"Those in search of eternal life need look no further than the computer industry. Here, last gasps are rarely taken, as aging systems crank away in back rooms across the U.S., not unlike 1970s reruns on Nickelodeon's TV Land. So while it may not be exactly easy for Novell NetWare engineers and OS/2 administrators to find employers who require their services, it's very difficult to declare these skills -- or any computer skill, really -- dead." My Take: "C" dying should have been "x86 Assembly".
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Member since:2006-01-02
I think C/C++ is not that great for making large loosely-coupled applications because there are often too many questions that arise when you pass pointers across module boundaries. You can't allocate in one place and free in another. And you have to be really careful when making interfaces. You end up with messes like COM (which I like, but I admit that it's pretty hostile to normal programmers).
Managed languages really DO bring vast productivity enhancements because there is only one allocator, one calling convention, and one runtime model.
I agree with everything else you said about the high pay and low skill of new "business" programmers. I know a guy who's making six figures at a financial firm right out of college even though he couldn't program his way out of a paper bag.
But if you have a company that's run by engineers for engineers, they'll probably go the way of DEC (i.e. the way of the dodo). They produced really great stuff (VMS clusters that stay up through rolling hardware replacements, alpha processors that had the performance crown for 6-7 years), but they couldn't market and sell well enough. And perhaps they weren't focussed on quite the right things, so they didn't meet their customer's perceived needs.
It seems difficult to find a CS undergrad these days with a really sharp mind between their shoulders. And all of the best ones seem to be swallowed by the giant maw that is Google to work on god knows what. Maybe you're at the wrong company if you feel you're not being rewarded properly for your low-level experience. Considered applying to Google or (oh the horrors!) Mirosoft?
Member since:
2005-07-08
Now, everyone (I am a consultant) wants VB.NET, C# or Java.
That's not a sign that C/C++ is dying. That's a sign that most of the software industry is off its rails and headed for disaster. The PHBs don't know what they want, and the analysts don't know what they're talking about. Sadly, many programmers don't know what they're doing, and many that do are more than willing to keep their mouths shut and do what they're told.
Most of what hiring managers know about software development comes from what they read in publications like BusinessWeek. The analysts, the scum that clings to the underside of the software industry, are largely responsible for driving trends. The idiots are in charge, the ignorant deliver the orders, and the spineless do the work.
What to we see when we actually put the developers in charge of setting the culture and managing the projects? We see a lot less use of these kinds of technologies, and a lot more C/C++. We see managed code relegated to some GUI development and system administration applications. We see advanced libraries grow out of these lower-level languages to greatly ease development and portability without sacrificing performance. We see that it's no harder to develop large codebases in loosely-coupled teams with C/C++ than it is in modern managed languages. We also see no shortage of developers with considerable skill in C/C++, some of whom will work in their spare time for their own enjoyment.
Why the mainstream software industry is passing up the most talented programmers in favor of the buzzword-compliant masses is beyond me. Many of these PHP geniuses get paid better than well-qualified OS developers. If you're willing to be an Oracle DBA, that's worth six figures. If you can explain why the volatile attribute doesn't address cache coherency, you start in the 70s (I apologize for the US-centric currency references).
I believe only the most gifted developers are going to be able to make a living in the future C/C++ world.
This is a very good point. Why doesn't it also apply to Java programmers? If businesses are willing to hire damn near everybody with the right words on their resume, then they deserve the crap they hire. The thing about skilled labor is that only the best and most skilled should be able to get a job in that area. I can play baseball, but I can't make a living playing baseball, because I'm not good enough. I know Java, but the guy who interviewed me said that since I had experience in systems programming, I was overqualified... for a higher-paying job.
Screw all those PHBs and analysts. I'd rather work with interesting people doing challenging work than make a little more money to work on an unmitigated disaster with overpaid, useless tools.
Edited 2007-05-24 23:17