171–180 of 595 posts
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C++ is legacy. You can't just ignore the fundamentals.
Just spent two years writing a medium size fresh c++ codebase in modern style with all the warnings turned to max and nearly every static analysis tool we could throw at it from day 1. It’s been an utter pleasure with no pain that can be blamed on c++ alone. It can be done :)
> 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…
There's this mindset that you have to avoid finding a niche, because you're limiting your options. Being a perfect fullstack devops generalist is like fishing in the ocean with trillions of fish, while having a niche is more like just shooting fish in a barrel. You don't need an unlimited supply of jobs. You just need one job, and specializing in something puts you in a good position to find one.
It's better to be a specialist in JavaScript + crypto than forth.
If crypto doesn't pan out, you're still a JavaScript developer that can get a non-crypto job.
If forth doesn't pan out, you have to become JavaScript developer to get a job.
It's telling that:
1. they can whine and get an audience
2. that we tolerate such whining when it is rooted in their feelings of having less leverage in this situation
3. it is spun to be an industry-wide "issue" rather than one that can be solved at an micro-level by using pre-existing incentives of pay.
Simply put, they don't want to, which is why they're in the position of complaining that the world is not to their liking.
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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…
I am not a front end guy, so I don't understand how PHP jobs can pay _better_ than C++ jobs.
Think about how web companies can have very low up-front costs, use a cloud provider and some high-level frameworks for python or JS etc, make a stupid social-media connected app, and start making big money (or get investments assuming they will after capturing many users).
Then think about hardware companies - it's a very competitive space, it's mostly a commodity, the high-level software doesn't care so much about the specific chips providing those cores of cpu and gigs of ram, and what's available on the market is really amazingly powerful at a really amazingly reasonable price, due to competition with other providers in the market, and with older hardware!
It does seem kinda perverse, but ... the closer you are working to the hardware, the cheaper the market for your work, but the further up the stack, the more potential for high pay, based on the higher monetary efficiency of those companies, by running very in-efficiently on super-competitive hardware, and differentiating with features and services etc.
I feel like I am in a decently unique situation where I learned C++ throughout my preteens and teens, and got a job straight out of high school writing C++ for Unreal Engine applications. Most of the C++ jobs I see when I look are things that I just honestly do not want to do. I don't really mind working with the language and wouldn't mind sticking with it. But I don't want to work on financial software, as I don't w…
So you're not limited to finance. Quite the opposite.
I'd be surprised if the majority of C++ jobs had anything to do with finance.
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Embedded roles pay less than almost any other role... I feel there should be some sort of diagram possible that explains which industries and technologies pay more or less.
Not just embedded, robotics or automotive have pretty low C++ salaries while much higher for Java or even JavaScript... C++ devs are punished for being more capable.
Writing 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.
I spent two months asking one guy who knew about it for help. I really understood the concept of "hostage taker" in a software team. It's the guy you cannot fire and will constantly arm-wrestle everybody where there is a problem, never really helping, and continuing to write bad code that allows him to keep his job.
Fortunately they did not hire me.
I never was so discouraged in my life.
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Most demand for C++ developers is for existing codebases, presumably. The kind that you can’t just rewrite.
Could be refactored if someone bothered to write unit tests