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Not a C++ engineer here, but I would think that the vast majority of C++ gigs around are legacy systems - in which case most of the work would probably be bug t

Not a C++ engineer here, but I would think that the vast majority of C++ gigs around are legacy systems - in which case most of the work would probably be bug triage, that likely doesn't call for more than "fix my immediate problem" thinking. Obviously there's still a lot of greenfield C++ work out there too, but I would expect that it's no longer the lion's share (C# is very much getting to this stage of it's life too). I would guess that the top-level C++ folks have by-and-large moved on to those greenfield projects naturally as it's where their skills are most required, and where the most money is available to pay for them (e.g. fintech).

carlmr 8y ago
Embedded is huge for C/C++ and there are still many greenfield projects. Embedded (real-time, safety critical) usually requires GCless languages, which already rules out the vast majority of super productive new languages. I wish we moved to Rust (or even Ada), because most of the bugs I see occurring couldn't happen there. But embedded compilers are usually lagging a bit.
WalterGR 8y ago
Obviously there's still a lot of greenfield C++ work out there too, but I would expect that it's no longer the lion's share (C# is very much getting to this stage of it's life too). Given that C# is the go-to language for new development on Windows, and with Microsoft now officially supporting cross-platform C# and .NET, I find that very hard to believe. What’s the trajectory of - say - new Github projects that use C#/.NET?
ska 8y ago
Sure there is a lot of legacy work but I'm not sure it's the "vast" majority - at least, not out of proportion with other older general purpose languages. It's still used in a lot of new embedded work. It's still the best option for a lot of HPC and numerics. Some of this work ends up being targeted mostly for inclusion in another language runtime, sure, but it's still new work.

carlmr 8y ago

Embedded is huge for C/C++ and there are still many greenfield projects. Embedded (real-time, safety critical) usually requires GCless languages, which already rules out the vast majority of super productive new languages. I wish we moved to Rust (or even Ada), because most of the bugs I see occurring couldn't happen there. But embedded compilers are usually lagging a bit.

WalterGR 8y ago

Obviously there's still a lot of greenfield C++ work out there too, but I would expect that it's no longer the lion's share (C# is very much getting to this stage of it's life too). Given that C# is the go-to language for new development on Windows, and with Microsoft now officially supporting cross-platform C# and .NET, I find that very hard to believe. What’s the trajectory of - say - new Github projects that use C#/.NET?

ska 8y ago

Sure there is a lot of legacy work but I'm not sure it's the "vast" majority - at least, not out of proportion with other older general purpose languages. It's still used in a lot of new embedded work. It's still the best option for a lot of HPC and numerics. Some of this work ends up being targeted mostly for inclusion in another language runtime, sure, but it's still new work.