Sure, these cases tend to be few and far between, but oftentimes I find having a C++ background helpful in forming a bridge when debugging between what’s broken and why.

I think a lot of the perceived snobbery that shadows those proficient in C/C++/ASM/[insert non-garbage-collected language here] is ill-placed. Personally, I consider myself knowledgeable in a broad spectrum of languages ranging across a slew of scripting languages and others including Java, C#, etc. However, I was weaned into programming as an undergraduate by learning how to program in C++, and I think it’s a damn shame that the curriculums have since changed to teach Java instead.

It is a pure and simple fact that most people who are proficient in C or C++ are also knowledgeable in optimization – to some degree. And I think this is where a lot of other languages are a let-down, in this regard. C++ is built, from the ground-up, for speed. And, to use it well, you need to know all about memory issues (possible fragmentation, leaks, utilizing block pools, etc) and, as a consequence, you learn some of the intricacies of how the language interacts with the system beneath it. And since Java, C#, and most new languages hide this under a layer of abstraction, most programmers using these languages will put their faith in the garbage collector and continue doing what they wish.

All I’m saying is, it’s perfectly legitimate for those unindoctrinated in plumbing the mysterious depths of C/C++ to get the stink-eye. Odds are, they deserve it.

A bit of it is ego, but it is also anger at having wanted to pursue a particular kind of work, having been promised it and then having that promise broken.

It is like being a plumber, going out on a service call, and having someone hand you a pushbroom to clean up their house.

Those situations wouldn’t be so bad if you could work your way out of them, but that possibility is not always there.

I agree for personal happiness it is better to put your anger aside. It is better to go find another job where you can do the kind of work you want and not fester at your current spot.

It’s not because I did things the “hard way”, it’s because I’m trying to look at the big picture. In my line of work, all the customer cares about is that your application works well, runs fast, plays well with other apps, supports the features they need, and comes out on time. They don’t give a damn what language you write it in, and no language can give you all of those. Why not?

I’ve seen brilliance in all languages, but I’ve yet to see one that’s balanced enough to sit squarely in the middle of the user’s requirements, or is flexible enough to extend along any of the vectors you desire.

What bothers me most is rehashed languages, and lately it seems to me that the industry has just been stagnant and programming is no longer fun because we’re no longer actually programming so much as we are gluing disparate pieces of other people’s code together.

Sometimes I feel RAD is the assembly line of programming, and a good deal of the creative aspect of programming is gone. This is not limited to just RAD. All programmers do it to an extent, almost like they want to do everything they can to avoid programming at all. Sure it makes you deliver on time, barring any bugs that are in other people’s software, but you never really learn anything from it either. That’s my take.

I got into software development because ever since I was a kid I thought programming was fun. I still think it’s fun, but I’ve come to realize that programming is just a means to an end. What I want to do is create software that people can actually use.

Again, good article.

I used to joke with my friends that software development should be unionized and regulated. Each programmer would have to go through required training and certifications. A programmer would be rated for what types of projects they can competently work on. This would help weed out or identify the bad programmers.

As we progress technically as a society, we come to rely more and more on software everyday. A union would help safegaurd mission critical software systems.

In any case, I digress. These days the object of my ire has shifted to outsourcing of software development to offshore 3rd world countries…

Seriously though, I love PHP too and when it comes down to it a language is just a language. Everyone needs to get off their high horses and realize that most of development is theory. If you have the theory any language is just syntax. Even ASM.

Of course, some professors had a nutty about people running around with these calculators, up to the point of forbidding them in class. They argued that students weren’t learning how to solve equations or do integrals by hand since the calculator was doing it for them.

This was perfectly true. The point of the calculator was to allow us to do much more complicated problems with very interesting solutions without getting hung up on the final integral needed to get the answer.

My advisor put it perfectly: “When calculators first came out, math professors were outraged because students no longer bothered to learn how to calculate a sin or a tan by hand. Of course, no one does this now because it’s a waste of time that is better spent doing more complicated problems”.

Just because you can code in a low level language doesn’t mean it’s better to do so. I know it’s a painful ego hip-check to the die hard coders out there, but using high level languages saves time, and time is money. If you are still holding on to C++ with a death grip because you feel superior, you’re just dating your skills and making yourself less marketable.

We can take the growth of the www, and the aspects (html, xml, css, javascript, lateron php etc..) are all not that difficult to understand.

Altogether they are rather complex still, but one by one they are not so complex.

I think when one contrasts these with something like C++ then I wonder why any C++ coder does not realize that complexity in itself is a problem.

It is a problem with the above combination too, but the single problems are much easier to understand than wondering about templates usage and parser happiness. It is why I predominantly write in Ruby mostly, but the biggest aspect is the human factor in it.

And I also have begun to really appreciate data as a first step to a solution. It may be awkward to say but I think if you have all the data, and if you manage to put it into a structure, you have a lot of the solution before your feet already.

I even think that tying data into .h files is not a very good solution. Nor to tie it into XML (but at least XML conquered the world…)

I think I digress here, so my point is:
I basically agree with what you wrote here. It is important to acknowledge that there are good solutions in every language, even in languages that suck. And in the long run, people will tend to use solutions that “give them more for their bucks/time” in various aspects, i.e. by using higher level languages that allow them to control a lot of things.

In fact I even believe that when someone uses i.e. python, it does not matter much if he is on windows or on Linux. So in a way, these easy languages will continually win people that use them.