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diff --git a/web/news/e026_survey_results.rst b/web/news/e026_survey_results.rst new file mode 100644 index 000000000..106dce0e4 --- /dev/null +++ b/web/news/e026_survey_results.rst @@ -0,0 +1,699 @@ +Nim Community Survey Results +============================ + +.. container:: metadata + + Posted by Dominik Picheta on 3 September 2016 + +We have recently closed the 2016 Nim Community Survey. I am happy to +say that we have received exactly 790 responses, huge thanks go to the people +that took the time to respond. We're incredibly thankful for this very valuable +feedback. + +This survey was inspired in part by the +`2016 State of Rust <https://blog.rust-lang.org/2016/06/30/State-of-Rust-Survey-2016.html>`_ +survey. You will note that many of the questions were modelled after +Rust's survey. One of the reasons for doing this was to allow us to easily +compare our results against the results obtained in the Rust survey. In +addition, we of course also liked many of their questions. + +Our survey ran from the 23rd of June 2016 until the 8th of August 2016. The +response numbers are impressive considering Nim's community size; at 790 they +make up just over 25% of the Rust survey's responses. + +The goal of this survey was to primarily determine how our community is using +Nim, in order to better understand how we should be improving it. In particular, +we wanted to know what people feel is missing from Nim in the lead up to +version 1.0. We have also asked our respondents about how well the Nim tools +worked, the challenges of adopting Nim, the resources that they used to learn +Nim and more. + +It is my hope that we will be able to run a similar survey in a years time, +doing so should give us an idea of whether we are improving. +With these general facts in mind, let's begin looking at specific questions. + +How did you find out about Nim? +------------------------------- + +The rationale for the first question was simple, we wanted to know where our +respondents found out about Nim. This is an interesting question for us, as +we do occassionally get users asking us why it took so long for them to hear +about Nim. It allows us to see how effective each website is at spreading the +word about Nim. + +.. raw::html + + <a href="../assets/news/images/survey/nim_found.png"> + <img src="../assets/news/images/survey/nim_found.png" alt="How did you find out about Nim?" style="width:100%"/> + </a> + +The majority of our respondents found Nim via Reddit, HackerNews or a search +engine such as Google. These results are not altogether surprising. There were +also a lot of "Other" responses, some of which were a bit more +interesting. These included multiple mentions of habrahabr.ru, Dr. Dobb's, +and lobste.rs. + +Do you use Nim? +--------------- + +Just like the Rust survey creators, we wanted to ensure that our survey was +open to both Nim users as well people who never used Nim. In addition to +those two groups, we have also included a third group of people: ex-Nim +users. All three are interesting, for many different reasons. +Nim users can tell us how they are using Nim and also how Nim's +tooling can improve. Ex-Nim users give us an +idea of why they stopped using Nim. Finally, respondents who never used Nim +can tell us the reasons for not adopting it. + +.. raw::html + + <a href="../assets/news/images/survey/do_you_use_nim.png"> + <img src="../assets/news/images/survey/do_you_use_nim.png" alt="Do you use Nim?" style="width:100%"/> + </a> + +It's nice to see that we have such a good range of respondents. The Rust survey +had a much larger number of Rust users amongst their respondents, with +no distinction between users that never used Rust and users that stopped using +Rust. + +Should we consider your answers to be invalid? +---------------------------------------------- + +This was something I thought would be interesting to have, after I saw it +being used in another survey. While it does pinpoint possibly +invalid respondents, I have opted against filtering those out. Mainly because +that would require re-creating each of the charts generated by Google Forms +manually. + +.. raw::html + + <a href="../assets/news/images/survey/reliability.png"> + <img src="../assets/news/images/survey/reliability.png" alt="Should we consider your answers to be invalid?" style="width:100%"/> + </a> + +According to the responses to this question, around 94% of our responses +can be considered reliable. + +Nim users +--------- + +The following questions were answered only by the 38.9% of our respondents +who identified themselves as Nim users. + +How long have you been using Nim? +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +.. raw::html + + <a href="../assets/news/images/survey/nim_time.png"> + <img src="../assets/news/images/survey/nim_time.png" alt="How long have you been using Nim?" style="width:100%"/> + </a> + +A large proportion of our Nim users were new. This is good news as it means that +our community is growing, with a large proportion of new Nim users that could +become long-term Nimians. In total, more than 35% of Nim users can be considered +new having used Nim for less than 3 months. With 18% of Nim users that can +be considered very new having used Nim for less than a month. +This could suggest that 18% of our users have only just found out about Nim in +the last week or so and have not yet got the chance to use it extensively. + +The high percentages of long term Nim users are encouraging. +They suggest +that many users are continuing to use Nim after making it through the first +few months. The sharp drop at 7-9 months is interesting, but may simply be +due to the fact that there were fewer newcomers during that period, or it +could be because our respondents are more likely to estimate that they have +been using Nim for a year or half a year rather than the awkward 7-9 months. + +.. raw::html + + <a href="../assets/news/images/survey/nim_time_rust.png"> + <img src="../assets/news/images/survey/nim_time_rust.png" alt="Time using Nim and Rust" style="width:100%"/> + </a> + +The results for Nim and Rust are actually remarkably similar. They both show a +drop at 7-9 months, although Rust's isn't as dramatic. Nim on the other hand +has a significantly higher percentage of new Nim users. + +Do you use Nim at work? +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +An important aspect of a language's adoption is whether it is being used for +"real" work. We wanted to know how many people are using Nim in their day +jobs and under what circumstances it is used. + +.. raw::html + + <a href="../assets/news/images/survey/nim_at_work.png"> + <img src="../assets/news/images/survey/nim_at_work.png" alt="Do you use Nim at work?" style="width:100%"/> + </a> + +While a vast majority of our users are not using Nim at work, more than 25% +of them are. It's encouraging to see such a high number already, even before +we have released version 1.0. In fact, this percentage is likely close to 30%, +because many of the "Other" responses mention using Nim for the likes of +internal tools or small scripts to help with the respondent's work. + +.. raw::html + + <a href="https://blog.rust-lang.org/images/2016-06-Survey/rust_at_work.png"> + <img src="https://blog.rust-lang.org/images/2016-06-Survey/rust_at_work.png" alt="Do you use Rust at work?" style="width:100%"/> + </a> + +Interestingly, a larger percentage of Nim users are using Nim at work than +Rust users. The sample sizes are of course vastly different, but it's still an +interesting result. Combined, nearly 1/5th of Rust users are using Rust +commercially whereas more than a quarter of Nim users are using Nim +commercially. + +Approximately how large are all the Nim projects that you work on? +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Finding out how large the Nim projects worked on by Nim users are is also +very valuable. + +.. raw::html + + <a href="../assets/news/images/survey/project_size.png"> + <img src="../assets/news/images/survey/project_size.png" alt="Nim project size for all users" style="width:100%"/> + </a> + +This shows us that currently Nim is primarily being used for small scripts and +applications, with nearly 60% of the projects consisting of less than 1,000 +lines of code. This makes sense as many of our users are not using Nim +professionally, but are doing so in their spare time. + +.. raw::html + + <a href="../assets/news/images/survey/project_size_work.png"> + <img src="../assets/news/images/survey/project_size_work.png" alt="Nim project size for work users" style="width:100%"/> + </a> + +The numbers for part-time and full-time work users of Nim tell a different +story. Over 70% of the projects written by full-time users are between 10,001 +and 100,000 lines of code. Part-time users show a slightly different trend, +with many more small projects, the majority being between 1,000 and +10,000 lines of code. + +Overall it's good to see that there is a few large projects out there which are +composed of more than 100,000 lines of code. We expect to see the amount of +large projects to grow with time, especially with version 1.0 on the way. + +.. raw::html + + <a href="../assets/news/images/survey/project_size_nim_rust.png"> + <img src="../assets/news/images/survey/project_size_nim_rust.png" alt="Nim project size for work users (Nim vs. Rust)" style="width:100%"/> + </a> + +In comparison to Rust the proportion of project sizes for full-time users is +vastly different. This is likely due to our small sample size. Project sizes for +part-time users between Rust and Nim are somewhat similar, with differences of +around 10% for each project size. + +Do you plan to try to use Nim at work? +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +.. raw::html + + <a href="../assets/news/images/survey/planning_to_use_at_work.png"> + <img src="../assets/news/images/survey/planning_to_use_at_work.png" alt="Planning to use Nim at work?" style="width:100%"/> + </a> + +It's also encouraging to see that over 50% of Nim users are planning to use +Nim at work! This is slightly more than Rust's 40% and should help Nim's +adoption into even more areas. + +Nim and its tools +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +In this section of the survey, we wanted to find out the tools that Nim +users are utilising when developing Nim applications. + +What editor(s) do you use when writing Nim? +___________________________________________ + +Programmers are very specific when it comes to their editor of choice, because +of that it's good to know which editor is most popular among our community. + +.. raw::html + + <a href="../assets/news/images/survey/editors.png"> + <img src="../assets/news/images/survey/editors.png" alt="Editors used by Nim users" style="width:100%"/> + </a> + +Looks like Vim is the winner with almost 30%. Followed by Sublime Text and +Emacs. Aporia, the Nim IDE, gets a respectable 15.5%. There was +also more than +17% of answers which included "Other" editors, such as: Notepad++, Geany, gedit, +and Kate. + +What operating system(s) do you compile for and run your Nim projects on? +_________________________________________________________________________ + +This question gave us information about the most popular target operating +systems, as well as some of the more obscure ones. We have asked this question +to find out the platforms on which Nim applications run on most frequently. + +.. raw::html + + <a href="../assets/news/images/survey/target_os.png"> + <img src="../assets/news/images/survey/target_os.png" alt="Target operating systems" style="width:100%"/> + </a> + +This question allowed multiple choices, so each percentage is out of the total +number of respondents for this question. For example, 80.7% of the +respondents selected "Linux" but only 26.6% selected OS X. + +This makes Linux by far the most popular target for Nim applications. +Some "Other" targets included: BSD (OpenBSD, FreeBSD), iOS, Android, and +JavaScript. +It's great to see Nim being used on such a wide variety of platforms. + +What operating system(s) do you develop Nim projects on? +________________________________________________________ + +With this question, we wanted to know what operating systems are used for +development. + +.. raw::html + + <a href="../assets/news/images/survey/dev_os.png"> + <img src="../assets/news/images/survey/dev_os.png" alt="Development operating systems" style="width:100%"/> + </a> + +This question also allowed multiple choices and ended up with very similar +results. + +You can see that Linux is also the most popular developmental +platform for Nim. But it's more popular as a target platform. + +Which version(s) of Nim do you use for your applications? +_________________________________________________________ + +.. raw::html + + <a href="../assets/news/images/survey/nim_versions.png"> + <img src="../assets/news/images/survey/nim_versions.png" alt="Version use" style="width:100%"/> + </a> + +At the time of this survey, version 0.14.2 was the latest stable release. +It's no wonder that it is the most commonly used release of Nim. It's good to +see that the older versions are not used as often. The high use of ``Git HEAD (devel)`` +(nightly builds) isn't surprising, Nim is still evolving rapidly and our +release schedule is not regular or frequent. + +Once we go past the 1.0 release, we expect to see much less use of the unstable +``devel`` branch. + +Has upgrading to a new version of the Nim compiler broken your code? +____________________________________________________________________ + +.. raw::html + + <a href="../assets/news/images/survey/breakage.png"> + <img src="../assets/news/images/survey/breakage.png" alt="Breakage" style="width:100%"/> + </a> + +Despite the unstable nature of Nim in the lead up to version 1.0, whenever +we make breaking changes we do our best to deprecate things and ensure that +old code continues to work for our users. Of course sometimes this is not +possible and other times it is simply easier to add a breaking change. + +This question was asked to determine how much our user base is affected by +breaking changes between Nim versions. We decided to have three possible +answers for this question in order to give us an idea how frequent the +breakage was. + +It's incredible to see that over 50% of our users have not experienced any +breakage after upgrading. We expect this number to increase significantly +after version 1.0 is released. Of the users that did experience breakage, +over 80% of them said that it was a rare occurrence. + +In comparison to Rust, our results show that there was a higher percentage of +users experiencing breakage as a result of an upgrade. This is to be expected, +because Nim is still in its pre-1.0 period, whereas Rust 1.0 has been released +over a year ago now. + +Unfortunately while we are still in this pre-1.0 period, releases will likely +introduce breaking changes as we refine certain aspects of Nim such as its +standard library, so the number of users experiencing breaking changes may +increase. + +If so, how much work did it take to fix it? +___________________________________________ + +.. raw::html + + <a href="../assets/news/images/survey/difficulty_fixing_breakage.png"> + <img src="../assets/news/images/survey/difficulty_fixing_breakage.png" alt="difficulty fixing breakage" style="width:100%"/> + </a> + +Thankfully most of the breakage experienced by Nim users was very easy to fix. + + +If you used Nimble, do you like it? +___________________________________ + +.. raw::html + + <a href="../assets/news/images/survey/nimble_opinion.png"> + <img src="../assets/news/images/survey/nimble_opinion.png" alt="Do you like Nimble?" style="width:100%"/> + </a> + +Nimble is the Nim package manager, a tool that is very important in Nim's +ecosystem as it allows developers to easily install dependencies for their +software. + +The majority of respondents rated it as a 4, showing us that the majority does +like Nimble. With over 55% rating it a 4 or 5. This percentage isn't as +overwhelming as the 94.1% of users that rated Cargo a 4 or 5 in the Rust +survey. Based on these results I think that we definitely need to do a +better job with Nimble. + +In our next survey, it might be a good idea to ask more questions about Nimble +to determine how exactly it can be improved. + +What aspects of Nim do you find most appealing? +_______________________________________________ + +.. raw::html + + <a href="../assets/news/images/survey/nim_appeal.png"> + <img src="../assets/news/images/survey/nim_appeal.png" alt="What aspects of Nim do you find most appealing?" style="width:100%"/> + </a> + +We were interested to know the features of Nim that appeal most to our users. +More than 80% of our respondents selected "Execution Speed" as one of the +features that appeal to them. With "Development Speed" and "Readability" +tying for second place and "Metaprogramming" at third place. + +The options given to our respondents are rather predictable, +they do show us which of these features have the highest appeal though. +What's more interesting are the "Other" answers. + +By far the most popular "Other" answer was related to Nim's compilation to C. +Many users mentioned that they like how easy it is to interface with C +libraries and the great portability that compiling to C offers. + +What aspects of Nim do you find most displeasing? +_________________________________________________ + +.. raw::html + + <a href="../assets/news/images/survey/nim_displeasing.png"> + <img src="../assets/news/images/survey/nim_displeasing.png" alt="What aspects of Nim do you find most displeasing?" style="width:100%"/> + </a> + +It was only natural to ask this question. The results are almost perfectly +opposite to the previous question's answers, with almost 50% of respondents +selecting "Debugging Tools" +as the most displeasing aspect of Nim. With "Documentation" and "Testing Tools" +in second and third place respectively. There is also a much larger number of +"Other" answers to this question. + +The "Other" answers for this question vary a lot. Here is a selection of +them, ordered by frequency: + +* Small community size. +* Lack of in-depth tutorials. +* Quality of error messages. +* Forward declarations and no cyclic imports. +* Bugs in the standard library. +* No good IDE. +* No REPL. +* No major version. +* Bugs in the compiler. +* Lack of libraries. +* Difficulty installing on Windows. +* Non-intuitive semantics of various constructs. +* Lack of immutable collections. +* Async/await not being production ready. +* Lack of shared collections for threads. +* No Haxe target. +* Memory safety. + +We hope that we can improve these things with time. Many of these issues are +already being worked on, including the removal of the need for forward +declarations. Some of these issues like our small community size are difficult +to fix, but we will nonetheless do our best. + + +Previous Nim users +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +For users that have used Nim before but decided against using it, we asked just +one specific question. The proportion of our respondents that answered it +was 24%. + +Why did you stop using Nim? +___________________________ + +.. raw::html + + <a href="../assets/news/images/survey/ex_nim.png"> + <img src="../assets/news/images/survey/ex_nim.png" alt="I stopped using Nim because..." style="width:100%"/> + </a> + +Again, this question got a lot of "Other" answers. Apart from that, the +most popular reason for leaving Nim is that it is not stable. Followed by the +a lack of needed libraries and packages and the instability of the +standard library. + +* Lack of IDE support. +* Style insensitive. +* Documentation. +* Dislike the syntax. +* Community is too small. +* Missing language features (for example RAII). +* No opportunities to use it at work. +* Messy standard library. + +The first item, "Lack of IDE support", was mentioned by multiple respondents. +In the future we should look into ensuring that major IDEs have plugins which +enable easy Nim development. + +Based on some of the "Other" answers, it seems that many of the respondents +have not used Nim for very long, for example many respondents complained about +installation issues which they would have run into before getting a chance to +use Nim. Because of this I would consider them not +ex-Nim users but developers that have not had a chance to try Nim fully. +Next time we should also ask how long the respondent has used Nim for to get a +better idea of whether they had a chance to use Nim for extended periods of +time. + +Non-Nim users +~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +We also wanted to know the reasons why developers decided against using Nim. + +Why do you not use Nim? +_______________________ + +.. raw::html + + <a href="../assets/news/images/survey/non_user.png"> + <img src="../assets/news/images/survey/non_user.png" alt="I don't use Nim because..." style="width:100%"/> + </a> + +The most common reason that people have for not using Nim is that it is +not yet ready for production. Thankfully this will improve with time. +IDE support is also a prominent factor just as we've seen in previous results. + +There is also a lot of "Other" answers, let's have a look at a selection of +them. Some of the most prominent ones, in order of frequency, include: + +* No time to use/learn it +* Syntax +* Documentation is incomplete +* Garbage Collection +* Prefer functional paradigm +* Small community +* Style insensitivity/Case insensitivity + +One respondent made a very good suggestion: they said that the +"Do you use Nim?" question should have included "No, but I intend to" as +an answer. Definitely something we will do in the next survey. Indeed, many +respondents mentioned that they were planning on trying out Nim but that they +just have no time to do so, this is very encouraging! + +Learning Resources +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +We wanted to get an idea of how Nim users are learning Nim. Every respondent +answered this question, no matter what they answered for the "Do you use Nim?" +question. + +Which learning resources, if any, did you use to learn Nim? +___________________________________________________________ + +.. raw::html + + <a href="../assets/news/images/survey/learning_resources.png"> + <img src="../assets/news/images/survey/learning_resources.png" alt="learning resources" style="width:100%"/> + </a> + +The idea behind this question was to understand which learning resources +were most popular among our user base. The +`Nim tutorial <http://nim-lang.org/docs/tut1.html>`_ is by far the most +popular. In previous questions, we saw respondents mentioning that the Nim +tutorial does not go into enough detail about Nim. Thanks to this information +we can come to the conclusion that the tutorial needs to be improved +significantly to make sure that it gives our users the necessary information +to use Nim effectively. + +Indeed, many users also use the +`Nim manual <http://nim-lang.org/docs/manual.html>`_ to learn Nim. +This manual has been +written as a specification and so is not ideal for teaching Nim. Many of +the concepts in the Nim manual need to be explained in a lot more detail in +the Nim tutorial. + +Of course, it's exciting to see our respondents using other materials to learn +Nim. In particular I am excited to see that over 15% of the respondents have +used +`Nim in Action <https://manning.com/books/nim-in-action?a_aid=niminaction&a_bid=78a27e81>`_ +to learn Nim. I expect that more and more users will pick up the book after it +is fully published. + +Nim in Action +_____________ + +As the author of +`Nim in Action <https://manning.com/books/nim-in-action?a_aid=niminaction&a_bid=78a27e81>`_, +I wanted to get some statistics surrounding +my book. With this in mind, I have created some questions relating to it. + +Have you read Nim in Action? +____________________________ + +.. raw::html + + <a href="../assets/news/images/survey/book.png"> + <img src="../assets/news/images/survey/book.png" alt="Have you read Nim in Action?" style="width:100%"/> + </a> + +It's good to see that over 50% of respondents have read the book or are at least +planning to read it. Keep in mind that this question was answered by all +respondents, not just Nim users. + +.. container:: standout + + Are you interested in purchasing a copy of + `Nim in Action <https://manning.com/books/nim-in-action?a_aid=niminaction&a_bid=78a27e81>`_? + If so, you can use code ``wm090416lt`` to get 50% off the printed book today only! + If you purchase it now you will get access to an early access copy of + Nim in Action in eBook form and will be able to take part in the development + of this book. + +Did you enjoy Nim in Action? +____________________________ + +.. raw::html + + <a href="../assets/news/images/survey/book_opinion.png"> + <img src="../assets/news/images/survey/book_opinion.png" alt="Did you enjoy Nim in Action?" style="width:100%"/> + </a> + +Of the people that read Nim in Action it's nice to see that almost 70% have +enjoyed it. + +Nim's future +~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +What improvements are needed before Nim v1.0 can be released? +_____________________________________________________________ + +We were interested to know what our users believe is needed before +Nim version 1.0 can be released. + +.. raw::html + + <a href="../assets/news/images/survey/10_needs.png"> + <img src="../assets/news/images/survey/10_needs.png" alt="What is needed before 1.0 can be released?" style="width:100%"/> + </a> + +It appears that the standard library is the biggest concern. With more than half +of all respondents selecting "The standard library needs to reviewed and +any problems with it fixed". This is in fact something we are already planning +to address, so it's good to see that the majority agrees with us. + +A large proportion of users also believes that the language is great as-is +and that we should focus on stabilising the compiler. This somewhat contradicts +the majority. But perhaps most of them thought that "The language" excludes the +standard library. + +For this question, we decided to give our respondents a dedicated place to +give general feedback about what they feel is needed before v1.0 can be +released. We received over 200 responses to that. Many of these responses +reflect what we have already seen: that the documentation needs to improve, +that we need a good Nim IDE, stability for experimental features such as +concepts, the standard library needs to be cleaned up. + +Unfortunately many respondents used this question to say what needs to be fixed +in Nim in general, not what is definitely necessary before 1.0 can be released. + +Community demographics +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +What domain do you work in currently? +_____________________________________ + +.. raw::html + + <a href="../assets/news/images/survey/domains.png"> + <img src="../assets/news/images/survey/domains.png" alt="Work domains" style="width:100%"/> + </a> + + +Nim users are working in a wide variety of domains. It is encouraging to see +people from so many different backgrounds taking part in this survey. + +What programming languages are you most comfortable with? +_________________________________________________________ + + +.. raw::html + + <a href="../assets/news/images/survey/languages.png"> + <img src="../assets/news/images/survey/languages.png" alt="Programming languages" style="width:100%"/> + </a> + +Python and C are the top two programming languages that our respondents are +most comfortable with. This is not altogether surprising. + +Last words +~~~~~~~~~~ + +At the end of the survey we gave our respondents a chance to speak their mind +about anything they wish, with a simple question: "Anything else you'd like +to tell us?" + +There was a lot of great feedback given in this question from people who +obviously really care deeply about Nim. There is too much to outline here, +but rest assurred that we will take it all into account and do our best to +act on it. + +In addition to feedback, we were also overwhelmed by the amount of positive +comments in the answers to this +question. There was a lot of support from the community thanking us for our +work and determination. + +I'll let some quotes speak for themselves: + +.. raw::html + + <blockquote>You rock, seriously.</blockquote> + <blockquote>Nim rocks! Keep it up! Thank you very much!</blockquote> + <blockquote>You've made great progress on the language without any corporate backing, that is amazing. I wish Nim becomes one of the top used languages in a few years.</blockquote> + <blockquote>Nim is elegant and wonderful! Keep at it!</blockquote> + +Our community is truly brilliant. We thank each and every one of you for +filling out this survey and hope that you will help us tackle some of the +challenges that face Nim. + +This survey was a good place to give us feedback, but please don't wait for +the next one. We are always looking to hear more from you and we hope that you +will participate in discussions relating to this survey as well the future +of Nim. + +Thanks for reading, and have a good day! |