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JVM language activity
A monthly search on Github gives a good indication of which JVM languages are alive and kicking. The search methodology isn't perfect, but it's a decent indication.
Search: language:xyz pushed:>2016-05-01, result >= 10
Language Released Sponsor Active repos
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Java 1995 Oracle 185,034
Scala 2004 EPFL 6,508
Clojure 2007 Clojure team 2,696
Groovy 2003 Groovy team 1,865
Kotlin 2016 Jetbrains 1,075
Xtend 2011 Eclipse Foundation 73
Frege 2011 Frege team 26
Ceylon 2011 Red Hat 13
A script automatically checks Github every month. The list is updated if
- a language changes position, or
- a language moves above or below the >= 10 active-repos-per-month limit, or
- a language increases or decreases active-repos-per-month by at least 25%.
Java is incredibly popular and I expect no change here. Java 9 brings several future-proofing features.
By far the second most popular language on the JVM. However, Kotlin is growing so fast that I think this may change in a few years. That said, Odersky and team appears to have a plan for modernizing the language (or provide an alternative), which may help boost popularity even further.
Jetbrains secured a solid reputation with their IntelliJ platform, and Kotlin benefits greatly from this in various ways. The solid growth comes partly from their Android support (Android Studio supports Kotlin out of the box), partly from the fact that Kotlin is very easy to learn.
Rick Hickey struck a chord with the marriage of Lisp and the huge JDK library. Clojure has seen steady growth since the inception and the current functional programming interest isn't hurting.
Xtend is steadily growing after establishing itself as the language for creating DSL's on the JVM platform (using Xtext usually)
The popular build system Gradle is making sure Groovy isn't going away any time soon. A lot of people use Groovy to make tiny DSL's as well.
Ceylon is actively developed, but has so far not seen widespread adoption. I expect Android support to increase popularity if they succeed with an IDE integration on par with Kotlin.
A language I expect will enjoy continued growth, given that it's based on ideas from Haskell (which is growing like crazy these days!)
Add an issue if you want to see your favorite language on the list.