back to article Register readers on software development

This is one of a series of articles which draws on research conducted in partnership with The Register in October 2008. In this article, we focus on application development, current initiatives and the tools and technologies being used. Software development is business as usual Software development is alive and kicking. …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Shame there isn't a breakdown of ASP versus PHP

    I'd be interested to know how PHP compares with the scripting languages used under the ASP umbrella.

    Incidentally, when you asked the question about MS Visual Basic, did the question emphasise the difference between Visual Basic, VB Script and Visual Basic .NET? Many people don't know the difference and would thus distort your results.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Go

    Energy Efficiency Of Computing

    Every Dynamic Memory cell of a computer needs a considerable amount of energy to be refreshed. SRAM cells consume energy at even higher rate/bit. Garbage-collected languages like Java and .Net increase the Energy bill of many companies unnecessarily.

    A renaissance of C++-type languages seems to be in order to cut energy bills.

    The characteristics of C++ are

    -Stack allocation

    -Smart Pointers

    -References

    -Synchronous Reclamation Of Memory (->Realtime)

    I am working on a language named ALAN, which will fit this bill, and more.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    C, C++, C#

    Why include the trojan horse of languages in there? C# projects tend to be bolt and assemble ones, whereas C++ tend to be retail commercial applications.

  4. Paddy
    Alien

    And Dynamic,, 4GL, languages go where?

    respondents might have been confused.

    But then again, its a small sample, bias unknown.

    Use with caution :-)

  5. Chris

    I have to agree with the survey

    That really is pretty much how I see it: there's still a awful lot of VB about (*spits*) though much of it has become VB .Net (that I've seen....) but C like languages are do seem to be the way of the future. That said I'm biased: I spend all day coding in C# (and I'm really not doing bolt and assemble jobs, despite the comment above at time of posting)

  6. Richard Silver badge

    @Frank Gerlach

    "Garbage-collected languages like Java and .Net increase the Energy bill of many companies unnecessarily."

    Go on then, prove it.

    You won't be able to, because changing the contents of a cell isn't under the control of the application - it's under the control of the operating system. When you ask for RAM, you get a pointer - it might point to real RAM now, but it might point to a hard disk location later.

    On top of that, the refreshing of the DRAM is controlled by the DRAM controller on the motherboard, and not the operating system. The DRAM controller doesn't know (or care) whether a given byte is valid or invalid, and refreshes its contents regardless - even if it's entirely zero'd unallocated RAM.

    So ignore the RAM - it's irrelevant.

    If you want software to save energy, look to the CPU.

  7. Mike

    Survey Flaws

    This survey is disappointing due to some errors. First of all, the survey doesn't really compare apples to apples. Borland vs. Visual Studio? Borland hasn't sold a compiler in a few years. (Their developer tools became Code Gear, then Embarcadero).

    Also, their are tons and tons of people who use Dreamweaver to develop static web content. They shouldn't be included.

  8. David Dawson

    Neither java, nor .net broken out?

    Is this really about software development? Or the use of rather arbitrarily defined language groupings?

    C# shares some common syntax with C/ C++ granted, but so does java and javascript.

    They are not bedfellows.

    The defining characteristic of C# is the .net runtime, which it shares with any other .net languages that have no apparent similarity with C. This is similar with Java, the defining characteristic is the java runtime, which is shared with all the other languages that can run on the jvm., although it is not as well publicized, as the Java language is so dominant.

    As hinted at in a previous comment (my uncle is called ALAN . .), managed code (.NET and Java, along with many scripting environments) and unmanaged code (C/C++ et al) address very different concerns, and this should form part of the analysis, otherwise you are missing fundamental parts of todays software development landscape.

    Lumping C# in with C/C++ is, at best, showing a lack of understanding of what C# is, and at worst, lying with stats.

    Missing out java is frankly bizarre (but I'm a Java dev, so I'll admit I'm biased on that one).

    David.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Flame

    Hey

    What about emacs?!

    much beter than VisualCruft 2005

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    lack of use of frameworks

    May be down to the rather minimal abilities of the average coder/IT manager. To be blunt.

    @Frank Gerlach. Ummmm?

    <giggle>

  11. Morris Maynard

    Why no Java

    I'm not a Java booster but it seems wierd that this survey would not include it.

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Nonsensical

    RAM is refreshed whether GC happens or not.

  13. Jason

    Last year

    Does anyone know the location of a similar article for 2007-08?

  14. Tony Reeves
    Thumb Up

    Better Reseach Here

    For those who want more detailed research, and hopfully from a more definitive perspecive, have a look at Evans Data.. http://www.evansdata.com/research/strategic_development_research.php

    While many results cost money, they do have some good free results and google is your friend.

  15. Alex
    Alert

    Nice survey but lots of red herrings?

    C and C# should have been separated. In fact with MS and .NET framework it's pretty much irrelevant which language you are using.... it's all about CLR. The conversation should be about what platform people are using that's all.

    Can somebody tell me what "Enhancement of web presence" actually means?". That's what marketing people say, and let's face it many small business are run by marketing depts and hold the IT dept by remote control (generally make 'em crash into walls).

    So who isn't going to enhance their web presence?... should this be compared with all the other stuff like Web2 etc? Developing web2 - is that not an enhancement? Where was the option that they are NOT going to enhance their web presence? Maybe I'm just being dumb, if somebody can explain this I'm all ears.

  16. Stephen Hunt
    Thumb Up

    C#

    @David Dawson

    Agree - C# should (if anything) be lumped with Java as a 'runtime targeted' language

    @AC 0907

    Disagree - I currently use C# as a from-scratch language (e.g. to create Windows Services / GUI-based applications). API use and windowing (WPF/XAML) is far better in C# than C/C++ (Win32/etc).

  17. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Very nice. Interesting.

    "Note on research sample" This should be a required heading for all statistic based articles.

  18. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Thanks for the feedback

    We'll certainly build it in next time round! Not sure why Java was missed, apart from the fact it was missed. The Dreamweaver aspect is interesting too - something we spotted as we got the results, always a challenge for surveys.

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