Java, C, Python and C# all consolidating their grip on programmers’ fingers over the last year, latest figures from Tiobe show.

The Dutch testing vendor has been tracking the use of programming languages since at least 1985, when C was the number one language.

While the venerable language hasn’t been out of the top two since then, the latest survey puts Java in top spot with 17.36 per cent, up 1.48 per centrage points on the previous year. However, C was the biggest climber overall taking 16.77 per cent, a 4.34 per cent climb.

Python came in third on 9.35 per cent, up 1.77 per cent, while C++ slipped 1.28 per cent to 6.16 per cent. This left C# as the second biggest grower, climbing 3.08 percentage points to 5.93 per cent to take fifth place.

Outside of the top five, there were just three other languages in the top 20 that increased their share. Swift increased 0.54 per cent to take 10th place on 1.46 per cent, while Go went up 0.17 percentage points to take 11th place, with 1.13 per cent, . Both were big climbs. Swift was in 20th place last year, while Go was in 18th. The only other climber was D, up 0.28 cent to take 14th place with 0.917 per cent.

Looking further down the chart, tech archaeologists might be surprised at some of the placements. Cobol rests at number 30 on 0.309 per cent, just below upstart language Rust on 0.339 per cent.

Fortran merits a number 37 slot, with a 0.229 per cent share, ahead of eight year old Julia, at number 42 on 0.17 per cent, and TypeScript, on 0.155 per cent, which merits it a number 46 slot.

Tiobe’s list actually goes to 100, though it doesn’t break out the exact figures. However, you can tickle your memory cells over things like SmallTalk, and (Visual) FoxPro, which was discontinued in 2007, as well possible next big things such as WebAssembly.

Tiobe itself points out that its index are not supposed to identify the “best” language, or the one with the most lines of code, explaining, “The ratings are based on the number of skilled engineers world-wide, courses and third party vendors. Popular search engines such as Google, Bing, Yahoo!, Wikipedia, Amazon, YouTube and Baidu are used to calculate the ratings.”