The Guess the Language Game

As I'm surfing the net, or riding the subway, I notice ads that contain code. Usually they're ads for job sites or degree programs. Sitting on the subway is actually pretty dull, so I find myself playing that "what language is that?" game.

For example, this is an ad I saw today:

This one was for a job board (job boards play this game a lot). Other common advertisers are training or college programs; and tech or biotech companies. It's a fun mix of languages and styles. Here are some recent ones:

• a for-profit college: Java
• biotech company: C++? (I think?)
• a large college: Java
• the same large college: JavaScript
• a job board: that was totally not a language. We'll be polite and say pseudocode
• another job board: JavaScript
• a technology company: Perl

The use of actual recognizable languages is surprisingly high!

It's also interesting to watch how languages change. When I first started noticing these ads four or five years ago, the language was predominantly Java or Perl. These days I see a whole lot of JavaScript. I don't necessarily think that it says anything about languages you need to know, but it sure makes a subway ride more fun!