According to the survey, Clojure, TypeScript, Elixir and Julia took the next four spots, respectively, in the top five most loved programming languages amongst developers. Despite how popular Apple’s devices are, the company’s Swift programming languages was the eighth most popular language amongst developers.

Rust, though, is not only a favourite amongst developers. A July 2021 whitepaper from BlackBerry noted that cybercriminals and malware makers are also adopting the language to build trojans that can be used for infiltrating devices. “Malware authors are known for their ability to adapt and modify their skills and behaviors to take advantage of newer technologies,” said Eric Milam, vice president of Threat Research at BlackBerry. He added:

“This has multiple benefits from the development cycle and inherent lack of coverage from protective products. This paper looks into less prolific programming languages and their use in the malware space. It is critical that industry and customers understand and keep tabs on these trends, as they are only going to increase.”

Further, despite efforts by companies like Google and Apple to put an end to JavaScripts, the language remains the most common amongst scripting languages. These are often used to track users’ activity online and to make web pages interactive. HTML/CSS and Python were also preferred by developers.

Amongst frameworks and libraries – code written by others that can be used to solve common problems – Google’s TensorFlow was amongst the top five while Microsoft’s .NET was the most loved framework. The company’s Windows was also a favourite operating system amongst developers, while Linux-based operating systems came in second. Apple’s MacOS was the third most preferred operating system for developers.