There has been an upheaval in the universe, as Python has overtaken JavaScript as the most used programming language on GitHub. The change – like everything these days – is due to the explosive growth of AI projects.
Python was in second place for many years, pushing Java from this position in 2019 – he announced coding platform owned by Microsoft. Along with Python’s jump to the top spot, usage of Jupyter Notebooks (an open-source, web-based developer notebook designed for data science applications) has grown by 92 percent on the platform in the past year. These two factors, along with the surge in new users, “may indicate that people in data science, AI, machine learning, and academia are increasingly using GitHub.”
GitHub concluded that 2024 is the year that generative AI will become part of the “core building blocks” of developers, with a 98 percent increase in the number of generative AI projects on GitHub and a 59 percent increase in contributions to these projects. According to GitHub, many of the contributors are new users, with significant numbers coming from India and Brazil. “We’ve seen 100% year-over-year growth in students, teachers, and open source maintainers using GitHub Copilot as part of our free access program,” GitHub said. learn to write code or build software faster – but also in attracting more people and helping them become developers.”
In short, GitHub concluded that AI is changing what it means to be a developer. It is no longer a case of a coder being a person who knows computer science or learning a specific programming language. “The concept of developer extends beyond software developers to roles such as operations or IT developers, machine learning researchers, data scientists, students, teachers, and mathematicians,” noted GitHub.
Python is a favorite of the data science community and has now risen to become the most popular language on GitHub. “We couldn’t be more pleased with the continued growth of Python’s popularity on GitHub, especially with the growing use of Jupyter Notebooks, data analytics, AI, and open source technologies,” Deb Nicholson, executive director of the Python Software Foundation, told GitHub when Python was newly launched. In addition to the rise of Python and the shift between shell and C as the eighth most used language, 2024 is also a significant year for open source projects, as “the number of first-time contributors to open source projects continued to increase,” according to GitHub.
Source: sg.hu
