I was looking at code.golf the other day and I wondered which languages were the least verbose, so I did a little data gathering.

I looked at 48 different languages that had completed 79 different code challenges on code.golf. I then gathered the results for each language and challenge. If a "golfer" had more than 1 submission to a challenge, I grabbed the most recent one. I then dropped the top 5% and bottom 5% to hopefully mitigate most outliers. Then came up with an average for each language, for each challenge. I then averaged the results across each language and that is what you see here.

For another perspective, I ranked each challenge then got the average ranking across all challenges. Below is the results of that. *removed externally hosted image*

Disclaimer: This is in no way scientific. It's just for fun. If you know of a better way to sort these results please let me know.

    • kaba0@programming.dev
      ·
      1 year ago

      It is always dismissed as too verbose, while in go’s case it is never mentioned, when in fact the latter is way more verbose.. People’s bias show.

      • coloredgrayscale@programming.dev
        ·
        1 year ago

        Maybe also bias by the number / experience of people using it.

        1st semester students getting shocked by public static void main(String args) and meming it on the internet.

        Go on the other hand likely isn't a common choice / option for a first language.

    • xigoi@lemmy.sdf.org
      ·
      1 year ago

      Code Golf rules allow people to submit an anonymous function instead of a full program, which eliminates a lot of the boilerplate.

    • atheken@programming.dev
      ·
      1 year ago

      I don’t know the specifics of the golf problems, but I’m mostly in c#, also notorious for “having too much boilerplate,” and it looks like it’s 3rd by char count.

      My guess is that languages with comprehensive standard libraries can do more with less custom code. As you should expect.

    • muddi [he/him]
      ·
      1 year ago

      I wonder if it's all those variables named with single letter and abbreviations, so annoying to code review

      • GarytheSnail@programming.dev
        ·
        1 year ago

        String IDontKnowWhatsWorseEspeciallyWhenTheTypeIsAlsoIncludedString = "I don't know what's worse, especially when the type is also included";

        • BlueBockser@programming.dev
          ·
          1 year ago

          Honestly, I prefer an overly long name over some cryptic naming scheme that looks like minified JS. At least you can be sure of the variable's purpose and don't have to guess, which is far better for readability.