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Ilya Dudkin at Skywell Software has a story
Top 7 Dying Programming Languages to Avoid Studying in 2019 –2020.
Each language gets a paragraph's treatment as to why he thinks these languages are dead or dying. Those languages are:
- Visual Basic
- Objective-C
- Perl
- COBOL
- CoffeeScript
- Scala
- Lisp
Do you agree with his assessment? Are there any other language(s) you would add to the list?
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Top 7 Dying Programming Languages to Avoid Studying in 2019 –2020
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The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
Everything is worth precisely as much as a belch, the difference being
that a belch is more satisfying.
-- Ingmar Bergman
(Score: 5, Insightful) by SomeGuy on Wednesday March 11 2020, @10:20PM (16 children)
Just because something has fallen out of favor, does not mean it is not worth studying. It just means you probably won't be a rock star programmer with it, but rather a balding long-termer who keeps the shit running while the damn kids keep spinning their wheels trying to re-write the entire codebase (with no documented business requirements) in whatever hardly-applicable tool has the bullshit buzzword of the day.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday March 12 2020, @01:57AM (12 children)
On the contrary, obscure knowledge will absolutely make you a rock star to those who have a use for it. Knowing what everyone else knows will have you punching a clock.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by DannyB on Thursday March 12 2020, @03:01AM (10 children)
I use a widely used language (Java) in business. It's widely known and widely used. I'm good at it. I don't punch a clock. But there is that reality that you are more replaceable with a commodity skill. Fortunately I know a lot more than just Java, including some of the much older tech that was used, and still is used by some of our acquired companies. I hear what you're saying and it is right except maybe the clock punching part. I am a professional and looked up to. But I'm not a junior developer.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday March 12 2020, @05:03AM (9 children)
Eh, IMO salaried is even worse than punching a clock if you have any kind of a work ethic*. Independent contractor all the way, yo. There's a lot less folks contracting them but there's a lot less me too.
* My work ethic goes like:
When you're working, burn the candle at both ends.
When you're not, dick off just as hard.
Never half-ass something; always full-ass it.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by EETech1 on Thursday March 12 2020, @10:15AM (1 child)
There's so many coronavirus related gigs with "need it yesterday" timelines that I'm getting paid my overtime rates for regular time, and 2x for overtime.
I wasn't even being a greedy bastard, they offered it to me to get me to drop everything else I was doing.
I even sweetened the deal and told them I'll do as much as I can from home for straight overtime, so they have a list of items to complete on site, a list of homework for me to do, and a desire to get me back home at a reasonable time.
Independent contracting is the way to go if you have the skills to do whatever is needed, and the determination to get it done no matter what.
Nobody is going to pay you $2 - $3 a minute to screw around, drink coffee, and miss deadlines, but they will gladly pay you $2 a minute to write software, or design machinery while you watch you kids play / sleep / etc...
But ..
If there's 10 things on my list for tomorrow, they expect all 10 things to be done tomorrow, no excuses, even if I have to help someone finish their work so I can finish mine.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Friday March 13 2020, @11:09AM
On the nose. Which is why self-employment is ill suited to so many. They're spoiled to being able to make excuses and not having to take responsibility. You don't get to do either if you want to make it as an independent contractor. Not ever.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Thursday March 12 2020, @03:00PM (6 children)
I've been pretty happy with salaried. I have regular pay. I have flexibility to manage my time. I have certain goals I am expected to achieve. I have very flexible work hours. Many people in my company work from home, I choose not to.
I've had a wee bit of independent contractor, because it came looking for me. It was fun and profitable. I'll stick with salaried senior developer.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Friday March 13 2020, @11:44AM (5 children)
It's a little easier and a lot safer, yeah. That's about all it has going for it over independent contractor though. I might feel differently about it if I had a family depending on me but probably not since I know how much work I could have if I didn't turn it down.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday March 13 2020, @05:53PM (4 children)
Safer is probably the biggest thing. Good benefits. 5 weeks paid vacation plus personal days. (Maybe that's a Canadian thing?) Profit sharing bonus plan that pays real actual money.
In a nutshell: I can't complain.
I'm not thinking about what my next gig will be. I can focus on code and other fires to put out.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Friday March 13 2020, @06:34PM (2 children)
If I weren't easy for me to find or create as much work as I want, I'd think up something else instead of worrying. I have too much of an engineer/coder's mindset; I think of solutions instead of worrying about what could happen. Except with actual code, strangely. Code is one thing I try to be pretty meticulous about.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday March 13 2020, @06:40PM (1 child)
I think any of us on the spectrum are detailed and meticulous.
People pay good money for that.
As long as you have enough social skills to be able to work with other people.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Friday March 13 2020, @10:35PM
Thankfully I never took work that required all that much in the way of social skills except when I had to hire a few folks. Ordinary old extracurricular social situations don't bug me at all and I can do professional well enough for contract work or something like SN but working with idiots who don't know they're idiots every day just ain't in my color wheel anymore.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by EETech1 on Saturday March 14 2020, @12:46AM
I'm making more in one day than I made in a week being salaried. I was even non-exempt, so I made overtime.
I'm making enough for 4 weeks paid vacation for every week I work.
If it takes me a month or two to find more work, I'll consider it vacation, and just roll with it.
I'm at the point where I have to turn down business. I have two machines that customers want, I just can't commit the hours right now. I sell them cheap, but without a fixed delivery date, so I have work to do in between my work. I'm not ready to take on employees, so they get whatever time I have left over.
I can still get a couple free lunches a week from vendors, so I'm good lol
(Score: 2) by Chocolate on Friday March 13 2020, @06:52AM
Like COBOL
Bit-choco-coin anyone?
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Beryllium Sphere (r) on Thursday March 12 2020, @03:57AM (2 children)
If a language forces you to learn a new way of thinking (e.g. Prolog) then it is worth studying.
(Score: 1) by nitehawk214 on Thursday March 12 2020, @05:38PM (1 child)
Unless that way of thinking is stupid.
"Don't you ever miss the days when you used to be nostalgic?" -Loiosh
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Thursday March 12 2020, @05:40PM
Don't you have to study it to conclude it is stupid?
Prolog and systems like it (minikanren) have useful applications. Just maybe not for everyday general purpose programming.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.