Java is on the wane, at least according to one outfit that keeps on eye on the ever-changing world of computer programming languages.

For more than a decade, it has dominated the Tiobe Programming Community Index — a snapshot of software developer enthusiasm that looks at things like internet search results to measure how much buzz different languages have. But lately, Java has been slipping. In fact, it’s been overtaken by the C programming language — a 40-year-old dinosaur that’s still popular with Unix developers and people who develop software for simple embedded systems like DVD players or alarm monitors.

“C is not number one because it is rising, but it is because Java is falling down,” says Paul Jansen, managing director with Tiobe Software, writing in an e-mail interview. Jansen’s company compiles the programming index.

According to Jansen, Java — once the hottest of the programming languages — took a serious detour when Oracle bought it, along with its creator-company, Sun Microsystems, three years ago.

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