{"id":210,"date":"2016-09-08T07:51:10","date_gmt":"2016-09-08T07:51:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/redmonk.com\/fryan\/?p=210"},"modified":"2016-10-11T19:22:47","modified_gmt":"2016-10-11T19:22:47","slug":"language-framework-popularity-a-look-java","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/redmonk.com\/fryan\/2016\/09\/08\/language-framework-popularity-a-look-java\/","title":{"rendered":"Language Framework Popularity: A Look at Java"},"content":{"rendered":"

TL; DR<\/strong> \u2013 Spring still dominates, Spring Boot is on an exponential curve, Netty and Play continue to grow strongly<\/p>\n

Framework: \u2018a basic structure underlying a system, concept, or text.\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n

Within the software industry we have always had the privilege of standing on the shoulders of the giants that came before us when it comes to tools and methodologies. Frameworks in various forms have always existed.\u00a0Over the last ten years, however, the number and variety of frameworks across most programming languages available for developers to choose has grown at an astounding rate. This growth has been fueled to a large degree by the growth in, and commercial acceptance of, opensource software. For developers, and the organisations they work in, choosing the right framework for the task at hand has become a commercially sensitive decision.<\/p>\n

In the bi-annual RedMonk Programming Language Rankings<\/a> produced by my colleague Stephen O\u2019Grady<\/a> we consistently see Java as one of the most popular languages. While the popularity of Java continues to be a surprise to some, it is something we here in RedMonk have been highlighting for a long, long time. As my colleague James Governor<\/a> rightly points out \u2018Java is Dead is Dead<\/a>\u2019.<\/p>\n

One of the factors which drives the popularity of a language is the availability of frameworks and tools which enhance developer productivity, something which Stephen O’Grady has covered in the past<\/a>. Java has a plethora of possible options, but as we will see a number of frameworks emerge as the most popular choice within the software development community. As always ease of use, with a focus on packaging, wins out.<\/p>\n

For the purposes of this analysis we looked at the frameworks we hear mentioned in our conversations around Java. These frameworks are primarily focused on the server side. This is by no means a fully exhaustive list, but it does capture the most popular frameworks that we see being used with Java (some frameworks are also used with other languages, such as Play, and some frameworks are layered together, such as Netty and VertX). If there is a framework you feel we should be looking please do add a comment below or let me know on twitter<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Framework Popularity<\/h2>\n

\"Java-fw-stars-20160905\"<\/a>\"Java-fw-issues-20160905\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Java-fw-commits-20160905\"<\/a>\"java-fw-twitter-2016-09-05\"<\/a><\/p>\n

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We firstly looked at 15 significant frameworks, and two clear tiers emerged. The tier 1 frameworks consisted of<\/p>\n