Legacy ‘Dinosaur’ Languages Are Making a Comeback

Legacy programming languages, once thought to be relics of the past, are having a surprising comeback. This month, Fortran, Ada, COBOL, and Delphi all vying for positions in the TIOBE Index top 20.

Takeaways from the March TIOBE rankings:

• Python: Recently named “TIOBE’s programming language of the year 2024” in January by TIOBE CEO Paul Jansen continues its meteoric rise.
• C++: Maintains its stronghold at second place on the leaderboard.
• Fortran and Delphi: Both legacy languages, are fighting for a spot in the top 10.
• COBOL and Ada: Both re-entered the top 20 this month. Ada, notably, was the third highest ranking language back in 1985.

“I think that it (comeback) has to do with the many vital legacy systems that keep the world running,” Jansen said in the TIOBE Programming Community Index in March. “Most of them are developed with the aid of these dinosaur languages.”

A shift in priorities: February vs. March

This marks a noticeable shift from February’s rankings, which were dominated by speed-focused languages like C+ +, Go, and Rust. Jansen attributed that trend to the growing need for computational efficiency.

Jansen said this was because the “the world needs to crunch more and more numbers per second,” and because hardware doesn’t evolve fast enough, programs must be faster.

However, March’s rankings highlight a different reality — many organizations prioritize stability over speed.

Why the older programming languages are still popular

Organisations that handle critical infrastructure are well-known for harbouring legacy devices, as replacing outdated technology while maintaining normal operations is both difficult and expensive. Jansen explained that this is why “new and promising languages” aren’t seeing a similar uptrend to older ones.

SEE: 80% of Critical Infrastructure Companies Experienced an Email Security Breach in 2024

“Now that the last of the core developers of these systems are about to retire, companies avoid any risk and choose to keep the existing systems and even extend them rather than replacing them by newer systems based on more modern languages,” he said.

Despite being referred to as “dinosaurs,” these legacy languages have not remained static. To stay relevant, many have received significant updates in recent years. New language definitions have been published for Fortran, Delphi, Ada, and COBOL in just the past two years.

“We might frown to see these languages being in the TIOBE index top 20, but they definitely serve a purpose and deserve credit,” Jansen said.

Python remains the most talked-about programming language

Yet again, Python is the number one language on the TIOBE Index, meaning it receives the most attention in search engine queries, job postings, and educational resources. Its popularity and usage have been rising steadily since 2017, but really boomed from June 2024 onwards.

This trend is believed to be closely tied to the growing availability and widespread adoption of artificial intelligence technologies. As more companies hire early-career programmers for AI-related roles, such as prompt engineering, Python — known for its simplicity and intuitiveness — has become their language of choice.

“This is why Python is here to stay,” Jansen wrote last month.

While newer languages continue to emerge, it is clear that legacy languages still play a crucial role in modern computing. Their adaptability and deep-rooted presence in critical systems suggest that these so-called ‘dinosaurs’ are far from extinct.