whats the average age of programmers on here

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hmmm... im 18
my main stream in university is java sun, but on my own im doing .net
i guess ill still count (hope that wont screw up your average)
 
22, professional since 16, decent programmer since 13, first program at 9...
Still very immature, especially in discussion groups. :)

I've noticed it is somewhat harder for me to learn new things now at 22 than
when I was 16, even though I haven't gotten out of the habit of study and
such. Also I used to be able to handle slightly more complicated program
architecture and such in my head without getting fatigued or confused. Kinda
scares me a bit... I see why people would choose not to follow new technology
even without the points Muhammad mentioned.
 
Paul,
I've noticed it is somewhat harder for me to learn new things now at 22
than
when I was 16,
Click to expand...

That is probably as well because you know now what you did wrong then and
one of that was not checking the advices you got.

:-)

Cor
 
My first paying job was on an IBM 1130 mainframe like machine with 32 k user
memory and 32 k control memory. I had that problem all the time. I also had
to deal with having enough memory to buffer tape drive reads and have memory
to process. It lead to some fun memory swapping out to a tape drive some
times. We needed to build programs in such a way that portions of code could
be swapped in and out and still work since we did not have room for the
entire program to be in memory. We programmed in Fortran and 1130 assembler.
We also used line editors (they switched away from puch cards for
programming a few years before I got there although data entry was still puch
cards). Much happier now.

I am 47.

Bryan
 
My experience (30 plus years) has been that programmers adapt many, many
times during their career. After a while you start to realize the
programming languages are all almost the same. Concepts stay similar, the
syntax just changes. Some languages have a steeper learning curve than
others however.

I think, over time, if you want to stay in the business you evaluate your
situation and make appropriate skill set changes. You should always choose
what is the best fit for the situation at the time. To be a snob about java
or .NET or anything else places limits on you. Besides, every system has its
strong points. Why ignore that and make life harder on your self.

Bryan
 
Barman said:
My experience (30 plus years) has been that programmers adapt many, many
times during their career. After a while you start to realize the
programming languages are all almost the same. Concepts stay similar, the
syntax just changes. Some languages have a steeper learning curve than
others however.
Click to expand...

On the other hand, while many concepts stay similar, many idioms *do*
change. Some of the worst code I've seen has been by people who are
very comfortable with the idioms in one language and try to apply those
idioms to other languages and platforms.
I think, over time, if you want to stay in the business you evaluate your
situation and make appropriate skill set changes. You should always choose
what is the best fit for the situation at the time. To be a snob about java
or .NET or anything else places limits on you. Besides, every system has its
strong points. Why ignore that and make life harder on your self.
Click to expand...

Agreed.
 
Jon,
On the other hand, while many concepts stay similar, many idioms *do*
change. Some of the worst code I've seen has been by people who are
very comfortable with the idioms in one language and try to apply those
idioms to other languages and platforms.
Click to expand...
That is not often, in this we completly agree

:-)

Cor
 
Paul,

You don't. Sent more of this ages, I become feeling myself younger and
younger

:-)

Cor
 
35 - Neither... nor...
I think its extremely hard to draw any conclusions, since the context of our
evolution is probably so diferent. Which company you work for ? Who decides
the development tool ? What type of aplication: interface, hardware
interaction, web, DB, ...

Gooday.
 
I am 15, but my school is devoted to technology. I'm probably spoiled by all
the software I get for free through it. Anyway, I love to use VC++ (as much
as I know, that is).
 
I am 15, but my school is devoted to technology. I'm probably spoiled by
all
the software I get for free through it. Anyway, I love to use VC++ (as
much
as I know, that is).
Click to expand...

And go on with that, on your age you cannot do better than using that in my
opinion.

(When you need to be productive you have than enough knowledge to take a
more productive tool)

:-)

Cor
 
Just to throw a monkey wrench into the mean average here, I'm 19 :) And yes,
I count, I'm not just a hobbyist. I've been working commercially with a
company developing a large C# application for the past year and a half. And
my oh my do I have a love for C# and .NET. Kicks Java in the rear imo.

- Matt
 
Same Here: Every time i've used Java, its spat acid in my face. .NET on the
other hand is very friendly (I started with Beta 2 of Visual Studio.net
2002... and i've never looked back). I'm a mere 19 years old, programming
since age 10.

Maybe the old anecdote of older and wiser rings true?
 
43

I started out with a commodore 64, then the Amiga 500, then make the
jump over to an IBM PS/2 - 286.

I stuck with Microsoft languages because I found them to be high
quality and I liked their IDEs. I played around with Java but felt it
would take too long to master. Besides, eventually Microsoft will buy
the Java technology and incorporate it into Visual Studio and the
Framework. So I can still program in a fun language like VB.NET and
have the power of Java as well.
 
Hi,

I agree about Microsoft languages (although this is starting to change),
but I don't fully agree about Java. Although .NET is very friendly on
Microsoft-only machines, the "big guns" of the IT industry are still
choosing Java over .NET - for example HP, IBM, Nortel Networks, Veritas
and Dell. With the sudden increased interest in Mac OS/10 (based on
BSD), Sun's Solaris 10, and a gazillion flavours of Linux, Java has
started to look like a viable option again.
 
Gerry Hickman said:
Hi,

I agree about Microsoft languages (although this is starting to change),
but I don't fully agree about Java. Although .NET is very friendly on
Microsoft-only machines, the "big guns" of the IT industry are still
choosing Java over .NET - for example HP, IBM, Nortel Networks, Veritas
and Dell. With the sudden increased interest in Mac OS/10 (based on BSD),
Sun's Solaris 10, and a gazillion flavours of Linux, Java has started to
look like a viable option again.
Click to expand...

And if you're doing enterprise systems, it's still way more complete than
..NET when you factor in the maturity of technologies such as EJB. Here in
South Africa, Java positions outnumber .NET positions by 3/2, although this
is starting to shift as IT managers get caught up .NET hype. However, .NET
is closing the functionality gap (and in some areas has surpassed Java).

That said, the ability of Java to span multiple platforms is a fantastic
advantage that .NET will not easily overcome. I think the future will be
much more complex than MS buying Java (why would they want to is one
question). The relative success of .NET/Java will be largely tied to the
relative successes of Linux/Windows, and that will be differerentiated
between server and desktop. I can't see Linux beating MS on the desktop
anytime soon, and frankly web services make it moot as to what's running on
the server. I think you'll eventually find a preponderance of .NET client
applications, and a much more even split on the server.
 
Gerry,

In machine types you are right, however how about placed environments?

Although I think about it as struggling and often not succeeding in
replacing old legacy applications when we see how much Cobol running
environments there still are.

There are a lot of people here who have seen more times that the companies
with only big guns where choosing something else than Microsoft. And than
loose because that their guns could not shoot at all that what was needed.

Cor
 
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