Qualities such as speed and scalability make Julia an attractive alternative to Python, R, and MATLAB for data science and mathematical computation, Tiobe said. Credit: Thinkstock Julia, a high-performance dynamic language for numerical computing, and potential rival to Python for data science, has cracked the top 20 in the Tiobe index of programming language popularity for the first time. In the August 2023 release of the Tiobe Index published August 6, Julia ranked as the 20th most popular language, with a rating of 0.85%. “Why does it deserve this top 20 position? Julia is especially used in the data science and mathematical computation world,” Paul Jansen, CEO of Tiobe Software, said. “But we already have got top 20 contenders in this field such as Python, R, and MATLAB. So why then Julia?,” Jansen continued. “Well, Julia is faster than Python, more suitable to write large systems in it than R and less expensive than MATLAB.” Qualities such as speed and scalability make Julia an attractive alternative, Jansen said. But Julia requires more programming skills than Python, R, and MATLAB, he added. Tiobe gauges language popularity through a formula that assesses searches of programming languages in popular search engines such as Google, Bing, and Yahoo. The formula takes into account the number of skilled engineers worldwide, courses, and third-party vendors related to specific languages. The Tiobe index top 10 for August 2023 was as follows: Python, with a rating of 13.33% C, 11.41% C++, 10.63% Java, 10.33% C#, 7.04% JavaScript, 3.29% Visual Basic, 2.64% SQL, 1.53% Assembly, 1.34% PHP, 1.27% The alternative PYPL Popularity of Programming Language index ranks languages based on how often language tutorials are searched in Google. The PYPL index top 10 for August 2023 were as follows: Python, with a 28.04% share Java, 15.78% JavaScript, 9.27% C#, 6.77% C/C++, 6.59% PHP, 5.01% R, 4.35% TypeScript, 3.09% Swift, 2.54% Objective-C, 2.15% Programming LanguagesSoftware DevelopmentPython