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Not content to dominate search and online advertising, two operating systems, and cross-platform browser, Google is now getting into the programming language business as well. Yesterday Google announced Go a brand-new systems programming language. Why does Google need Go? According to the FAQ on the site, Google saw a gap in the existing systems programming languages, and the company decided it was worth trying again with a new language that has taken ideas from other systems programming languages as well as scripting languages like Python and JavaScript.
Esther Schindler at the Linux Foundation Developer Network offers some insightful analysis on developer career choices -- is it easier to find employment and make a living working in a proprietary or open source development environment?
Schindler explains that while gathering data on the number of available jobs in these fields is challenging (and determining the number of qualified candidates competing for them is moreso), looking closely at job search sites, recruiter information, and career statistics indicate that a career in open source development can be even more lucrative than one in a proprietary setting.
Since acquiring the Koders.com code search engine earlier this year, Black Duck Software has added more than 200 million lines of code to the Koders.com search repository. Black Duck says that an analysis of search requests reveals, Ruby is now the fourth most requested language on Koders.com, after Java, C/C++ and C#. That's interesting information, to be sure, but what does it mean?
PHP is not the sexiest language, and many people are quick to point out its deficiencies for Web application development. However, PHP is one of the most popular open-source projects, with a huge following, and many installations. Given that it is a relatively stable project, you might expect the PHP development team to be resting on its laurels. But no; in addition to a regular bug-fix release, the PHP QA team is sponsoring a test fest, in an attempt to improve the language's automated test suite.
Want a complete, printed reference for Rails that dedicates a separate chapter to each topic? Look no further than The Rails Way, a new book by Obie Fernandez.
Ruby on Rails is one of the best-known open-source Web frameworks currently in use. It combines the Ruby language with an MVC (model-view-controller) architecture, a powerful object-relational mapper known as ActiveRecord.
Want to create modern Web applications? You'll need to use JavaScript. But don't write the JavaScript yourself; use one of the high-quality open-source libraries that let you concentrate on your coding, rather than browser incompatibilities.
If you work with statistics, then you should look at R, an open-source language for statistical analysis. It's jam-packed with features, and has a strong community that offers both assistance and numerous extension packages.
When people talk about big, successful open-source projects, they often think about software that can be used in large organizations. So we hear a great deal about the Linux operating system, the MySQL database, and even Ruby on Rails as a framework for developing Web applications. There's more to the story, though.
By Stacey Higginbotham, from GigaOm.com
Acquia, a Massachussetts-based startup, is announcing a supported product using Drupal, the open-source content management system behind many community aspects on the web, from sites such as Fast Company to The Onion.
