C++, C#, web... Where do I go from here?
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The web isn't the best place for genius specialists (try embedded or back-office systems) its a place for flexible, clever generalists. Genius specialists will get frustrated that the tech. that they are currently expert in has suddenly died; a flexible generalist will already have moved on.
[ftw]melvin wrote:
The web isn't the best place for genius specialists (try embedded or back-office systems) its a place for flexible, clever generalists. Genius specialists will get frustrated that the tech. that they are currently expert in has suddenly died; a flexible generalist will already have moved on.
Interesting way to look at it. Fortunately, though, I don't think the middleware layers are going to "suddenly die". You're still going to need specialists in database design and business logic probably for the duration. There's no question about the fact that there's some pretty cool stuff going on with the web technology but, boy, is it ever a moving target. Seems like the guys involved in that can't settle at-all; just about the time you learn how something works you're having to retool everything you learned. :omg: -CB :)
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[ftw]melvin wrote:
The web isn't the best place for genius specialists (try embedded or back-office systems) its a place for flexible, clever generalists. Genius specialists will get frustrated that the tech. that they are currently expert in has suddenly died; a flexible generalist will already have moved on.
Interesting way to look at it. Fortunately, though, I don't think the middleware layers are going to "suddenly die". You're still going to need specialists in database design and business logic probably for the duration. There's no question about the fact that there's some pretty cool stuff going on with the web technology but, boy, is it ever a moving target. Seems like the guys involved in that can't settle at-all; just about the time you learn how something works you're having to retool everything you learned. :omg: -CB :)
CodeBubba wrote:
I don't think the middleware layers are going to "suddenly die".
Probably right, some will fade away though - I would be wary of chasing 'the new big thing'; a bit like the Monty Python, Life of Brian sketch where an Eric Idle character opines (something like): "You are the Messiah, and I should know - I've followed a few in my time."
"If you reward everyone, there will not be enough to go around, so you offer a reward to one in order to encourage everyone." Mei Yaochen in the 'Doing Battle' section of Sun Tzu's: Art of War. .
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CodeBubba wrote:
I don't think the middleware layers are going to "suddenly die".
Probably right, some will fade away though - I would be wary of chasing 'the new big thing'; a bit like the Monty Python, Life of Brian sketch where an Eric Idle character opines (something like): "You are the Messiah, and I should know - I've followed a few in my time."
"If you reward everyone, there will not be enough to go around, so you offer a reward to one in order to encourage everyone." Mei Yaochen in the 'Doing Battle' section of Sun Tzu's: Art of War. .
[ftw]melvin wrote:
Probably right, some will fade away though - I would be wary of chasing 'the new big thing'
Concur. That's part of what's gotten our company in trouble at times. Reasonable and rational upward progress is one thing but for awhile our "management" made development decisions based on the latest "cool" thing. The end result was a product that was saddled with multiple technologies, performs badly and is unstable. A lot of time has gone into correcting bad performance because these guys just threw the latest cool "stuff" into the product. I'm all for a technology that will make it easier to develop a solution or provide a more intuitive front-end but if it results in a server application (for example) dragging the server to its' knees and making the application difficult to scale properly then it becomes anti-productive. I have, on more than one occasion, been asked by employers why a program I wrote for them was so fast when the latest stuff they're producing is so slow. The answer was simply that I didn't choose the latest cool gadget unless I needed it. Sometimes good old "elbow grease" with an older technology can beat the hell out of some pretty gadget that has the "gee whiz" effect. -CB ;)
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[ftw]melvin wrote:
Probably right, some will fade away though - I would be wary of chasing 'the new big thing'
Concur. That's part of what's gotten our company in trouble at times. Reasonable and rational upward progress is one thing but for awhile our "management" made development decisions based on the latest "cool" thing. The end result was a product that was saddled with multiple technologies, performs badly and is unstable. A lot of time has gone into correcting bad performance because these guys just threw the latest cool "stuff" into the product. I'm all for a technology that will make it easier to develop a solution or provide a more intuitive front-end but if it results in a server application (for example) dragging the server to its' knees and making the application difficult to scale properly then it becomes anti-productive. I have, on more than one occasion, been asked by employers why a program I wrote for them was so fast when the latest stuff they're producing is so slow. The answer was simply that I didn't choose the latest cool gadget unless I needed it. Sometimes good old "elbow grease" with an older technology can beat the hell out of some pretty gadget that has the "gee whiz" effect. -CB ;)
I've got to agree. Sometimes management consult their teenage children who chide them for not using "gee whiz 3.0"; using "gee whiz 1.2" is soooo 2004. Management don't like to look stupid in front of the children! And developers are often worse pursuing what they know is CV work on the excuse that 'they have to keep up'. Pragmatism is about being aware of new tech, and waiting long enough for evolution to eliminate the weak.
"If you reward everyone, there will not be enough to go around, so you offer a reward to one in order to encourage everyone." Mei Yaochen in the 'Doing Battle' section of Sun Tzu's: Art of War. .
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Juan de Villiers wrote:
Agreed. If there was a single language that answered every problem, perhaps there wouldn't be a need for newer ones, but as new things are discovered/created/invented, there are things that languages have to do that weren't there before and that they were created for.
:laugh: Don't I know it...while I was beginning my career building C apps (starting with K&R C), I was building a grad research project using PDC Prolog (a PC-based Prolog IDE). If ever two languages differed, it would be these.
Although I haven't been in it for as long as others, believe me GWBasic and c were as different as they could get too.. then theres Fortran, Pascal, Assembly, and the list goes on... :laugh:
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Although I haven't been in it for as long as others, believe me GWBasic and c were as different as they could get too.. then theres Fortran, Pascal, Assembly, and the list goes on... :laugh:
Juan de Villiers wrote:
Although I haven't been in it for as long as others, believe me GWBasic and c were as different as they could get too.. then theres Fortran, Pascal, Assembly, and the list goes on...
:laugh: Believe me, GWBASIC and C are lookalike siblings compared to that weird stranger Prolog...for that matter, COBOL, C, GWBASIC, FORTRAN, and Pascal ALL look like different versions of the same language when compared to Prolog. It's that different. Take a look at it sometime - I think there are still free or shareware Prolog interpreters available for various different platforms. Its primary application has been to problems in artificial intelligence, most notably expert systems. It's short for Programming in Logic; programs consist of establishing a database of facts and rules, followed by queries against the database (the conniptions you had to go through for interactive data entry in a text-window environment were supremely special :wtf: ).
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Juan de Villiers wrote:
Although I haven't been in it for as long as others, believe me GWBasic and c were as different as they could get too.. then theres Fortran, Pascal, Assembly, and the list goes on...
:laugh: Believe me, GWBASIC and C are lookalike siblings compared to that weird stranger Prolog...for that matter, COBOL, C, GWBASIC, FORTRAN, and Pascal ALL look like different versions of the same language when compared to Prolog. It's that different. Take a look at it sometime - I think there are still free or shareware Prolog interpreters available for various different platforms. Its primary application has been to problems in artificial intelligence, most notably expert systems. It's short for Programming in Logic; programs consist of establishing a database of facts and rules, followed by queries against the database (the conniptions you had to go through for interactive data entry in a text-window environment were supremely special :wtf: ).
:omg: I have to check that out. I haven't actually seen it in action. That would be interesting to see.
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Juan de Villiers wrote:
Although I haven't been in it for as long as others, believe me GWBasic and c were as different as they could get too.. then theres Fortran, Pascal, Assembly, and the list goes on...
:laugh: Believe me, GWBASIC and C are lookalike siblings compared to that weird stranger Prolog...for that matter, COBOL, C, GWBASIC, FORTRAN, and Pascal ALL look like different versions of the same language when compared to Prolog. It's that different. Take a look at it sometime - I think there are still free or shareware Prolog interpreters available for various different platforms. Its primary application has been to problems in artificial intelligence, most notably expert systems. It's short for Programming in Logic; programs consist of establishing a database of facts and rules, followed by queries against the database (the conniptions you had to go through for interactive data entry in a text-window environment were supremely special :wtf: ).
Thanks for the trip down memory lane. :) At Uni I did my third year project in prolog. It was a scheduling application so prolog was a good choice. Prolog very different to a lot of other languages: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prolog[^] I guess its a matter of the best programming language for the job. It is good to know that you have more then just a hammer in your tool box. :)
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I've been working in software dev. for 20 years with the last 10 on the web; so if I couldn't offer advice it would be a poor tale! To thrive in software the best bet is always to focus on something; either on a very profitable niche, the very latest tech., legacy tech or on the most popular tech. There seems little point (to me) focusing on the mid-range players as they tend to be taken over or shrivel - or on over-hyped vapour peddlars. I personally like to focus on the most popular tech., so when I was younger I went onto jobsites like jobserve and work out what is the most popular in my area; this gave my hunches confidence. I like books but am incresingly tempted by exam based 'proof' like BrainBench or MS certificates, and for me this is the best set of skills to acquire to cover the next 5-10 years; Skills to acquire: Sql Server 2005, 2008 (some odd extension but hey-ho) C# 2.0, 3.5 (not bothered about 3.0) CSS Javascript (APIs to Ajax included) Photoshop There is a lot there but I'll recommend books if it will help.
Thanks for this. I have done a couple Microsoft exams on SQL and C#. They make me look into areas I might not otherwise have covered. I am often surprised how often I can use this information. This week I am using another javascript library which has less documentation then the last one I was using, so this probably fed the Monday-ist I was feeling when I made the OP. :) What books would you recommend?
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The internet may yet collapse under its own weight but in the meantime; go to job sites, research what is popular and make sure that you have experience on each of the three main development tiers in your area. Database: Sql Server, MySql, Oracle, DB2 etc. Business: C#, VB.Net, PHP, Ruby, Python etc. Presentation: Javascript, Ajax, HTML, CSS, Photoshop etc. (My choices in bold)
Thanks. This makes a lot of sense. It has been feeling like chasing fads for fads sake rather then for productivity (or even common sense!) but underlying this are the core technologies (development tiers) you have mentioned. It makes me more focused being conscious of these, rather then just a victim of a of a fad. :)
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Thanks for this. I have done a couple Microsoft exams on SQL and C#. They make me look into areas I might not otherwise have covered. I am often surprised how often I can use this information. This week I am using another javascript library which has less documentation then the last one I was using, so this probably fed the Monday-ist I was feeling when I made the OP. :) What books would you recommend?
Javascript: As my "Javascript: The definitive guide" by Flanagan is sadly out of date, while waiting for a fourth edition I lean on the Sitepoint book "Simply Javascript" by Yank & Adams. C#: If you know some C# then "Effective C#: 50 specific ways to improve your C#" by Wagner is fantastic; a new version for .Net 2.0 is due out imminently. SQL: "The Guru's guide to Transact-Sql" by Henderson - the version I have was written in 2000, not sure if there is a 2005 version; but it is comprehensive.
"If you reward everyone, there will not be enough to go around, so you offer a reward to one in order to encourage everyone." Mei Yaochen in the 'Doing Battle' section of Sun Tzu's: Art of War. .