The decline of Perl
It used to be that my preference for Perl was considered niche; now it seems to be considered outdated. Google trends shows how Perl has declined over the past 7 or so years:
NeilB
A blog about the Perl programming language
Perl hacker since 1992.
Free blog hosting for users of the Perl Programming Language
The search results Google Trends adds show that the graph is useless in comparing the programming languages:
Python:
Python eats Australian family dog
23-foot python found basking in sun
Officials: Escaped pet python strangled Fla. child
Monty Python Reunion! Monty Python Reunion! Monty Python Reunion!
Monty Python reunite on 40th anniversary
Python found in Neb. hotel's potty was lost pet
Ruby:
Purported JFK plot by Oswald and Ruby is ‘like a bad B movie’
Berlusconi: Gov't will last despite Ruby scandal
Silvio Berlusconi in probe over teenage dancer Ruby
Ruby the Heartstealer: Berlusconi's undoing?
"Silvio & Ruby" on auction at Milan art dealer
Ruby the Heart Stealer dreams of acting in Woody Allen film
Perl:
Intro to Perl on Windows
Google App Engine sort of getting Perl support
Why Corporates Hate Perl
Perl Training Classes in San Francisco, San Jose
Perl Creator Hints at Imminent Perl 6 Release
As Mithaldu pointed out, this is a flawed metric. Instead, if you look at the number of distributions uploaded to CPAN recently, Perl doesn't look so bad. Take a look at a recent post of mine.
I don't understand this graph. How comes that both Python and Ruby seem to be flat in the 7 years and even slightly decreasing?
OTOH I don't think there are more Pythons eating dogs now than there were 7 years ago so while the graph might be flawed but it is probably flawed during the whole time period.
OT3H I don't understand what was the purpose of this blog entry. @NeilB, are you a Python or Ruby fan who found out how to post on blogs.perl.org and this is how you try to take revenge for Perl still stealing your job? Or are you a Perl programmer who is looking for some encouragement facing such Python programmers?
It's the same issue i explained here: https://blogs.perl.org/users/ben_bullock/2011/07/google-trends-1.html#comment-27940
The values are relative to the whole google search volume, so things are a bit skewed. If the line is straight that just means the searches for that line grew at the same rate the whole of google search volume grew.
It's rich to ask for "actual proof" when the graph you posted has no explanation of the units for the Y axis.
Chart. Junk.
Ben, there is no point in spreading this discussion out over multiple blog entries. I've replied to you here:
https://blogs.perl.org/users/ben_bullock/2011/07/google-trends-1.html#comment-28137