More than likely a real popularity poll would be something like this:
1.) vb
2.) C++/C
3.) php
4.) perl
5.) Java
Anybody that follows the industry would know that. But who cares? If I can get an edge by using VFP or smalltalk, I would gladly make that choice rather than just being able to say I program in a language everyone else uses..
>David,
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>First...here is the complete sentence.
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>If you randomly poll 485 professional developers and ask questions like "what languages/tools do you seriously work with", and "which languages do you think should have been on the list that weren't", you'll likely see results similar to these
>
>Again, I didn't say the site conducted a random poll. What I'm saying is that I strongly believe a random poll would likely yield similar results.
>
>
>And the survey results shows the bias you'd expect based on the sampling of people that took the survey.
>
>How do you know that? We don't know how many used Fox (or other tools) in the past, but no longer.
>
>But let's assume you're correct: if you went to a Fox user's group or some other Fox organization, you'd get Fox biases. Question: what (for you) would constitute a sampling that didn't have self-contained "biases".
>
>T-SQL isn't on the list anywhere either so does that mean it's an "other end" (your term) language too?
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>T-SQL is in a different category because of the specialization. T-SQL development has 2 general camps: DBAs, and application developers who work in at least one other language. T-SQL is tied to the database.
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>Might I suggest you google the two topics a) innumeracy and b) statistical analysis and read a few articles before you go making any more statistical pronouncements about computer languages?
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>I studied statistics in school, and I've read "how to lie with statistics" - but thanks for the recommendation. Maybe you can attend an MSDN event and see how many are actively using Fox, as a % of the other tools mentioned?
>
>Kevin