whats the average age of programmers on here

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My theory is most Universities are teaching Java not .Net, but this may
start to change because of competition between schools. VB and ASP coders,
who may have been around for a while, feel the need to use more current
technology so they switch to .Net.

BTW I'm 40
 
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You're not the youngest - I am 14 and a half :). At the moment I am using the
free beta of visual c#.
 
Super Fan,
I can't believe someone is actually arrogant or stupid enough to make that
comment. I've been programming for 24 years. So you'd think I was late 40's,
early 50's, right? Wrong! Try 38. Started when I was 14. A lot like many of
the other people I've seen respond to this thread. .Net is the "evolution" of
MS's vision for C++, ASP, COM, etc. THAT is why you see a lot of "older"
programmers moving to it instead of Java. You're probably to young to know
this, but back in the 80's (that's 1980's, not 1880's), the industry had a
saying, which was "You don't get fired for buying Big Blue" - IBM to you
younguns.). In the 90's, the saying switched to "You don't get fired for
buying Microsoft". And that saying is still true today. You don't buck a
company that runs 85% of the world's computers and expect to stay employed
long. For many, it's simple economics. We like to eat and feed our families.
For others, it's the technology. MS is trying to do something noone else has
done before. Write it in any language, follow the transportable FCL rules,
and it will work. That's pretty neat stuff. And they're doing it a lot more
successfully than Sun did in the early days of Java with their "write once
run anywhere" philosophy. I've programmed in all the languages you mentioned
and the above reasons are why I chose .Net. Check your facts before you make
blanket statements!

Russ Howard

Super Fan said:
No, what I mean is that the average age of .net programmers is like 50.

Which makes me think that all the younger programmers use java, and .net
is just a way for old COM c++ programmers to do java.
Click to expand...
 
Josh,
Welcome to your world! (However you want to create it) That is the beauty of
programming. You can make the computer do whatever you want and are only
limited by your imagination. Unless of course you have to work for a real
company with budgets and deadlines. then you pretty much create what your
boss tells you to or you don't stay employed long. I started programming in
1980, when I was 14,. So, I know a little of where you're coming from.
Programming has been a GREAT career for me. But, unfortunately, it's not
always as fun as it could be. However, if you keep your love of it at the
front of your mind at all times, there is far more good than bad in
programming. As for your questions, John was right on most things in his
response to you. C++ is a great way to start coding (been doing it 15 years).
Also, a lot of heavy duty hardware (video card processors and other game
hardware) are accessed through software libraries written in C++ (think
Direct X, and OpenGL). There is probably some assembler involved, too, but
there are very few programmers who do assembly programming. So, the video
library people wrapped those routines in C++ for the rest of us. As for the
differences from .net, I'm surprised noone mentioned the big one - garbage
collection. A source of many C++ bugs is either stomping on memory or trying
to use unallocated pointers (you'll understand those terms more as you get
into the language). In C++, the programmer is totally responsible for
allocating and deallocating memory. In .Net, except in the very largest of
applications, the .Net framework takes care of the majority of memory cleanup
for you. Hope this helps.

Russ Howard
 
Nicolas,
You can make legacy Visual C++ applications .Net Framework aware so that
they "play nice" with it. Also, included in the Visual Studio .Net IDE is
Visual C++.Net. If you have VS.Net or VS.Net 2003, check your documentation.
Either that or go to amazon and do a book search on "C++ .Net". It'll list
268 results.

Russ Howard
 
I go to college in Indiana and they teach Java to the computer science majors
and .Net to people that simply need a few science credits.
I'm 21
Justin
 
33 here, but in my own little reality I'm 21 and still thinking that I
know everything and I will never die! ;-)

(ok ok, fine, so I'm a little scared of my own mortality, what of it?! lol)

~d
 
33

ooh, and Superfan etc.
yer comments so far sound like you still believe in SuperMan!
Wake up to yourself!
 
55 year old

Jon Skeet said:
I'm intrigued as to how you come to that conclusion, when only two
replies have suggested an age of over 50, and plenty have been
significantly under.

The average of the exact numbers given so far (i.e. not counting Cor
and JD, who haven't given actual ages) is just under 38, which I hardly
think is particularly old. It's only about half way through a normal
professional life.

I'm 28, btw, just to throw my hat into the ring.
Click to expand...
 
49 yrs for me, resting here in the geriatric ward!
Click to expand...

47 for me. And I spend a remarkable amount of time telling people half my
age to use newer software tools! They all want to time-travel back to 1985
or so, when the social prestige of programmers was at an all-time high.
 
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