Author Bulleted List
Advantages of Java
Graphs: [Location]- This question asked Web authors what they thought the major advantages of Java were. Respondents could choose more than one answer. Consistent with the findings in the Sixth Survey, more than half of respondents cited Java's platform independence as a major advantage (66.92%). About a third (35.36%) identified the fact that Java doesn't require special permissions to run (unlike CGI programs) as an advantage and 23.99% thought the level of interactivity it provided was an advantage. Europeans more than Americans saw the platform independence a major advantage.
Background of Authors
Graphs: [Location]- This question was new for the Sixth Survey. Respondents could choose more than one answer. Over half (52.33% Seventh vs. 47.5% Sixth) of respondents had some formal training in programming. A programming background was especially common among European respondents (60.59% Seventh vs. 59.8% Sixth). %). Nearly one in every four authors claims to have no applicable background (21.92%).About a quarter have training in communication (22.58%) but very few have training in graphic design (16.37%) or fine arts (9.35
Have You Programmed in Java
Graphs: [Location]- The percentage of authors who have programmed in Java doubled in the past year to 34.15% in the Seventh Survey (17.3% in the Fifth Survey conducted April 1996) and 24.4% in the Sixth Survey (conducted October 1996). A higher percentage of Europeans have used Java, which might result from their stronger programming backgrounds (40.00% Europe vs. 33.21% US).
Have You Used ActiveX
Graphs: [Location]- The Seventh Survey is the first time we asked this question. Almost one in every five authors claims to have used ActiveX (18.70%), though the proportion of ActiveX users in Europe is significantly lower than in the US (13.81% Europe vs. 19.17% US).
Hours Spent Learning HTML
Graphs: [Location]- As in the Sixth and Fifth Surveys, most authors (71.51% Seventh vs. 79.10% Fifth) spent between 1 and 6 hours learning HTML with close to half spending only 1 to 3 hours (43.53% Seventh vs. 49.72% Fifth). However, the overall time spent learning HTML has increased in the past year. Given the more extensive programming background of the European authors, it is not surprising to find that it takes less time for European authors to learn HTML than their US counterparts. 1.58% of the respondents report never having learned HTML, down from 3.1% in the Sixth Survey.
Knowledge of Java Security
Graphs: [Location]- For this question, authors were asked to rate their knowledge of Java's security measures as: "None at all", "A little (e.g. could list some of them)", "Moderate (e.g. have read the white paper)", "A lot (e.g. have a thorough understanding of flaws recently found)", or "Expert (e.g. have written code to test them) ".
- The largest category of user (by a small margin) said that they didn't
know anything about Java's security (34.9%). This is a decrease from the last survey where over 45% didn't know anything about Java's security. The next largest category said that they knew "a little" (34.5%).
Languages Used for CGI Programming
Graphs: [Location]- Of the authors that have programmed CGI applications, PERL continues to be the dominant language (48.42% Seventh vs. 39.74% Sixth). The following I the breakdown for other popular languages: AppleScript (10.73% Seventh vs. 14.39% Sixth) , C (7.76% Seventh vs. 8.55%%Sixth), C++ (7.41% Seventh vs. 8.69% Sixth) , Java (7.10% Seventh vs. 7.05% Sixth). Notably fewer CGI programmers report using Visual Basic than six months ago (4.44% Seventh vs. 7.62% Sixth). European respondents are more likely to program in PERL and C than US programmers.
Number of Years Programming
Graphs: [Location]- The percentage of respondents with less than 7 years of programming experience has remained roughly the same during the past year (64.04% Seventh vs. 66.1% Sixth vs. 64.0% Fifth). As seen in previous surveys, Europeans are more likely to have extensive programming experience than US respondents (49.41% Europe vs. 34.49% US).
Plans to Use ActiveX
Graphs: [Location]- This is the first survey we asked this question. The number of authors who report that they plan to use ActiveX in the next year is 18.35%, with 21.95% being undecided and 59.70% reporting that they do not plan on using ActiveX.
Plans to Use Java
Graphs: [Location]- Close to two thirds of the authors surveyed plan to use Java in the next year (65.39%), with only 16.86% not planning on using Java. Compared to a year ago, more users are planning on using Java (58.08% Fifth), as well as slightly more authors are not planning on using Java (15.48% Fifth). As programmers and businesses become more familiar with Java, they have a better idea of how Java fits into development. Consequently, respondents are more certain this time as to whether or not they will be using Java in the next year.
Security of Java
Graphs: [Location]- The response profile to this question has changed significantly in the past six moths. The largest category of users said that they thought Java was "somewhat secure." This shows an increased perception of the security of Java since the Sixth and Fifth Surveys. Over a third of the respondents (34.93%), report not knowing about he security of Java (45.36% Sixth). Of those who gave it a rating, only 3.97% (8.3% Sixth) thought it was very insecure, 12.8% (28.0% Sixth) said somewhat insecure, 39.04% (29.79% Sixth) said somewhat secure and 9.23% (4.96% Sixth) thought it was very secure. This represents a distinct shift toward more trust in Java's security measured from the Sixth and Fifth Surveys.
Sources Consulted in Learning HTML
Graphs: [Location]- For the question, respondents could check more than one answer. . Online sources (83.80%) and books (58.80%) are still the most popular ways for people to learn HTML. All categories showed a increase from the Sixth survey.
Topics of Documents Authored
Graphs: [Location]- Respondents could choose more than one answer for this question. Personal home pages (79.60%) and work related pages (77.36%) remain the most popular types of documents authored, with roughly 4% more of the respondents reporting authoring these types of documents since the Sixth Survey. Documents authored on: entertainment (44.04%), research (40.91%), products (30.12%, and ads (27.50%) are also created by a fair number of authors.
Use of Ready Made Java Applets
Graphs: [Location]- Since many repositories of Java applets are available, it is no longer necessary to be able to program to use Java. This question was designed to find out if web authors are using these repositories. Slightly fewer authors (55.87%) report not using ready-made applets than in the Sixth Survey (59.89%), with 41.43% claiming to have used ready-made applets (36.12% Sixth). European respondents are slightly more likely to have used ready-made applets.
Value of Java
Graphs: [Location]- More respondents in the Seventh Survey (87.28%) had an opinion about the value of Java than in the Sixth Survey (81.30%). Of those who had an opinion, more than half (54.52% Seventh vs. 57.5% Sixth) saw the value of Java as mainly functional. As with the Fifth Survey, a number of people view the value of Java as mainly aesthetic or adds no value to the web (19.28% Seventh vs. 23.39% Sixth), though this number is decreasing. 13.49% think Java is revolutionary (11.15% Sixth).
Why Do You Create Web Pages
Graphs: [Location]- Respondents could choose more than one answer. As with the Sixth Survey, more than half of the respondents (57.34% Seventh vs. 56.6% Sixth) create web pages in support of one of their hobbies. 49.97% said they created web pages just because it was fun (48.7% Sixth), and 72.69% of respondents said that they created web pages as a major or minor part of their job (68.9% Sixth). European authors were less likely to create pages for a hobby or for fun and were more likely to create them as part of their job.
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