JavaScript has jumped to eighth position in the TIOBE ranking pushing Python and Perl into the last two positions in the top 10. The real question is why has it taken so long for JavaScript to claim what is obviously its new status?

It generally isn't worth reporting on the TIOBE index of programming languages every month for a range of reasons - most of which are to do with it not changing very much. This month, however, great things are afoot - or rather perhaps they are as the index is known to have many flaws and any conclusion drawn from it has to be taken with a very large confidence interval.

The news is that JavaScript has jumped to eighth position in the ranking, pushing Python and Perl into the last two positions in the top 10. The real question is why has it taken so long for JavaScript to claim what is obviously its new status?

JavaScript may be the language that most people like to complain about, and even laugh at, but in recent months it has graduated to an important language. In conjunction with HTML5, JavaScript is the key to the future of the web - you may not like it but it seems to be inevitable. Coupled with the Canvas element, it can now be used to implement 2D and 3D games and applications that once needed a desktop environment.  JavaScript is now a first class language under Windows 8 and can be used to create Metro apps alongside "respectable" languages such a C++ and C#.

If it wasn't that there was already a language called Java, still top of the TIOBE rankings by the way, then it is likely that JavaScript would make the bit to drop the "Script" part of its name. But even as it rises up and pushes down such admired languages, or should that be feared in the case of Perl, others, notably Google, are plotting against it.

Google's JavaScript replacements, Go and Dart, are nowhere to be seen in the top 50 languages. Yes, that's right - Dart, after making it into the top 50 has just dropped out. It doesn't even figure close to Scratch, Cobol or Forth. After an initial spurt of interest, could it be that Dart isn't going places?

Will JavaScript continue to rise?

It most probably will, despite its poor public image.

JavaScript is a language worth taking seriously.

Further Reading

The Top Languages of 2011

JavaScript - is the new Basic!

JavaScript inherits the earth

Lua, D and the Cs all gain ground

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