Developing in C++

[MyUserName]

What do graduates learn these days? For a while it was all Java, and that contributed massively to the rise of Java - Java became more popular and C++ declined because Java was all that new graduates knew. Maybe these days they're learning Python.

I wish they would just learn to program. Use C or something that does not hold your hand and face up to the face that programming is difficult to do well because you cannot always rely on fancy tools to do the job for you!

[MyUserName]

*I kid you not, some of them can't cope with printf.

*Bangs head on desk*

[darmstadt]

What do graduates learn these days? For a while it was all Java, and that contributed massively to the rise of Java - Java became more popular and C++ declined because Java was all that new graduates knew. Maybe these days they're learning Python.

Well my son who is studying Informatik here has to do the majority of his coursework in C++ although they do touch on other languages. When he was at school they were using Pascal...

[d000hg]

Fair comment, but...

...won't some of those dinosaurs be retiring soon, creating a skills shortage?

How many school kids & recent graduates do you think would be bothered making the effort to learn C++ rather than just going down the C# route?

For people in their 30s, C++ is still mainstream enough that you'll have to wait 10-20 years for them to retire.

What do graduates learn these days? For a while it was all Java, and that contributed massively to the rise of Java - Java became more popular and C++ declined because Java was all that new graduates knew. Maybe these days they're learning Python.

Nothing wrong with Python if you want to teach programming. However I think it's still a mix and varies a lot from place to place. C++ & native code is making something of a comeback driven by iOS development (and Windows phone to a smaller degree) and is still the mainstay of the non-casual games industry so they are going to be teaching C++ to some degree for the foreseeable future.

I'd suggest one would be better learning Python or several niche languages than C++... fewer gigs but fewer people. All this big-data crap is the rage so why don't you learn node.js?

[VectraMan]

Nothing wrong with Python if you want to teach programming.

There is because Python doesn't have static types (it also makes whitespace significant ignoring the principles of virtually every other programming language). Can you imagine letting some young, fresh faced graduate who's only experienced dynamic languages loose on some C++, or Java or C# for that matter? His first question will be "what does int mean?".

Whereas somebody who's done C++ is not going to struggle to pick up simpler languages. If university is for anything it's for giving students a wide range of knowledge, even if most go on to use a narrow subset of that for the actual business of earning a living.