ActiveState Developer Survey Examines Open Source Challenges

Survey Finds Open Source Language Implementation Hampered by Hassles

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Oct 30, 2018, 08:36 ET

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Oct. 30, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Today ActiveState announced the results of its Developer Open Source Runtime Pains Survey, which examines the challenges faced by developers and coders of all types who work with open source runtimes.

The full survey is available for download at: http://bit.ly/2q7uiVf

Open source languages drive innovation, but their popularity can also drive inefficiencies and security challenges. Developers often wind up having to retrofit languages after the fact to comply with enterprise criteria. To better solve open source runtime pains, this survey assessed the work patterns of anyone programming with open source languages to gain more insight into the breadth and depth of issues developers and all coders regularly face.

Survey highlights include:

Developers waste time retrofitting: To manage their open source code development, many enterprises use homegrown build systems or manual processes, or legacy versions of languages shipped with their OS that need to be manually updated.

Nearly half of respondents – 44 percent– reported they only spend two to four hours a day programming
74 percent said they spend most or part of their time each week managing dependencies and development tools

Management can't gauge risk: Working with open source programming languages in an enterprise IT environment can expose a company to application-level security vulnerabilities. Management lacks visibility into introduced threats and can't track code in production for required updates, patches and new vulnerabilities.

47 percent of developers reported that stability – building new releases that behave the same as old releases – is a significant concern
50 percent said security was a chief concern

New language adoption is being hampered: More open source software makes developers' jobs easier, but it also requires constant updates and changes to the code they rely on. Retrofitting languages to meet enterprise criteria increases development timelines and inefficiencies.

56 percent of respondents found adopting a new language to be difficult
67 percent said they'd opted out of implementing new tools because the pain of adding a new programming language outweighed the advantages

Bart Copeland, CEO, ActiveState, said: "To manage open source code development, many enterprises use homegrown build systems, manual processes or legacy versions of languages that need to be manually updated. Understanding the key pain points of developers is essential to ActiveState's goal of empowering developers by providing tools that make open source easy for the enterprise while also making programmers happier and more productive."

About ActiveState
ActiveState helps enterprises scale securely with open source languages and gives developers the kinds of tools they love to use. More than 2 million developers and 97 percent of Fortune 1,000 enterprises use ActiveState to support mission-critical systems and speed up software development while enhancing oversight and increasing quality. https://www.activestate.com/

Press Contacts:
Jessica M. Pasko
Nadel Phelan, Inc.
831-440-2412
[email protected]

SOURCE ActiveState