No, I don't expect that and I do believe in the law of diminishing
returns. But some languages are part of the basic skillset of every
modern developer. E.g. one mainstream statically typed app/systems
language (C/C++/D/C#/Java/Ada/Object Pascal/Scala), one scripting
language
(Bash/Python/Ruby/Perl/PHP/Javascript/Lua/...), one "pure" language
(Lisp/
Scheme/ML/Haskell/Prolog/...). Am I wrong, you only need to know how to
program in C/C++/Java/D and make/microemacs/.bat scripts?
Of course, at least some degree of knowledge in these 3 areas is a big
plus.
2) I find it hard to believe he is qualified to criticize university
degrees world wide. For instance Bruno probably comes from Europe (which
is not a homogenic single country). Second, the quality of degrees and
courses varies -- without active participation it's impossible to give
accurate, objective statements about the educational system. In every
place I've worked in the senior workers always mention how the young
generations don't learn any useful stuff these days (polluting chainsaws
instead of axes etc.). This is universal, it also happens outside
software engineering. The rants of old men and women.
You are giving too much value to universities/schools, just 3-5 years and
they take much more than they give.
Graduating is not the end, it is a start.
Well... this is my experience. :)
Some things can be extrapolated from the evolution so far:
- compilers will catch more errors and produce faster code
- in popular languages the abstraction become higher and higher
- more languages will appear
- in 10 or 20 or 30 years most systems are multicore
Now, how can you know whether language X (e.g. Haskell) will be suitable
in the future environment? How do you know which languages are worth
studying if you don't get the basics of programming language theory? How
can we expect one to *design* relevant new languages without these
skills?
I got no idea what is going to happen one year later in this retard (not
you :P ) world really.
In this world you can hit jackpot with :
- a search engine.
- a web page you can post videos where you can get racist comments for
anything you post.
- a web page you can post links, add names to your "friend" list.
- a web page you can post links/chat faster/cuter.
And people would think these are grand ideas.
A world, where using internet/coding make you nerd/antisocial but
using/connecting these 4 make you social.
.... anyways!
A language should be there to solve problems i got right now, it might be
obsolete the next day, who knows.
*cheers
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