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If you had to start over, what technologies would you learn in 2014?

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Re: If you had to start over, what technologies would you learn in 2014?

#41

Post by gizmo »

ardfard wrote: post #28
gizmo wrote: post #2

It depends on your goals. If your goal is to do a startup, then the obvious choice is to really master an entire web stack. For instance linux / nginx / python / html / css / javascript. If you want to do research in computer graphics, then you better learn OpenGL and C++ or .NET. Want to work in embedded systems? C. Scott's recommendation of C# & Javascript is a solid and pragmatic choice, good for those looking for…

Agreed too for your opinion about how to do a startup. But I want to add C to your full stack suggestion. Sometimes it pays off to know low-level details about your choice of technologies. Almost every important technologies that I know is implemented in C.

No doubt, knowing C always helps. gdb and strace work where other tools fail.

In order to be a well rounded developer you ideally have familiarity with functional programming, declarative programming, lisp, and a much more. You hit diminishing returns pretty quickly though.

Re: If you had to start over, what technologies would you learn in 2014?

#42

Post by gonehome »

bad_user wrote: post #22
gonehome wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think it's just discoverability though. I think the main question is if mobile web applications will be able to match native on both quality and performance. Facebook attempted this and failed badly, but that doesn't mean it can't happen or that native will always have an edge. If native does continue to have an edge though then I think web has an uphill battle.

On Facebook, I remember a time when the native app was horrible on Android. In many ways it still is - it requires too many permissions and the list is growing. Recently they're asking for access to my SMS messages and in Android 4.3 I had a bug with my Nexus 4 in regards to location services as the Wifi-network provider was draining my battery and so I had to disable it, so Facebook's app was still requiring it, act…

I suppose in your case you're choosing between two bad options.

The iOS app is an example of how much better a native app can be from the web app - and the new paper app even more so.

I remember the android one being terrible when I had android phones a couple years ago - but I thought that was because it was basically a wrapper around a web app.

Re: If you had to start over, what technologies would you learn in 2014?

#43

Post by gonehome »

Joeri wrote: post #17
gonehome wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think it's just discoverability though. I think the main question is if mobile web applications will be able to match native on both quality and performance. Facebook attempted this and failed badly, but that doesn't mean it can't happen or that native will always have an edge. If native does continue to have an edge though then I think web has an uphill battle.

You can remove the word mobile. Web apps are still heavily inferior to native desktop apps. The answer to 'why mobile web apps?' is the same answer as to 'why desktop web apps?'

I generally agree to this, but at least with mobile you carry your phone with you all the time. I could see the benefit of a web interface on any machine you use rather than having to have your laptop with you for the desktop app.

Though I guess I usually have my laptop with me anyway.

Re: If you had to start over, what technologies would you learn in 2014?

#44

Post by rip747 »

I've been doing ColdFusion for well over 13 years now. The reason I choose it was because at the time the only other web technology that looked promising was ASP and I _hate_ Visual Basic with a passion. Today I'm focusing all my attention on C# and Ruby.

That all said, if I had to start over today... I wouldn't be programming, I go back to networking. As much as I love programming, it just doesn't amaze me anymore. I guess its the lack of physical interaction. I'm starting to dread typing on a keyboard for a living.

I look at all my friends in networking and see all the cool toys they get to play with and want to jump in the sandbox.

Re: If you had to start over, what technologies would you learn in 2014?

#45

Post by pistle »

almata wrote: post #7

"Ultimately, we're all amateurs." - Wow, that's something I've been thinking a lot lastly. It's true that a good developer can learn a new language (or technology, or even paradigm) in a quite short amount of time, but at the same time, when we're constantly doing that it's true that, as an effect and as the author says, we're becoming permanent amateurs. I don't have a solution for this though (maybe there is no sol…

The best we can be are professional on-the-job learners with a knack for clean implementations.

Re: If you had to start over, what technologies would you learn in 2014?

#47

Post by taude »

1) Any high-level language that runs in the Java VM. Because 1) there's tons of open source libraries 2) syntactic sugar for devs 3) operational stability of the VM 4) flexibility of running it on both open source and closed source OSes meeting a variety of business requirements.

2) A scripting language for gluing your operations together, for quick and dirty services, prototyping, etc...: Python

3) JavaScript.

Re: If you had to start over, what technologies would you learn in 2014?

#49

Post by erichocean »

ardfard wrote: post #28
gizmo wrote: post #2

It depends on your goals. If your goal is to do a startup, then the obvious choice is to really master an entire web stack. For instance linux / nginx / python / html / css / javascript. If you want to do research in computer graphics, then you better learn OpenGL and C++ or .NET. Want to work in embedded systems? C. Scott's recommendation of C# & Javascript is a solid and pragmatic choice, good for those looking for…

Agreed too for your opinion about how to do a startup. But I want to add C to your full stack suggestion. Sometimes it pays off to know low-level details about your choice of technologies. Almost every important technologies that I know is implemented in C.

I'm rewriting our Node.js based server in a combination of C and LuaJIT as we speak. The performance difference is absolutely astounding, in part because our Node.js app relies heavily on compiled modules, and the cost to cross from JavaScript to C++ and back is obscene.

The straight C implementation looks like it'll be over 1000 times faster for our use case, which involves tons of buffer manipulation and usage of compiled modules.

Re: If you had to start over, what technologies would you learn in 2014?

#50

Post by ben336 »

shadowmint wrote: post #27
duncanawoods wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I liked the idea of typescript but after frustration from fundamental issues I was very happy to bin it. i) Wrapper libraries - Sure you can download them from definitelytyped but in practice I quickly found all sort of incompatibilities and things not working when used on real versions of the wrapped libraries. I had to edit them based on suggestions from forums. They are unversioned community efforts - poor version…

I use pycharm with typescript, and either I have a new version or the pycharm plugin is far different to the webstorm one. All the refactoring options, jump-to-symbol, type hinting, type completion and inline-error checking work really well for me. There are some pain points to be sure (modules, generics that don't quite work), but: - Emits known good javascript patterns, preventing javascript's typical '50 ways of d…

Can you give an example of Coffeescript interacting poorly with the existing js ecosystem. I've seen complaints about the need for a build step, but since it compiles down to vanilla javascript, it works everywhere JS does, and its not hard to mix the 2 on a project if necessary.
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