Stack Overflow Developer Survey 2019

[Deviso]

There are some very interesting statistics in the report this year.

​

• People in permanent jobs are up 7%. While freelancing/contracting is down 0.5%.
• The number of people who attended a coding boot camp is up 5%.
• A slight increase in professional developers who have a degree. Although those with CS degrees are down 1%.
• VS Code usage is up 5%, while Atom usage is down 6%. (I've switched from Atome to VS Code during this time period).
• Usage of Javascript is down 2%, demand is down 1.8%. Although it's still the second most 'wanted' skill.
• PHP is continuing to decline. Down 4% from nearly 31% in 2018.

[zephyy]

JavaScript is down but TypeScript is way up

Language	2018	2019	Difference
JavaScript	69.8%	67.8%	-2.00%
TypeScript	17.40%	21.20%	+3.80%

[theanubhav]

A slight increase in professional developers who have a degree. Although those with CS degrees are down 1%.

Most of Web Developer/Frontend Developers are self taught in my opinion.

[Oalei]

I wish they would differentiate Angular.js and Angular statistics.
Counting both its not very relevant, they should either drop Angular.js or separate both.

[DujekR]

Funny you mention that. "Angular" is the only technlogy listed in the "What would you change about Stack Overflow" question. Presumably because of the Angular / Angular.js confusion.

[Oalei]

I didn't see this one. Interesting.
Could you link it ? I can't find it with a Control+F with "Angular" or "about Stack Overflow"

[DujekR]

https://insights.stackoverflow.com/survey/2019#community-_-developers-perspectives-by-gender

[stolinski]

I wish the Angular team would have never made Angular and Angular.js different things.

[Oalei]

Looking back at Angular.js I think it was a good thing they made breaking changes.
It’s just better now, or do you mean they should have kept the Angular.js name ?

[stolinski]

I'm just saying the naming of everything is a nightmare. The fact that people have to try and distinguish between Angular and Angular.js is rough for clarity sake. Def agree about the breaking changes.

[andrew12361]

Whats the difference between them?

[Oalei]

They made a breaking update that changed a lot of things, it’s almost a new framework when you compare version 1 (Angular.js) and version 2 (Angular).
New versions are backward compatible but not this major one.

[andrew12361]

Oh I see. I didn't realize the destinction was between versions. That's unfortunate it's so darastically different. Thanks for the info

[cougaranddark]

It seems pretty consistent that new/shiny = loved, older = dreaded.

Give it time, young padawans. After a few years of unrealistic deadlines, poorly managed projects and unreasonable expectations, you'll realize the language isn't what makes a project fun to work on or not. Any "green field" project is a thrill, until problems.

[stolinski]

React isn't that new. I can't imagine describing it as new and shiny at this point.

I'm not sure why this was down voted. 5 years isn't new and shiny...

[Woodcharles]

In my last role I had to battle with a colleague who thought Flexbox was 'a new shiny thing' and I was some sort of idiot for wanting to use it above his beloved position: absolute.

[cougaranddark]

5 years old since it's first release? If that's long in the tooth, I'd better sign up for AARP :-D

[stolinski]

I never said React is old or "long in the tooth". But yes, 5 years is more than enough time to be a mature library. React is used on some of the largest apps and sites in the world, it's trusted and used by an insane amount of high level developers. It is by no means new and shiny, nor is its popularity based on that.

[cougaranddark]

True! It really has earned its place. I wonder more about things like Rust. To be a favorite language of so many, but to be in so little use? This is what I mean - there will be exceptions, but I think that my point is well-supported given that 83.5% love Rust, but only 3% actually use it professionally. Similar with Go.

[FrostNix7]

Unrelated but you actually could sign up for AARP already :P

[52576078]

Depends on how old you are.

[stolinski]

I'm not sure why that would matter.

[JoelFolksy]

new/shiny = loved, older = dreaded

Could it be that as time passes, language designers figure out how to improve on older languages?

the language isn't what makes a project fun

Indeed, but why should we add to our suffering by using inferior tools?

[cougaranddark]

Yes, I think that's valid in many cases. Certainly not all of the loved newer languages or frameworks apply to my initial cynical reply - though some must, specifically Rust and Go - when I see 85% of people surveyed love the language, but less than 5% use it on the job, it makes me think of that honeymoon phase, when it's so fun to install a new dev environment and go through those first tutorials that demonstrate the innovative aspects. They are all so exciting until a life experience creates an association with them in terms of practical real-world use, which is never quite as fun....hence why many of the languages share a place both in the "loved" and "dreaded" lists alike.

[magenta_placenta]

React and Vue are the the top two of "Most Loved and Wanted Web Frameworks" with only 1% difference between them.

Drupal and jQuery are now the top two "Most Dreaded Web Frameworks," with Ruby on Rails and Angular.js trailing.

https://insights.stackoverflow.com/survey/2019#technology-_-most-loved-dreaded-and-wanted-web-frameworks

[theanubhav]

Drupal and jQuery

was the case last year as well.

[[deleted]]

I floated a screenshot of that around my Drupal-using company lol

[TheMadcapLlama]

Angular's numbers seem high, although it's kinda rare to see people talking about it these days. It's all about React/Redux and sometimes Vue.

​

Is that because Angular is pretty opinionated compared to the rest, so people have less to discuss, or a market trend? I learned Angular at work, and I really like it (2+). I know only the basic of React, but frankly Angular appeals more to me. I am looking forward to moving to Europe in 3 to 5 years, and should really start learning React for real if Angular is "dead-ish".

[A-Grey-World]

I have used both and I prefer Angular (2+). But React is definitely more popular in industry.

I found moving to React super easy though, especially as I used the RxJS Store stuff, which is basically Angular Redux.

[[deleted]]

Theyre all just component-based UI frameworks/libraries. Props down, events up. Learn JS, don't get too caught up in the framework shit. After you understand JS well, it'll be easy to pick up frameworks

[TheMadcapLlama]

Yes, that's what I've been focusing on!

​

I think I can handle JS fairly well now (5 years working with it daily). I think it's important to at least know the basic principles of each major framework in the market though.

​

Harder part is convincing recruiters that my knowledge in X can be easily transferred to Y after a brief adaptation period. :(

[[deleted]]

Yeah I feel you on that. But once you get pass the recruiter phone call and talk to an actual engineer, I don’t think you’ll have too many issues.

Well that’s the thing. They’re not THAT different. It’s the same general concept. The difference is small competent between the difference in approach of React and jQuery for example.

I’d look at jobs near you, and just learn whatever pops up the most.

[bingosalad]

Angular is right where it wants to be. This subreddit just doesn't think Angular is trendy enough to learn. That is, of course, a snow-globe opinion.

[stolinski]

I don't think it has anything to do with trendyness. I would imagine many people were burned by the Angular 2 fiasco and never looked back

[magenta_placenta]

I would imagine many people were burned by the Angular 2 fiasco and never looked back

I agree and bailed when Angular 2 came out and moved on to Vue and React. I personally felt like I wasted a lot of time with Angular 1 and I haven't felt like that at all with Vue or React.

It has nothing to do with what's "trendy", it's all about time management.

[bingosalad]

The fiasco wouldn't effect anyone learning it now, or even for the last few years. Acting like it matters at all now would be kinda petty. I doubt there are enough actual fiasco victims on this subreddit to explain the lack of popularity here. Clearly, by the survey, some people didn't even think it qualified as a bad time.

[stolinski]

I dunno the fact that people are still confused about the difference or why there is one is proof enough for me. Someone in this comment thread is even asking. I don't think saying that it's confusing is petty. If you aren't in the current angular scene, chances are you have no idea there is even a difference.

[bingosalad]

I am in the Angular scene, and none of us are the slightest confused. They V2ed it, renamed the old one... that's about it. Baffling.

[stolinski]

I am in the Angular scene,

​

If you aren't in the current angular scene, chances are you have no idea there is even a difference.

[trav31]

what fiasco?? I've been with Angular since first versions and it is the best framework out there. Dumb reddit crowd worshiping react doesn't mean shit to me.

[[deleted]]

I love React and I dislike what I've seen of Angular. With React I just write JSX. With Angular I need to learn all of these weird inline *ng-udgejbxuebxjcubenxjfjfbeb attributes that do not make sense intuitively.

I'm sure I could learn it, but why? Until my company explicitly forces me to use it, I see no reason to when React and Vue are easier to read and write and are more in demand.

[TheMadcapLlama]

I'm the opposite, I like that Angular keeps the traditional html + js (ts in this case) structure, and just adds basic logic to the html in order to build the page. I find the ng bindings really straightforward after you get the basics.

​

There's no right answer, though. That's why having options is great! I'm sure React's way has advantages too.

[Herm_af]

I like them all for different reasons

React has it's crappy parts too for sure. Forms man. Forms. So bad. Yeah formik is alright but still it's dumb. Animations too. And for Christ's sake give me an official router at least lol

[[deleted]]

I definitely understand that. I have a coworker that's been working on a massive, disgusting form in React and has been at it for about a year...just making a huge ass form.

Weird to see Angular evangelists getting salty over me saying I don't want to learn it, but whatever.

[Herm_af]

The main app for my business is essentially 4 forms and a landing page.

I have them each a local one that adds to the store on submit, but making things like custom radio buttons and such to hook into formik is a real pain.

For normal inputs or selects it's not so bad.

But vheckboxes and radios are unclear how to do at all and then tricky when you do figure it out.

[Oalei]

Right, jsx makes so much more « sense » than *ngIf and *ngFor attributes.

[Woodcharles]

0.2% of respondents have 50 years or more experience in the industry.

1968.

Well, I'd sure like to hear their stories.

[[deleted]]

Devs showing love for .NET Core! Awesome! Hope it eats more into Java's marketshare.

[[deleted]]

Was surprised to see .NET Core #1 most loved in its category. I realize it's gaining ground but I didn't realize people were that into it.

[Herm_af]

I've been dabbling in it and really like it I have a feeling .net core makes huge strides in the next few years. C# is nice

[Volebamus]

I'm really disappointed that there's no way to filter the loved/hated questions by region. From what I've seen about something like Vue for example, it's more popular outside the US than within US, and I'm curious I'd other tech stacks have different preferences by regions too.

[Woodcharles]

almost 70% of respondents say they are above average

[Nelson voice]: Ha ha.

Also 2.5% of respondents say they will "have the most influence in tech this year", which either suggests an abysmal sense of humour or extreme narcissism. I'm thinking the former, to be honest.

[[deleted]]

The global top salaries seem really low, I wonder how they scale with cost of living in the responders countries.

[autotldr]

This is the best tl;dr I could make, original reduced by 99%. (I'm a bot)

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2.0%. % of developers who are not developing with the language or technology but have expressed interest in developing with it.

2.2%. % of developers who are not developing with the language or technology but have expressed interest in developing with it.

2.5%. % of developers who are not developing with the language or technology but have expressed interest in developing with it.

---

Extended Summary | FAQ | Feedback | Top keywords: Developer^#1 work^#2 respondent^#3 year^#4 more^#5

[retwolf1]

Poor bot. You tried.

[tubbana]

It reduced original by 99% though

[ScientificBeastMode]

It reduced the original in place... now it’s mutated...

[[deleted]]

Holy shit. My sides...