* at the price point we're willing to pay for them
The pool of talented C++ developers is running dry
71–80 of 595 posts
Re: The pool of talented C++ developers is running dry
#72Headline makes me think of RPG (the language, look it up [0]). It's basically disappeared, but it was one of the key languages used to develop much of the banking system waaaaay back. For a variety of reasons, it's still very much present but the experts are in their 70s and anyone competent enough to debug is well into their late 50s at the youngest. Attempts at upgrading to, say C++ or Java usually fail for the sam…
I'd wire wrap circuits on the Colossus for 500k a day!
Do you actually mean 100-500k per day?
Re: The pool of talented C++ developers is running dry
#73Earlier quoted context omitted.
These are financial firms griping about the lack of developers. They're some of the highest paid developers in the world. But working for these companies is also insanely stressful. Long hours, high pressure. Maybe that reputation has caught up to them.
Having worked with several "veterans" of this industry, I'm inclined to agree. Also weirdly C++ devs aren't making that much more than the fullstack devs who build FOH tooling for traders.
What's FOH?
Re: The pool of talented C++ developers is running dry
#74Heh. I'm pretty proficient in modern C++, and it is my favorite tool for a lot of things, but my PHP job pays way more than any C++ position available. Did an interview once for Senior C++ Engineer, embedded software in the medical device space. All went good, until the offer: $100k. Articles like this are nothing more than a desperate attempt at getting younger generations to learn said topic, so companies can pay t…
Anecdotal evidence to support what you're saying.
I had a large group of devs I used to hang out with. It was about 50/50 front-end and C, C++ guys. Over the last decade or so, every single C developer either transitioned to PHP like yourself, or went the full-stack JS route and have never looked back.
And it was all over the issues around dealing with legacy systems and the poor pay. One guy told me flat out he can make close to twice as much being a very in demand JS developer with great benefits and reasonable hours compared to the horror show of working in government (military) or finance.
Re: The pool of talented C++ developers is running dry
#75Writing new C++ code with all the modern approaches and tooling doesn't sound so bad. Troubleshooting a big legacy C++ codebase is probably something that Dante would have included in his Inferno as a punishment for pride and hubris.
> Writing new C++ code with all the modern approaches and tooling doesn't sound so bad.
Uh, but it still kinda sucks, if only because the nice way that looks idiomatic is usually the incorrect way for either performance (anything newly added like std::variant or std::optional) or safety (operator[]).
The correct way is usual the ugly way, because it seems like the committee puts C++ arcanum knowledge above all else, instead of developer satisfaction or maintainability
Re: The pool of talented C++ developers is running dry
#76Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Maybe that reputation has caught up to them. It did. Comp is nowhere near FAANG and the work culture is still stuck in the 90's. Go to any college and talk to students looking for internships. Finance firms are nowhere near the top of their list.
Curious - what's at the top of their list now? Do they still want FAANG jobs after all the layoffs?
I don’t think layoffs change people’s desire to work at a top hi-tech company.
Re: The pool of talented C++ developers is running dry
#77I guarantee that higher quality pay will give you access to a higher quality talent pool.
You can't pay me enough to go back to writing c++ code.
I despise the language, 80% of my time is spent figuring out how to beat it into submission to get it to do what I want, which leaves very little brain power left over for designing well architected software.
Modern languages get easy access to a large number of powerful design tools, C++ I have the same tools but it's stuck behind an interface (headers, the build system) originally made in the 70s.
Re: The pool of talented C++ developers is running dry
#78Personally, I would love to code in C++ but most projects are Python these days. I spent most of my career as a C++ generalist, along with doing a bit of graphics work.
Re: The pool of talented C++ developers is running dry
#79Earlier quoted context omitted.
These are financial firms griping about the lack of developers. They're some of the highest paid developers in the world. But working for these companies is also insanely stressful. Long hours, high pressure. Maybe that reputation has caught up to them.
Also crazy non competes. Like 2 years.
At a certain level, this tends to be balanced with severance. "Garden leave" is different from "I can't get a job".
Re: The pool of talented C++ developers is running dry
#80> Where are all the C++ programmers? People are seemingly scared away from the language by a terrible stigma: the notion that it is a legacy program. I think this is because the pool of jobs for C++ programmers is so small. I took a position as a web dev at a company whose main product was a CAD application. Most of my work was in NodeJS, but occasionally, I'd have to dip into the C/C++ layer to make some API changes…
people talking about tech and frameworks as if it takes more than 2 weeks to switch