Future Of C++
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Hello all, I wanted to hear your opinion whether C++ has a future. I think the answer is kinda complex. Will the Desktop itself be available in the future? Or will programs (i.e. instructions) and data be streamed from the cloud to a lightweight "terminal" (similar to Google Chrombook)and hence replacing our familiar desktops of today? Hence will C++ be even needed in that case? Or will something else, say Java, be running everything around? Thank you for your responses. Hadi
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Hello all, I wanted to hear your opinion whether C++ has a future. I think the answer is kinda complex. Will the Desktop itself be available in the future? Or will programs (i.e. instructions) and data be streamed from the cloud to a lightweight "terminal" (similar to Google Chrombook)and hence replacing our familiar desktops of today? Hence will C++ be even needed in that case? Or will something else, say Java, be running everything around? Thank you for your responses. Hadi
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Hello all, I wanted to hear your opinion whether C++ has a future. I think the answer is kinda complex. Will the Desktop itself be available in the future? Or will programs (i.e. instructions) and data be streamed from the cloud to a lightweight "terminal" (similar to Google Chrombook)and hence replacing our familiar desktops of today? Hence will C++ be even needed in that case? Or will something else, say Java, be running everything around? Thank you for your responses. Hadi
It has a future - I was first told in 1995 that I wouldn't have a job next year writing C++ applications and I'm still at it. Sun couldn't sell Java stations in the 1990s and even though I use a Chromebook [1] almost exclusively at home high performance apps on them usually have a chunk written in C++. I can't see anything replacing C++ (apart perhaps for C) in the embedded or OS spheres either.
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Hello all, I wanted to hear your opinion whether C++ has a future. I think the answer is kinda complex. Will the Desktop itself be available in the future? Or will programs (i.e. instructions) and data be streamed from the cloud to a lightweight "terminal" (similar to Google Chrombook)and hence replacing our familiar desktops of today? Hence will C++ be even needed in that case? Or will something else, say Java, be running everything around? Thank you for your responses. Hadi
My opinion is that C++ looks ahead for a long future. C/C++ has probably the largest opensource codebase and set of libraries available (this is very important!!!) and most of the popular operating systems has been written in this language. (I'm a bit sad that some things can't be changed in C/C++ because of backward compatibility problems...) C/C++ is probably the "most portable" language across current popular platforms (Windows,Linux,Android,iOS,MacOSX,...) - try to run java on iOS... Even the android based java is a nonstandard one. Java and C/C++ are very different in many aspects, there are fields where they are simply not competing because either only Java or only C/C++ is the good choice. A serious programmer has to know C/C++ because currently "half of the world" has been written in this language and besides this you have to know many other languages anyway even if you don't actively using them. Your question is often the concern of newbies. They are afraid of investing their time in learning something because they are afraid of "putting up everything on learning a specific language". It is not the knowledge of a language that is valuable in a programmer. You can learn programming, program design and/or a paradigm by learning any of todays langauges. Being a good valuable programmer has nothing to do with knowing a specific programming language.
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My opinion is that C++ looks ahead for a long future. C/C++ has probably the largest opensource codebase and set of libraries available (this is very important!!!) and most of the popular operating systems has been written in this language. (I'm a bit sad that some things can't be changed in C/C++ because of backward compatibility problems...) C/C++ is probably the "most portable" language across current popular platforms (Windows,Linux,Android,iOS,MacOSX,...) - try to run java on iOS... Even the android based java is a nonstandard one. Java and C/C++ are very different in many aspects, there are fields where they are simply not competing because either only Java or only C/C++ is the good choice. A serious programmer has to know C/C++ because currently "half of the world" has been written in this language and besides this you have to know many other languages anyway even if you don't actively using them. Your question is often the concern of newbies. They are afraid of investing their time in learning something because they are afraid of "putting up everything on learning a specific language". It is not the knowledge of a language that is valuable in a programmer. You can learn programming, program design and/or a paradigm by learning any of todays langauges. Being a good valuable programmer has nothing to do with knowing a specific programming language.
You hit the point Sir. I'm not exactly a newbie, I'd say I'm intermediate in C++. Yet I had hard times finding a job as a C++ developer in Quebec, so I became very hesitant, is it because of the difference in mentality or is it because C++ is becoming unwanted or more like a "niche". Hence I wanted to know whether it still is a viable option and worth my time and efforts, otherwise I'd switch to something else be it Java, .NET, Android, whatever. Thank you for your response.
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You hit the point Sir. I'm not exactly a newbie, I'd say I'm intermediate in C++. Yet I had hard times finding a job as a C++ developer in Quebec, so I became very hesitant, is it because of the difference in mentality or is it because C++ is becoming unwanted or more like a "niche". Hence I wanted to know whether it still is a viable option and worth my time and efforts, otherwise I'd switch to something else be it Java, .NET, Android, whatever. Thank you for your response.
You don't have to "switch", you can learn both. Try java too. Currently I'm working with C++ but worked with java for many years. The java language is extremely simple, not comparable to the complexity of C/C++. In case of java the hard work is rather learning the standard library and optionally j2ee related libs and a few opensource frameworks used by companies.
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You hit the point Sir. I'm not exactly a newbie, I'd say I'm intermediate in C++. Yet I had hard times finding a job as a C++ developer in Quebec, so I became very hesitant, is it because of the difference in mentality or is it because C++ is becoming unwanted or more like a "niche". Hence I wanted to know whether it still is a viable option and worth my time and efforts, otherwise I'd switch to something else be it Java, .NET, Android, whatever. Thank you for your response.
30 years ago I started working with C, then C++, then Pascal (Delphi, actually), then back to C++, a bit of Java, and in the meantime I'm back to C++ again. C++, while old, is not going to be replaced or retired any time soon. It may however be less prominently presented in press, or job offers, because fluctuation tends to be lower with developers in older, established languages - at least that is my experience.
GOTOs are a bit like wire coat hangers: they tend to breed in the darkness, such that where there once were few, eventually there are many, and the program's architecture collapses beneath them. (Fran Poretto)
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Hello all, I wanted to hear your opinion whether C++ has a future. I think the answer is kinda complex. Will the Desktop itself be available in the future? Or will programs (i.e. instructions) and data be streamed from the cloud to a lightweight "terminal" (similar to Google Chrombook)and hence replacing our familiar desktops of today? Hence will C++ be even needed in that case? Or will something else, say Java, be running everything around? Thank you for your responses. Hadi
C++ will never go away. It is still the best choice when performance and/or determinism matter. However, having been on the job market twice in the last two years (was working for highly unstable companies) finding C++ jobs is getting more difficult. I've also observed that Java is primarily holding on because of Android. The big boy is .NET and for most programming--which is Web and database front ends--it makes a lot of sense. That said, you'll still find that C++ is used heavily for server back ends. I plan on holding onto C++ for the rest of my career, which is hopefully no more than a decade. Were I ten years younger, I probably wouldn't bother--the big bucks are now in web services.
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Hello all, I wanted to hear your opinion whether C++ has a future. I think the answer is kinda complex. Will the Desktop itself be available in the future? Or will programs (i.e. instructions) and data be streamed from the cloud to a lightweight "terminal" (similar to Google Chrombook)and hence replacing our familiar desktops of today? Hence will C++ be even needed in that case? Or will something else, say Java, be running everything around? Thank you for your responses. Hadi
Hadi wrote:
I wanted to hear your opinion whether C++ has a future.
Your other responses illustrates some confusion. Regardless of whether a language is used or not it doesn't reflect what a relatively limited marke tplace needs. There will be places that you can go where there will be NO jobs for developers. Doesn't matter what language you know. It is possible that some market places can become saturated and/or change significantly over time. And market places always are influenced by limited local events. For example if a consulting firm goes out of business in a relatively small town and dumps a lot of C++ developers into the market then finding a job in that language is going to be difficult for a while. The following is the best objective data that I have seen for a long time as a representative indication of language popularity. [^]
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C++ will never go away. It is still the best choice when performance and/or determinism matter. However, having been on the job market twice in the last two years (was working for highly unstable companies) finding C++ jobs is getting more difficult. I've also observed that Java is primarily holding on because of Android. The big boy is .NET and for most programming--which is Web and database front ends--it makes a lot of sense. That said, you'll still find that C++ is used heavily for server back ends. I plan on holding onto C++ for the rest of my career, which is hopefully no more than a decade. Were I ten years younger, I probably wouldn't bother--the big bucks are now in web services.
Actually I was wondering, should I learn JEE or .NET. .NET is attractive for its simplicity and the lesser steep learning curve than JEE, but what if suddenly Windows stops being relevant? Microsoft has problems at the moment and Google is trying to replace the whole Desktop thing with thin clients connected to the cloud. Maybe open source platforms are just safer.
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It has a future - I was first told in 1995 that I wouldn't have a job next year writing C++ applications and I'm still at it. Sun couldn't sell Java stations in the 1990s and even though I use a Chromebook [1] almost exclusively at home high performance apps on them usually have a chunk written in C++. I can't see anything replacing C++ (apart perhaps for C) in the embedded or OS spheres either.
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Actually I was wondering, should I learn JEE or .NET. .NET is attractive for its simplicity and the lesser steep learning curve than JEE, but what if suddenly Windows stops being relevant? Microsoft has problems at the moment and Google is trying to replace the whole Desktop thing with thin clients connected to the cloud. Maybe open source platforms are just safer.
The market share of Windows is beyond gargantuan. There is a reason the Server and Tools Division at Microsoft makes so much money. Many people don't respect how important Windows is in the corporate environment. Even if Microsoft went away tomorrow, the need for Windows developers would continue to ten, if not twenty, years. Microsoft is having problems in an entirely relative manner. Most companies would love to "suffer" Microsoft's problems. Ask yourself what kind of applications you want to write. What kind of company do you want to work for? Personally, I don't like working on applications where .NET or Java are genuinely the best choices. This is a decision you have to make for yourself. But don't worry about Microsoft going bankrupt any more than worrying about Oracle or IBM going bankrupt.
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You hit the point Sir. I'm not exactly a newbie, I'd say I'm intermediate in C++. Yet I had hard times finding a job as a C++ developer in Quebec, so I became very hesitant, is it because of the difference in mentality or is it because C++ is becoming unwanted or more like a "niche". Hence I wanted to know whether it still is a viable option and worth my time and efforts, otherwise I'd switch to something else be it Java, .NET, Android, whatever. Thank you for your response.
What I've found is that a lot of companies will build things that they think their customers want... so this includes using all of the new technologies so that they could look like they're on the bleeding edge of technology. Did they HAVE to use the new technologies, no, but they chose to do so because they think that's what will attract new customers. I remember when the "cloud" term became first popular, people were asking us if our applications were available on the "cloud". Well, it doesn't make sense because of what our company does, but somehow people want buzz terms. It's sad really, people would rather get buzz terms than results.