Security, stability and managing dependencies of open source languages have been keeping developers from fully using their time toward what they do best: programming. A recent ActiveState survey titled “2019 Developer Survey: Open Source Runtimes” found that developers spend 20 percent less time on programming than last year.
The survey included responses from 1,250 developers, 65 percent of whom consider themselves professional developers, from all over the world.
According to the survey, about half of the developers ranked adding or incorporating a new language as difficult to very difficult. More than 61 percent said they spend four hours or less per day on programming and 65 percent said they don’t contribute or maintain open source projects. About half of those developers blamed a lack of time.
The survey also found that open source languages get varying degrees of satisfaction with Python being most satisfying and SQL being the most popular for daily use. 80 percent of respondents use SQL the most, followed by Javascript at 77 percent and Python at 72 percent.
“Open source languages drive innovation, but developers struggle with managing dependencies and adding new languages securely and efficiently,” said Bart Copeland, the CEO and president of ActiveState.
When it comes to security, 41 percent experienced some or a lot of problems ensuring security is up-to-date with the latest or most secure version of every package. Similarly, 40 percent experienced some or a lot of problems building new, stable releases that behave the same as old releases.
