Programming languages popularity and implications to testing programmable logic controllers

The popularity of domain-specific programming languages has implications on how we test software in these domain industries. For example for programmable logic controllers five standard languages were defined and used in practice. Detailed data on popularity of these languages should show some implications on what languages to target when testing. We suggest that massive new data sources resulting from programmers may offer a new perspective on how we test domain-specific languages. By analyzing Google query volumes for search terms related to programmable logic controllers languages, we find patterns that may be interpreted as signs of actual usage in practice. Comparing with the current test generation approaches proposed by researchers our results illustrate both potentials and threats on what is needed in reality when testing programmable logic controllers.