Programming Language Use in US Academia and Industry

In the same way that natural languages influence and shape the way we think, programming languages have a profound impact on the way a programmer analyzes a problem and formulates its solution in the form of a program. To the extent that a first programming course is likely to determine the student's approach to program design, program analysis, and programming methodology, the choice of the programming language used in the first programming course is likely to be very important. In this paper, we report on a recent survey we conducted on programming language use in US academic institutions, and discuss the significance of our data by comparison with programming language use in industry.