JavaScript dethroned but its usage continues to grow

Thanks to AI, Python is Now the #1 Language on GitHub

Python has overtaken JavaScript as the most-used language on GitHub, according to the code-hosting platform’s latest Octoverse report.

The company attributes this momentum to a massive influx of “data science and machine learning on GitHub”, which has seen a 59% increase in the number of contributions to generative AI projects.

With Python being heavily used across ML, data science, and related fields, the rise makes sense – it’s less that traditional software developers are switching to Python but more that developers working with AI-related projects are needing to use it.

Plus, it’s good news for open source, with GitHub reporting that “1.4 million new developers globally joined open source, with a majority contributing to commercially backed and generative AI projects.”

GitHub also says the increase in Python’s popularity this year “correlates with large communities of people joining the open source community from across the STEM world”. The latter tracks; Python is taught in schools here in the UK, and likely elsewhere.

Python’s major pro is its simple, straightforward syntax, which excels at data handling. This has made it popular with novices of all shades, but especially those flocking to join the modern-day “gold rush” in AI.

For first-timer coders, Python is easier to learn, understand, and adapt than many low-level programming languages – even I know some basic Python, and I’ve as much coding nous as a potato.

Plus, the Python language is a steadfast feature in the desktop Linux software landscape. It’s preinstalled on most Linux distributions, boasts extensive library support, and can be used to fashion very cool (as well as very basic) Qt, GTK, and other toolkit UIs.

Elsewhere, GitHub saw a major spike in usage across Jupyter Notebooks (with AI/ML fuelling that), and notes that Rust usage, while still trailing Python, JavaScript, TypeScript, and Java despite the (oft deserved) hype it generates, is certainly on the up.

Could Copilot, accessible on GitHub itself and through major text editors like VSCode, be inadvertently helping accelerate an increase in new projects made with Python because of users asking for help working with AI/LLM projects?

There’s plenty more to pore over in GitHub 2024 Octoverse recap, including a revised prediction for when the USA will be overtaken by India in the number of developers on GitHub – spoiler: sooner than expected!

Thanks Scott