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Java has its detractors, but according to a recent reading of the Tiobe Programming Community Index, it’s still the dominant programming language, with little change in its overall popularity since August 2007. Runners up? C, (Visual) Basic, C++, and PHP.

That’s the short-term view of the past year. Looking at the longer-term view, however, Java, C, and other “traditional” languages appear to be on the decline while PHP and its ilk are on the rise:

Tiobe Programming Community Index, August 2008

(Credit: Tiobe)

Data from O’Reilly book sales suggests a similar decline for Java and other traditional programming languages over time. Cause for alarm? Not really. It’s just a matter of the web assuming a more vital importance to programming, a trend that will continue to grow. It will, however, take a very long time to make your Java or C skills irrelevant.