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Visual Studio 'Eclipsed' as Top IDE in Popularity Ranking

Visual Studio lost its position atop the IDE rankings compiled by the PYPL Index -- based on Google Trends search data -- ceding No. 1 honors to the open source Eclipse.

Ironically, the PYPL Index reported that Eclipse -- while eclipsing Visual Studio for No. 1 -- is also the IDE to have fallen the most in the rankings over the long run (see charts below).

"Worldwide, Eclipse is the most popular IDE, Android Studio grew the most in the last 5 years (8.7 percent) and Eclipse lost the most (-11.5 percent)," the Index site said.

That long-term growth might reflect a boost given to Android Studio after Google decided it would be the default IDE for Android development, discontinuing support for the Android Developer Tools (ADT) plug-in that for a time turned Eclipse into the go-to platform for non-iOS mobile coders.

In the September PYPL Index, Visual Studio fell 0.5 percent in the trend index to drop its popularity share to 21.77 percent, while Eclipse gained 0.7 percent in the trend index to achieve a 24.23 percent share. Android Studio stayed even at 9.39 percent share.

Visual Studio Code clocked in at No. 11, going to 3.21 percent share on 0.2 percent growth.

The big gainer among the 32 IDEs listed was IntelliJ, which moved up three spots to No. 5 (0.7 percent growth to 4.54 percent share), while Aptana was the big loser, dropping three positions to No. 22 (0.1 percent drop in trend, to 0.16 percent share). Last month's report noted that IntelliJ was climbing fast.

The site charts popularity on a logarithmic scale and lets users track specific IDEs in specific geographic areas.

"The more an IDE is searched, the more popular the IDE is assumed to be. The raw data comes from Google Trends," the site says. "If you believe in collective wisdom, the Top IDE index can help you decide which IDE to use for your software development project."

September 2017 PYPL Index
[Click on image for larger view.] September 2017 PYPL Index (source: PYPL Index).
Five-Year Eclipse vs. Android Studio PYPL Index Trend
[Click on image for larger view.] Five-Year Eclipse vs. Android Studio PYPL Index Trend (source: PYPL Index).

About the Author

David Ramel is an editor and writer at Converge 360.

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