Research firm SlashData recently released a“State of the Developer Nation” 23rd EditionReport, based on data from a survey of more than 26,000 developers in 166 countries between June 2021 and August 2022.The research aims to explore key developer trends for the third quarter of 2022 and beyond, including the tools and programming languages ​​developers are using, and the projects they are working on.

The report notes that web developers are accepting fewer frameworks than in the past; researchers argue that developers are experimenting less and becoming more stuck with what they know and works. React is currently the most widely used client-side framework; React adoption has remained steady over the past two years. In contrast, jQuery’s popularity is rapidly declining. Interestingly, the report also found that web developers who use frameworks are more likely to be “high performers” in software delivery than those who don’t.

In terms of programming languages, JavaScript remains the largest programming language community, with an estimated 19.6 million developers worldwide using JavaScript every day, from web development and mobile applications to back-end coding, cloud and game design.

At the same time, Java is growing rapidly; the Java community has more than doubled in size from 8.3 million to 16.5 million in the past two years. To put that in perspective, the number of developers worldwide has grown by roughly half over the same period. Kotlin and Rust are two of the fastest growing language communities, each more than doubling in size over the past two years.

Python also continues to grow strongly, adding approximately 8 million new developers over the past two years. The survey identified the rise of data science and machine learning as “a clear factor in Python’s growing popularity.” About 63 percent of machine learning developers and data scientists report using Python, and just under 15 percent use R — another programming language often associated with data science.

The report also explores how developers are involved in blockchain projects and their target platforms, noting that blockchain technology has applications in various industries, especially finance, logistics, and government. So SlashData’s 2022 survey aims to understand what developers are interested in and why.

Of the three blockchain technologies covered in the report, developers were found to have the least interest in NFTs, with 58% expressing “no interest,” which the researchers say is “probably due to it being considered a new thing.” “. Cryptocurrency is the most recognized blockchain-based technology among developers, with 27% of respondents saying they are learning or currently working on a cryptocurrency-based project.

The report also looked at blockchain applications beyond cryptocurrencies, citing non-crypto applications as having “the widest range of use cases and therefore the greatest potential to shape our world.” And found that 25% of developers are currently developing or learning blockchain applications other than cryptocurrencies, and developers with 6 to 10 years of software development experience are the most likely to work on blockchain projects.

Overall, only 9 percent of developers who participated in the SlashData survey were involved with blockchain technology, likely due to the technology’s early days. Developers may be able to dabble in blockchain early in their careers, as more learning materials become available to lower the barriers to entry, SlashData said.

“Blockchain, like cloud computing fifteen years ago, has the potential to underpin and enable many other technologies and experiences; but as we have seen before, only 9% of developers are currently working on such projects. Blockchain Chain technology will not affect immediate technological change, but has the opportunity to become the foundational technology on which our digital experience depends, just like TCP-IP – the cornerstone of the Internet – and developers will be key players in shaping this particular view of the future. “

SlashData also looked at what motivates young people to enter computer programming and their career expectations. The majority of student developers surveyed cite problem solving as their top career aspiration (32%). This is followed by a desire to become an expert in a field or technology (29%), build an innovative product or service (27%), and work on a challenging project (26%).