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To me, the difference feels like in one scenario you are solving problems fundamental to computing and the other you are struggling to wrangle with a dumb arbit
by Dig1t 7y ago
To me, the difference feels like in one scenario you are solving problems fundamental to computing and the other you are struggling to wrangle with a dumb arbitrary API that someone made up. The former is much more exciting to me, and I suspect most CS people. That's not to say web development is all dumb arbitrary API's or you don't get to solve interesting problems, just much less cool/interesting IMO.
- rhn_mk1 7y agoWith the given example of working with threads, I don't get the feeling that the problem is somehow fundamental to computing. It would involve the somewhat-arbitrary threading interface, with decisions differing based on the API (WinAPI? POSIX? cooperative multithreading?) someone made up, with a set of locking primitives currently in vogue (mutexes? semaphores? lockless? message passing?). Having done a lot of systems programming, my main complaint is that I'm almost always dealing with other people's models. I might be coming across fundamental problems in algorithms, but those are a tiny part of my work.