I don't care about Java, I don't care much about its decline, but I do care about a good analysis. Unfortunately, I thought this article was quite shallow, despite its claims it is backed by data.<p>First of all, what do these various metrics account for? The article mostly states its about "popularity", without defining it. I suspect the definition vary with the source. And when it's a relative popularity, it should be dealt with care, since a lower rank may be just marginally significative if the competitors are at the same level.<p>Then, what do all those popularity trends in public websites show about the languages trends in companies? The article implicitly suppose they are the same, or at least are related, but that's far from obvious. For instance, a few years ago Python became the de facto language for teaching programmation in many countries, and I suppose that explains its boom in StackOverflow (4% to 16% in 8 years)... but was there the same boom in the professional world?<p>I also think the comparison to Kotlin is very shallow. It's not easy to compare trends between an old and widespread language and a much younger and rare language. In the same way the author claims that Kotlin is on its way to replace Java, I could claim that Python will get replaced by Nim. The data is there: Python's popularity is stagnating, while Nim's had a huge grow. But that would be absurd, since they are not in the same category.<p>Most of all, what does a decline mean? Since the introduction claimed there was a 70% increase in the number of developers over the last 3 years, the usage of Java could increase by 20% while its global share goes down. Would that count as a decline?