Programming Language Use in US Academia and Industry

In the same way that natural languages influence and shape the way we think, program - ming languages have a profound impact on the way a programmer analyzes a problem and formu- lates its solution in the form of a program. To the extent that a first programming course is likely to determine the student's approach to program design, program analysis, and programming meth- odology, the choice of the programming language used in the first programming course is likely to be very important. In this paper, we report on a recent survey we conducted on programming language use in US academic institutions, and discuss the significance of our data by comparison with programming language use in industry.