Netscan and Python

[Paul Prescod]

According to Netscan,

comp.lang.python was the 19th most popular Usenet newsgroup in 1999
It rose to 8 in 2000
It stayed in 8th place in 2001 (I don't know why that year was flat)
It rose to 6 in 2002
It jumped to 2 in 2003 (comp.lang.c is still almost twice the size 
despite the fact that it shrunk in both 2002 and 2003)

It would be crazy to say that this proves that Python is the second most 
popular programming language, but does show how astonishingly quickly 
Python's popularity has been growing.

According to Netscan, comp.lang.python is the only comp.lang. group in 
the top 5 to experience positive growth in 2003.

The drop-offs were as follows:

  * c: -17%
  * Python +13%
  * java.programmer: -35%
  * perl.misc: -17%
  * javascript: -16%

Rounding out the top 10 we have:
  * clarion: +35% (what's going on here??)
  * Ruby -4%
  * PHP: +70% (comp.lang.php was only created mid-2002)
  * clipper: -12%
  * Lisp: 0%

I would say:

a) Usenet itself is not very healthy

b) Usenet does not very directly reflect usage patterns

c) Nevertheless, Python's consistent growth across several years does 
seem to reflect other indicators.

  Paul Prescod