The author seems depressed and is displacing their frustrations onto a programming language.
A programming language isn't going to bring you real joy, that can only come from within.
Wrapping Up 2021. Leaving C++
41–50 of 251 posts
Re: Wrapping Up 2021. Leaving C++
#42I find it strange that the author treats spending time with a language as a personal sacrifice.
If that's the case, maybe quit programming altogether? No matter what you work on, language or a piece of software, if you think you are sacrificing part of yourself, just stop. It's not worth it.
Re: Wrapping Up 2021. Leaving C++
#43Earlier quoted context omitted.
Out of curiosity, according to you at what point was Java considered C++ 2.0?
At inception it was sold as an alternative to C++ for general IT work. I switched in ‘96.
Java was also largely successful, by now it's the new Cobol of business software and will never go away. The same for C++, of course, it will not go anywhere, at worst it will slide a few points down the TIOBE index (where, surprisingly, Visual Basic is on place 6).
Re: Wrapping Up 2021. Leaving C++
#44Makes me wonder if I've too strongly tied my career to a specific language. However, right now it's not that I'm specifically a C++ programmer, just that the industry (gamedev) is largely C++. I'm sure in for it if that shifts out from under me before I find stable employment though....
I wouldn't worry about it too much. It's the ecosystem and the rest of the frameworks that you'll need to learn, and those will be specific to what you will be trying to do. If you are a proficient c++ programmer you'll have no problem with anything that came after it as those languages usually strive to fix problems in c++. If you don't know web stuff you should learn web. There was a time I would say every programm…
C knowledge is still way more generally useful than javascript and/or web knowledge. Whatever you think of C there's no denying it's everywhere and understanding it is relevant in pretty much every software system in existence, even when that's not immediately obvious.
Re: Wrapping Up 2021. Leaving C++
#45[deleted]
Re: Wrapping Up 2021. Leaving C++
#46Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm not sure I'm ready to learn another language to be honest. After a decade+ of C++ it'd feel like driving on the wrong side of the road and I wouldn't blame any employers who didn't want to take a chance on that :)
My advice (after also having spent 'too much' time on C++) is to never focus on a single language, it's better to have a shallow knowledge of several languages than a deep knowledge of a single language (especially when it's a "fractal complexity" language like C++ - the mental capacity to deeply know C++ is enough to be productive with 2..3 less complex languages). Usually it's not the programming language that's im…
> My advice (after also having spent 'too much' time C++) is to never focus on a single language.
Well, you/they practised at least C++98, C++11, C++17... That's many different languages already ;-)
Re: Wrapping Up 2021. Leaving C++
#47[flagged]
> Imagine needing to announce your "departure" from a community.
The exact same thing jumped out at me. Does anyone know if the author is a particularly well known or influential member of the C++ community?
Re: Wrapping Up 2021. Leaving C++
#48I sincerely hope that the author finds joy. Great things come from those unwilling to settle. But the Kubernetes riff was telling: when using a cloud provider, so much of the system management is provided. When we insist on DIY, we get to DIY. So maybe settling a bit here and there isn't catastrophic.
“The reasonable man adapts himself to the world: the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.” ― George Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman
I always hate that quote. Much of the misery and suffering in the world also comes from the unreasonable man. Every tyrant is trying to adapt the world to himself. Every stalker is trying to adapt the world to himself. Every poacher is trying to adapt the world to himself. Every vandal is trying to adapt the world to himself. Many a murderer is trying to adapt the world to himself. Every person demanding Ivermectin to treat Covid is trying to adapt the world to himself. Trump spread the lies about the 2020 election trying to adapt the world to himself.
In addition, the reasonable man is also adapting the world to himself. Every time you turn on the air conditioning or heat, you are adapting the world to yourself.
Every human is trying at some level to adapt the world to himself while also recognizing that some things are easier to change than others.
In addition, many of our greatest advances came from people who knew how the world worked and carefully pushed change along 1 dimension. Every scientist with a ground breaking discovery appreciates the fundamental laws of nature and works within those constraints. The quacks forever making perpetual motion machines are trying to adapt the world to themselves without realizing the constraints.
Re: Wrapping Up 2021. Leaving C++
#49> The last 10 years of my life writing C++ in a professional context were a complete waste of time that I will never get back. I have nothing to show for it. I don't get this part. The language you write something in has little to do with how useful the software is. I've had years writing fulfilling software, and years where I was just spinning my wheels.
It seems to be one of those nowadays numerous people who invest a great part of their time into programming 'communities' to the point it becomes a defining point of their life, instead of just considering the underlying tool... a tool (or one hobby) among others. It often ends this way.
Interesting. The only time I've been part of a programming community (really just forums/discord) is when the language was tied to a platform, like gamemaker studio. Everything else I've just... used.
Re: Wrapping Up 2021. Leaving C++
#50> The last 10 years of my life writing C++ in a professional context were a complete waste of time that I will never get back. I have nothing to show for it. I don't get this part. The language you write something in has little to do with how useful the software is. I've had years writing fulfilling software, and years where I was just spinning my wheels.
It's just the author acknowledging all the code written belongs to some company or organization, and often, can't even be used as a showcase. It was work for money, plain and simple, but may become a hard sell later.
However, it's not necessarily true. Working with large codebases, working on language design questions, committees, everything grows experience that can be used later. It's just not clear now how, as requirements and work in other companies or in FOSS may be very different than that C++ development.
The author mentions Go as a positive experience. If the ego could be left at the door, Go could be a good language to make a new home in. Either that or Haskell, though with much more investment in all layers.
The language and tooling can have very much to say for overall development and maintenance. Also architecture and design matters, as well as changing requirements. It's all very simple or complicated, depending on unknowable X-factors that often need to be decided up-front.