The State of Developer Ecosystem in 2017

In late 2016 and early 2017 we polled over 5,000 developers to identify the State of Developer Ecosystem.

Here's what we learned.

Key takeaways

Java

most popular
primary language

JavaScript

most used
overall

Go

most
promising

Programming languages

Used regularly (%)To be adopted / migrated to soon (%)
JavaScript655HTML / CSS603Java476SQL424Python3212PHP305C#204C++175C153TypeScript129Ruby106Swift911Go811Objective-C72Scala76Visual Basic51Groovy31R35CoffeeScript32Kotlin23Clojure / CLJS22Elixir13Haskell13Other89

42% of all developers don't plan to adopt any new languages.

Primary Programming Language (%)

20100300C4C#9C++5Go1HTML / CSS4Java26JavaScript16Objective-C1PHP12Python10Ruby3Scala2Swift2Others5

How often do you use the following tools? (%)

All day longSeveral timesa daySeveral timesa weekLess FrequentlyNeverSource code collaboration tool (e.g.GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket)Issue tracker (e.g. JIRA, YouTrack)Code review tool (e.g. Crucible,Upsource)Continuous Integration (CI) tool(e.g. Travis, Jenkins, TeamCity)Static analysis tool (e.g.CodeClimate)IDE (e.g. Eclipse, IntelliJ IDEA)Lightweight Desktop Editor (e.g.Sublime Text, Atom, VS Code, Vim)In-cloud Editor or IDE44251510522211317286811225515151618365610225764127894324141085572459

Note: Percentage totals may not equal 100% because of rounding.

More than 70% of Java and C# developers use an IDE all day long.
For C and C++ developers, the numbers are 40% and 50%, respectively.

Do you do unit testing in your projects?

55%16%29%
Yes, I write unit testsYes, I use unit tests,but I don't write themNo

Do you contribute to open-source projects?

3%8%20%22%44%3%
I work full time onopen-source codeYes, regularlyYes, from time to timeOnly contributeda few timesNo, but willing toNo, and not willing to
19%

of open source contributors don’t do unit testing

Development environment operating systems

Windows57%macOS49%Unix / Linux40%Others1%
21%

use Unix / Linux and Windows simultaneously

Application types

Web Back-end67%Web Front-end64%Mobile34%Enterprise Back-end Service28%Desktop22%Data analysis / BI16%Embedded / IoT8%Others4%
50%

are doing full stack development (both back-end and front-end)

Target mobile OS

Android84%iOS58%Windows21%Others2%
65%

target more than 1 mobile operating system

Fun Facts

Do you play video games?

65%35%
Yes, of course!
No
73%

of full-time C# developers play video games

What is your favorite game genre?

C developers love hardcore games, with less than 1% preferring Casual games.

Full-time developers prefer playing Simulations and Strategies. Part-timers like Action and Role-playing games. Freelancers are fond of Action-adventures and Role-playing. Self-employed go for Strategies, while students love Action-adventures.

Role-playing21%Strategy20%Action-adventure20%Action12%Sports7%Simulation7%Adventure5%Casual4%Others3%

How many hours a day do you sleep? (%)

Gamers sleep less than non-gamers. Same goes for those who do code review. Could code review be as fun as gaming? :)

I dont’ sleepLess than 3 hours3-6 hours7-8 hoursMore than 8 hours1%5%38%49%6%
Swift developers sleep very well, with 72% clocking in at over 7 hours/day.

How many hours a week do you spend coding? (%)

<1361-23193-815369-16172017-32275>32353
For your day job (or primary activity)For your personal or side projects

Only 11% don't have a personal or side project.

Do you code on weekends?

84%16%
YesNo
84%
code on weekends

52% of programmers who don't have a side project still code on weekends.

Do you have and use a cell / smart phone?

Yes, Android65%Yes, Apple iOS41%Yes, Windows-based4%Others2%No2%

Those who develop for Android mostly have Android smartphones (77%), while those who develop for iOS have Apple iOS smartphones (64%).

Only 17% of those who develop for Windows have Windows-based smartphones.

14%

of developers have 2 or more smartphones with different OSs

Do you prefer the keyboard or the mouse?

Keyboard80%Mouse17%Others4%

Are you right-handed, left-handed or ambidextrous?

Right-handed86%Left-handed7%Ambidextrous6%

Left-handed developers prefer the keyboard more than do right-handed and ambidextrous ones. They also tend to customize keymaps in the their IDEs and editors more often.

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Thank you for your time!
We hope you found our report useful.