in Mobile Computing

Python has made its presence on many desktop and server platforms, but it is seen as a weak language for mobile computing. This is the reason very few mobile applications are built in it like Carbonnelle.

  • Gets Slow in Speed

Python executes with the help of an interpreter instead of the compiler, which causes it to slow down because compilation and execution help it to work normally. On the other hand, it can be seen that it is fast for many web applications too.

  • Run-time Errors

The Python language is dynamically typed so it has many design restrictions that are reported by some Python developers. It is even seen that it requires more testing time, and the errors show up when the applications are finally run.

  • Underdeveloped Database Access Layers

As compared to the popular technologies like JDBC and ODBC, the Python’s database access layer is found to be bit underdeveloped and primitive. However, it cannot be applied in the enterprises that need smooth interaction of complex legacy data.

Conclusion

Python is a robust programming language and provides an easy usage of the code lines, maintenance can be handled in a great way, and debugging can be done easily too. It has gained importance across the globe as computer giant Google has made it one of its official programming languages.

If you enjoy using Python we would love to hear your thoughts on using the program. Also if you are considering a change of jobs we have also multiple opportunities available for you, so please get in touch.

 

 

Mindfire Solutions – Source

Top Tips On How To Become A Software Developer, With Francisco Gaytan – FullStack Developer

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Francisco is a FullStack Web Developer, below he is sharing some tips on how to become a Software Developer and how to get started.

Francisco: How do I get started as a developer? This is probably the question I get asked the most on social media. I run a page on Instagram called @thedevelife, with 47k followers at the time I’m writing this. That question comes up at least once a day. It is also a hard question to answer.

 

Sometimes people get glamoured by the pictures they see on Instagram of a dude attempting to be code at the beach on a sunny day. I’ve been a programmer for more than ten years, and I have not been able to code at the beach efficiently. I have attempted it a couple times, but it did not work out for me. At least in my experience that has been the case. What I’m trying to say is that sometimes people want to become programmers for the wrong reasons. Aspiring developers like the freedom being portrayed in social media, but sometimes that is all it is, just a portrayal. There is a lot of freedom that comes along with being able to work from any place with a WiFi connection, but there still some limitations. There are a lot of good things that come from being a programmer, the biggest, in my opinion, is knowing that someone out there is using an application you built in their everyday life. I became a programmer because I love to create cool stuff and then eventually the perks of being a programmer came along.

 

When I give advice to someone on how to get started, I lead with the following questions.

  • What do you see yourself doing as a developer?
  • Do you see yourself working on the front-end, back-end, maybe programming for mobile devices?

Depending on the answer to these questions, the steps anyone looking to become a developer should take might be slightly different. There isn’t an answer that fits all situations. Also, I cannot provide advice on areas I have not enough experience with like Big Data, AI or IOT. I am familiar with back-end development, mobile, and web development being my strength (my kung-fu is pretty strong when doing work for the web), so if you want to pursue any of those areas I have deficiencies on, I apologize (sad face), I can’t be of value there.

 

Let me start with bad news first. If you aren’t able to sit in front of the computer for long periods of time and work late nights, sorry to say this might not be for you. I say this because you will have to work long hours to develop an application worthwhile, once that application goes live you might be required to work even longer hours. If the app goes down for whatever reason, you will be expected to show up in the office (or get online at 3AM) to help resolve the issue. At the very least you will have to respond as soon as possible, even if you are working on another project. If you don’t like the sound of this, maybe being a developer might not be for you.

 

Something else you will need is to have is a mind of a problem solver. I have met programmers who struggle because they are not able to solve a problem or are not resourceful enough to look and find the information that will aid them to resolve the issue at hand. You will not be expected to have a swift solution to every problem that is thrown at you, but the expectation of you being able to solve issues will definitely be a factor in your success as a dev.

 

Now that we got all the negativity out of the way let’s get into something more constructive. Don’t try to take on too much too fast. I suggest you get proficient at one thing at a time before moving onto learning something else. Figuring out where you want to end up working will help with this. If you’re going to be a full-stack web developer, focus on either the front-end or the back-end until you learn it, then and only then move on to the other. Trying to learn both at the same time might overwhelm you. Let’s explore or this scenario a bit more. Let’s assume you will choose to learn the front-end first, then move on to the back-end and you know your way around a computer, but have not taken any computer science courses.

 

Front-End Web Development

HTML, CSS and Javascript. Those are the main things you will need to learn to be able to build a UI. JavaScript can be used on the back-end, but in this case, JavaScript will be used for the UI. HTML and CSS, go hand in hand, and without being familiar with those two, you won’t get far, so I advise you learn these first. Then you can get familiar with JavaScript, pure JS without jQuery or any other framework or library. I would only devote enough time to learn how to access DOM elements (by the way if you don’t know what some of the acronyms or terms mean, I will make a list at the bottom of the most common ones) and make simple manipulations to HTML elements. Once you feel comfortable moving around the DOM, I recommend choosing a JavaScript framework. I like ReactJS (technically, React is a library, but many refer to it as a framework), there is also Angular and VueJS which are very popular. All have their pros and cons, the reason why I chose React is that is the most versatile, and once you know ReactJS, the learning curve to learn React Native is small, this will be an advantage if you ever want start building mobile applications. Take some time to do some research and pick the one you think is the best.

 

Mobile Development

Like web development there a few flavours you can choose from. You can be a truly native developer and learn Java or Kotlin to develop for Android then learn Swift to code for iOS devices. Or, you can choose React Native for which you need to learn JavaScript and develop for both platforms, Android, and iOS at the same time. I personally chose this route because using React Native is just a hop away if you are already familiar with ReactJS. React or React Native will require you to have knowledge of JavaScript. Another advantage is that if you start with mobile development using React Native moving your skills to web development the learning curve will be minimal.

 

Back-End Development

Here is where you can choose from a plethora of frameworks, some of them are PHP, Python, Java, Ruby On Rails, NodeJs and many more. The best approach for planning out your back-end is to develop a RESTful API your web application or mobile application can access to be able to send and retrieve data securely. All the frameworks or languages mentioned above can help you achieve this. The frameworks I work with are .NET Framework and .NET Core with C# as the language of choice. Again, I was pragmatic with my approach I chose C# because I can build applications for many platforms and there is a ton of documentation on how to get started with Web APIs. The main thing to keep in mind is to make sure you can reuse your code and/or web API(s) as much as you can.

 

I don’t expect this to be a guide on how to become a developer. I would look at it more like a set of tips that I wish someone would have shared with me when I was starting out. I’d love to hear your thoughts on this, you can find me at @thedevlife on Instagram.

 

For more career advice on how to get a job in software development or change jobs if you are already a Software Developer then please click here, we would love to help you. 

9 Best Programming Languages To Learn For The Future!

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Software development is a dynamic field. New and in-demand programming languages, frameworks and technologies can emerge, rise to fame, and then fade away in the course of a few years. Developers need to constantly be learning new skills to stay relevant. Understanding the best programming languages to learn for the future can be tricky.

IT is the fastest growing field with new developments and upgradations. This is one of the key factors for Technological innovation and programming is the heart of these technologies. The programming language is the superpower of developers. The programming language is the most important hidden feature behind every software development. There are more than 600 programming languages available for different purposes.

A lot of people search for the most popular programming language based on the different aspects of comparison like features, simplicity, functionality etc. Software development is a dynamic field and new technologies rise and fade away in the course of a few years.

Here we are going to discuss the 9 Best Programming Languages To Learn For The Future:

Java

Java is one of the powerful and most popular programming language and platform. A platform is that environment that helps to develop and run a program which is written in the programming language.

Java is a simple language with easy to understand syntax. Java is an OOP (Object Oriented Programming) language which is based on C++ (C++ is the base for java). So modification in data and function can be done easily as per requirement.

Java is platform independent programming language, which can be run on any machine by an interpreter which is known as JVM (Java Virtual Machine).

Java is the robust and multithreaded programming language. It can perform many tasks together by defining multiple threads. Java programs especially use to create applets for the web browser. It does not require any preprocessor. Java is a very successful language.

JavaScript

JavaScript is a lightweight, interpreted scripting programming language. It is an open as well as cross-platform. JavaScript is a dynamic language which has object-oriented capabilities. Therefore it is complementary to and integrated with Java and HTML.

Web pages and many desktop and server programs use JavaScript. Here, it is must to know that JavaScript and Java are completely different languages in concept and design.

JavaScript code is written in tags “<script> </script>”. JavaScript provides rich interface and interaction for site users. JavaScript cannot be used for network applications.

Python

Python is a general-purpose, high-level, interpreted, procedural object-oriented programming language. Python is first released in 1991 by Guido Van Rossum. Python is popular and one of the widely used programming language, which is mainly used for a web application of server-side, mathematics, and system scripting. Python can work on different platforms like Windows, Linux, Mac etc.

Python is easy to learn because of its simple syntax just like the English language. The most recent version of python is Python 3. As python runs on an interpreter system, its code can be executed as soon as it is written. Python’s simplicity and readability make it more usable and popular.

PHP

PHP stands for Hypertext Preprocessor created in 1994. PHP is server-side scripting language which is used to design dynamic and interactive web pages. PHP is an open source scripting language which executed on the server. It is freely available to download from its official website and easy to install and use. PHP is the core of the biggest blogging system WordPress. PHP files have extension “.php”. PHP functions include collecting data, send and receive cookies, add, delete and modify data in the database, encrypt data. PHP is easy to learn and compatible with all servers.

C#

C# is the multi-paradigm general-purpose programming language. It is a simple, modern object-oriented programming language. It was developed in the year 2000 by Microsoft. C# is easier to learn if you already have an understanding of C and C++. Important features of C# are multithreading, conditional compilation, standard library, automatic garbage collection, easy to use generics, Boolean conditions, integration with windows, assembly versioning and indexers. C# has many similarities with Java.

Swift

Swift is another general-purpose programming language developed by Apple Inc. in 2014 for iOS, macOS, tvOS, watchOS, and Linux. Swift is an open source and compiled programming language. Swift is the alternative for objective C therefore when it is introduced, it was described as ‘Objective C without the C’. The most important feature of Swift programming is that it makes use of safe programming patterns. Also, swift uses automatic memory management.

Rust

Rust ranked the “Most Popular” programming language in this year’s survey conducted by Stack Overflow. Rust is growing steadily in popularity according to Google Trends Data. Rust is a simple, safe and open source programming language. Its syntax is easy to understand and use. So there is no doubt that soon Rust will be in the competition with Java and Python. Rust does not use automatic garbage collection system. Rust use another resource for memory management through RAII (Resource Acquisition Is Initialization).

Perl

Perl is known as “Practical Extraction and Reporting Language”. Perl is created by Larry Wall in 1987. Perl is high level, dynamic, interpreted programming language. Perl is specially designed for text editing. Perl supports Unicode and both procedural and object-oriented programming. Perl is now the most popular programming language due to its text manipulations capabilities. Perl is very easy to learn, extremely portable and very quick.

Go

Go is Google’s programming language which was first launched in the year 2009. Programs written in Go are simple, safe and concise and its compilation time is fast. Extension of Go programs is “.go” i.e. as if the file name is added then ‘add.go’. Packages are used to construct a program. Go has Goroutines and Goroutines have faster startup time than threads and a single Goroutine can run on multiple threads.

 

If you interested in a career in programming, you can find more programming courses & tutorials with Hackr.io. You can also leave a comment and let us know what other Programming Languages maybe popular in the future.

If your already a Pro at Programming, you can check out some of our latest Software Developer jobs here. 

15.8 million working days lost to mental health every year – how to read the signs and support your employees.

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According to a research project QBE conducted in April this year, half of UK-based senior decision makers have received no formal mental health training. However, on average, a person suffering from work-related stress takes a staggering extra 23 days leave pro rata, so isn’t it about time we started paying attention to mental health in the workplace?

Risks

We understand that it’s a sensitive topic, but refusal to address mental health in the workplace poses a few daunting risks we’re sure you’ll want to avoid:

  • 37% of mental health sufferers are likely to get into conflict with an employee
  • 62% of mental health sufferers take longer to do tasks
  • Half of mental health suffers are potentially less patient with customers of clients
  • Mental health has the potential to cost UK companies upwards of £35bn
  • Mental health already claims a £70-100bn chunk of the UK economy each year

While one in five of the senior leaders that were surveyed said they would not want to hire someone with a declared mental illness, those living with mental health problems contribute £226bn to the economy each year, accounting for 12.1% of the UK’s total GDP. It’s not about dismissing those who are going through a rough patch, but creating an effective nurturing environment to support the wellbeing of your employees. Here are three easy steps to incorporate into your workplace mental health strategy:

Prevent

Consider the following proactive and practical tips to create an environment less prone to mental health problems:

  • Promote inclusivity and openness so employees feel comfortable sharing with you.
  • Maintain strong policies in equality, harassment and anti-bullying so employees feel confident and accepted.
  • Make use of mental health courses to provide relevant training to line managers. Equip and encourage them to be pro-active but sensitive around any issues that arise.
  • Make HR approachable so that employees feel they will be taken seriously if they speak up.
  • Encourage a healthy work-life balance.
  • Introduce a confidential employee helpline.
  • Set time aside to educate all staff about mental health issues so they know who to approach.

Identify

Be aware of the warning signs of an employee struggling to cope and ensure line managers are also alert to these. Indicators can include:

  • Changes in behaviour
  • Difficulty in concentrating
  • Tiredness
  • Lack of appetite
  • Chest and/or other musculoskeletal pains
  • Dizziness
  • Feeling restless
  • Nervous twitches
  • Irritability

Act

Once an issue has been identified, it is important to;

  • Arrange regular meetings to discuss concerns and support measures.
  • Consider adjustments such as flexible working arrangements (e.g. working from home), extended deadlines, making use of mental health organisations and services for training and stress management courses etc. Each individual’s needs and requirements have to be considered, for example an employee whose depression is founded on feelings of loneliness and isolation is not likely to benefit from flexible working.
  • Obtain, but do not rely solely on medical advice – employers should make their own assessment with input from the employee on their current and future capabilities.
  • Keep clear records of discussions from meetings, however be conscious of the sensitive nature of personal data and ensure it is dealt with confidentially.

A key point for employers to consider is the length of time that employees could ­find themselves away from work while they recover from mental health episodes. Workplace rehabilitation always benefits with early intervention, and mental health need not be treated any differently.

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