I asked -- and the people responded! Fun fact No. 1: Apparently only 28 percent of Java developers write Java full time.
My survey may not be a truly scientific poll, but I was able to grab a good sampling of folks in the Java group on Google+ along with people in my Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook networks. Many of those folks in turn retweeted and reposted, so I actually know a only few of the people who responded. Throwing out duplicates and errors didn’t significantly affect the results.
How do these responses track with your experiences? I'd love to know.
What surprised me is that at 33 percent, Groovy was the top JVM language. I had expected Scala, which came in second at 20 percent, to rule the roost. Note: The numbers don't add up to 100 percent because developers could and did pick multiple languages.
It's no surprise that Java developers spend a lot of time outside the JVM writing browser JavaScript (24 percent). I expected Ruby (7 percent) to follow this, but it trailed second-place Python (10 percent), third-place C++ (9 percent), and even nonbrowser JavaScript -- I mean, Node.js did better at 8 percent. The numbers once again add up to more than 100 percent due to multiple selection.
The responses confirmed my suspicion that while the JVM is action-packed, the Java language itself didn't fare as well due to the long release cycle and various delays. Oracle should take note that Java developers are spending so much time writing non-Java. This presents a great opportunity for Typesafe (the Scala company) and Pivotal (which employs some key Groovy people) to gain and monetize developer mind share, possibly at Oracle's expense.
This article, "Really? Java developers love writing non-Java," was originally published at InfoWorld.com. Keep up on the latest developments in application development, and read more of Andrew Oliver's Strategic Developer blog at InfoWorld.com. For the latest business technology news, follow InfoWorld.com on Twitter.