In the article C# set to take Java’s crown as Java drops 50 percent, Matt Asay of C/Net writes that C# is taking over Java. He bases his argument on book sales (source O’Reilly Media).
Do you think book sales are a good representation for such a claim? It certainly is a good measure for technology interest and potentially adoption… But isn’t it a stretch to make such as claim based on book sales?
Also, inherent on that claim is that Microsoft as a platform is taking over other platforms — but we know that Linux is playing a huge role in today’s businesses IT, both large, and definitely on startups across the world. At eZee inc. we are all about open systems, so you can guess what we use for our IT infrastructure.
My take is that programming languages and techniques, from Java to Web, are just mature at this point. And that many developers just hit Google to find the tutorials, articles and specifications, and to learn about the latest of things. Maybe I am speaking about myself here, but I think I am a good representation of how things are.
In any case, I believe traditional book publishing is a dying business (see DIY Book Publishing – Changing the Landscape of Book Publishing), and that traditional book publishers must re-invent themselves, and fast.
ceo
Judging by the number of books purchases is ridiculous. Especially since the two languages were’nt released at the same time. I’ve been developing in Java since 1995 and I purchased a gross ton of Java books in the 90’s. I think I have purchased only 1 Java book in the last 4 years. The main reason I don’t buy the books anymore is that they become outdated so fast. I have over 90 Oreilly books, and I love em, but most of them are outdated at this point.
C# book sale is higher because C# community is not mature
O’Reilly covers every corner of Java and to expand there book sells they had to go to other languages as well. But I also think there is only a weak connection between the number of books in a special area and the dominance of the technology. Maybe developers need more help because of the difficulty of the C# language and .NET system than Java programmers :-)