As a follow-up to my post about "The New Black," here are more graphs for your consideration. I actually intended to write this up last week but I guess late is the new early. Jumping right in, as a computer scientist, I'm interested in programing language trends. The graph below was seeded from the list of programming languages on Wikipedia.
One of my co-workers was offended that "Python is the new Basic," so I guess I should talk about my interpretation of the data. The statement does not say that Python imitates, replaces, or has the same warts as BASIC. My translation is "Whereas BASIC was popular (or well-known) in the past, Python is now popular (and well-known) in a similar way, today." This is certainly the case for "HTML is the new assembly," given that assembly is a basic building block for compiled programs and HTML is a basic building block for the web. People (and computers) haven't forgotten about assembly; rather, the web has its own version of something similar.The strongest links in the graph are, in order
- C is the new assembly
- Java is the new COBOL
- SQL is the new HTML
- Ruby is the new PHP
These mirror the way people think about most of these languages already. C has been called a portable assembler, Java and COBOL are both often thought of as business languages, SQL is behind a lot of dynamically generated HTML, and Ruby (on Rails) is competing with PHP for building web applications.
The only double-edge in the graph is between Java and C (including C++), which is indicative of the long-standing feud between developers on both sides. (It does raise the question as to why .NET is nowhere to be found.) The other cycle is from XML to XML, a testament to the eXtensibility of that standard.
And for those of you who I lost at the top of the post, I took the liberty of putting together of different sports and leagues, below. Enjoy!
