Older programming languages akin to Fortran and Delphi are making a comeback, based mostly on the outcomes of this month’s Tiobe index of language reputation. Tiobe attributes their rise to the necessity to preserve important legacy methods nonetheless depending on them.
Fortran and Delphi are competing for a high 10 spot within the index, with Delphi/Object Pascal rating tenth and Fortran eleventh within the Tiobe index for March 2025, printed March 10. Ada, ranked 18th, and Cobol, ranked twentieth, are also trending upward. Fortran ranked tenth as lately as January.
Tiobe CEO Paul Jansen discovered it attention-grabbing to see these 4 “very outdated languages” sneaking into the highest 20. “I believe that it has to do with the numerous important legacy methods that maintain the world operating,” he stated. “Most of them are developed with the help of these dinosaur languages. Now that the final of the core builders of those methods are about to retire, firms keep away from any threat and select to maintain the present methods and even prolong them somewhat than changing them by newer methods based mostly on extra trendy languages.” These languages have developed and are fairly up-to-date, he added.
