5 ms·

You would assume incorrectly.

enraged_camel 11y ago
Why is that? C++ is over 30 years old, whereas JavaScript is 20 years old. Besides, the latter surged in popularity only recently. Based on these facts alone, we can comfortably assume that experienced C++ developers are older on average. I can see why this is a controversial assumption though.
- mattmanser 11y ago
  Seriously, please drop it. Javascript is not used to code games much, C++ is. Javascript is pretty awful performance wise. Also, porting a whole code base to another language at this stage in the game is such a colossal task. Are you even a developer? I'm not sure you realise how infeasible what you're suggesting is.
  - irascible 11y ago
    emscripten would like to have a word with you. Also, Javascript is one of the most heavily optimized dynamic languages in existence, and has orders of magnitude more code and programmers using/written in it, than java, scala, ruby, lua, etc. Rewriting any game in javascript is imho a great idea. (I am a C/C++ game developer with ~25 years of experience.)
    - obstinate 11y ago
      Orders of magnitude more code written in it than Java? Hohoho good one. HTH: http://www.tiobe.com/index.php/content/paperinfo/tpci/index.html http://www.tiobe.com/index.php/content/paperinfo/tpci/index.... http://githut.info http://githut.info
      - irascible 11y ago
        Java may have been a stretch.. but think about how many web apps have been written.. and consider that a large %age of user time is spent in the browser who's language IS javascript.. Ive removed java from my systems since oracle ganked it. Java is used in lots of business/banking software, true.. but even the tiobe charts u linked show it declining in popularity.. contrasting w js being language of the year 2014. As for the other DYNAMIC languages.. it's no contest.
        obstinate 11y ago
        It wasn't a "stretch." It was flat out wrong.
    - simoncion 11y ago
      > Rewriting any game in javascript is imho a great idea. How do you deal with the fact that the only native numeric type is a 64bit float? Space Engineers currently uses floats as the basis for their world coordinate system. Things get really bumpy when you get far away from [0,0,0].
      - irascible 11y ago
        32/64 bit float is the native float type on the cpu you are running on.. hence you can't really claim "native" support for larger types.. if you mean native in terms of being able to write a+b for a numeric type, then that eliminates all languages that don't have operator overloading..
        simoncion 11y ago
        I mean "native" in terms of what's supported by the language itself, out of the box. C and C++ offer -at a minimum- the following numeric types: * signed and unsigned integers in a variety of widths * 32 and 64-bit floating point numbers JavaScript offers: * 64-bit floating point numbers When performing integer math, JavaScript's numeric type is only safe for arithmetic operations between -((2^53)-1) and +((2^53)-1). Now that we have that out of the way, my original question remains unanswered. :)
        ectoplasm 11y ago
        In general 54-bit signed ints are enough for games. Floats are more common for math.
        simoncion 11y ago
        Cool. Many contemporary games are multi-threaded out of necessity. How would you deal with JavaScript's single-threaded, single-process model of execution? Experimental features like Web Workers?
        11y ago
  - honest_joe 11y ago
    This is not a game that requires the level of precision one would get with C++ (yet it sucks performance wise even when it's being programmed in C++).
- AdieuToLogic 11y ago
  Your stated assumption was: I'd assume that intermediate and experienced C++ developers are probably older on average, and are unlikely to be interested in developing games. And that is an incorrect assumption. A non-trivial amount of current game development is done in C++. Couple that with the fact that to have the games considered "AAA" on the market now requires advanced techniques employed in the language producing them and that C++ is a frequent choice results in the invalidation of your statement (not harshing you here BTW). It doesn't hurt my case that I am an experienced "advanced C++" developer which makes video games either tho ;-).
- TeMPOraL 11y ago
  Older on average than JS programmers, that's a reasonable assumption if you also assume that the "surge in popularity" brought a ton of kids to JS. But that they're older in general on average (i.e. not a lot of young C++ developers)? I would doubt that. Moreover, C++ isn't outdated, it's mature. There aren't any grand new CS discoveries that are in JS but C++ maintainers haven't heard of yet. As for "older = unlikely to be interested in developing games", I don't see where you get that from. It's like saying "older people are unlikely to be interested in writing books / making movies".
- xorcist 11y ago
  Because you only learn a language at a certain age, and only if the language in question is brand new? That's doesn't make sense (and that's an understatement to be nice).

Why is that? C++ is over 30 years old, whereas JavaScript is 20 years old. Besides, the latter surged in popularity only recently. Based on these facts alone, we can comfortably assume that experienced C++ developers are older on average. I can see why this is a controversial assumption though.

mattmanser 11y ago
Seriously, please drop it. Javascript is not used to code games much, C++ is. Javascript is pretty awful performance wise. Also, porting a whole code base to another language at this stage in the game is such a colossal task. Are you even a developer? I'm not sure you realise how infeasible what you're suggesting is.
- irascible 11y ago
  emscripten would like to have a word with you. Also, Javascript is one of the most heavily optimized dynamic languages in existence, and has orders of magnitude more code and programmers using/written in it, than java, scala, ruby, lua, etc. Rewriting any game in javascript is imho a great idea. (I am a C/C++ game developer with ~25 years of experience.)
  - obstinate 11y ago
    Orders of magnitude more code written in it than Java? Hohoho good one. HTH: http://www.tiobe.com/index.php/content/paperinfo/tpci/index.html http://www.tiobe.com/index.php/content/paperinfo/tpci/index.... http://githut.info http://githut.info
    - irascible 11y ago
      Java may have been a stretch.. but think about how many web apps have been written.. and consider that a large %age of user time is spent in the browser who's language IS javascript.. Ive removed java from my systems since oracle ganked it. Java is used in lots of business/banking software, true.. but even the tiobe charts u linked show it declining in popularity.. contrasting w js being language of the year 2014. As for the other DYNAMIC languages.. it's no contest.
      - obstinate 11y ago
        It wasn't a "stretch." It was flat out wrong.
  - simoncion 11y ago
    > Rewriting any game in javascript is imho a great idea. How do you deal with the fact that the only native numeric type is a 64bit float? Space Engineers currently uses floats as the basis for their world coordinate system. Things get really bumpy when you get far away from [0,0,0].
    - irascible 11y ago
      32/64 bit float is the native float type on the cpu you are running on.. hence you can't really claim "native" support for larger types.. if you mean native in terms of being able to write a+b for a numeric type, then that eliminates all languages that don't have operator overloading..
      - simoncion 11y ago
        I mean "native" in terms of what's supported by the language itself, out of the box. C and C++ offer -at a minimum- the following numeric types: * signed and unsigned integers in a variety of widths * 32 and 64-bit floating point numbers JavaScript offers: * 64-bit floating point numbers When performing integer math, JavaScript's numeric type is only safe for arithmetic operations between -((2^53)-1) and +((2^53)-1). Now that we have that out of the way, my original question remains unanswered. :)
        ectoplasm 11y ago
        In general 54-bit signed ints are enough for games. Floats are more common for math.
        simoncion 11y ago
        Cool. Many contemporary games are multi-threaded out of necessity. How would you deal with JavaScript's single-threaded, single-process model of execution? Experimental features like Web Workers?
        11y ago
- honest_joe 11y ago
  This is not a game that requires the level of precision one would get with C++ (yet it sucks performance wise even when it's being programmed in C++).
AdieuToLogic 11y ago
Your stated assumption was: I'd assume that intermediate and experienced C++ developers are probably older on average, and are unlikely to be interested in developing games. And that is an incorrect assumption. A non-trivial amount of current game development is done in C++. Couple that with the fact that to have the games considered "AAA" on the market now requires advanced techniques employed in the language producing them and that C++ is a frequent choice results in the invalidation of your statement (not harshing you here BTW). It doesn't hurt my case that I am an experienced "advanced C++" developer which makes video games either tho ;-).
TeMPOraL 11y ago
Older on average than JS programmers, that's a reasonable assumption if you also assume that the "surge in popularity" brought a ton of kids to JS. But that they're older in general on average (i.e. not a lot of young C++ developers)? I would doubt that. Moreover, C++ isn't outdated, it's mature. There aren't any grand new CS discoveries that are in JS but C++ maintainers haven't heard of yet. As for "older = unlikely to be interested in developing games", I don't see where you get that from. It's like saying "older people are unlikely to be interested in writing books / making movies".
xorcist 11y ago
Because you only learn a language at a certain age, and only if the language in question is brand new? That's doesn't make sense (and that's an understatement to be nice).