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At the company I work, we're trying to find some good C programmers.
They just don't seem to exist anymore.
There are a fair few candidates from India on visas - some of these are quite good, some not.
But where are the people born in this country with good C programming skills?
Or did they all end up working in London for a bank.
In their bedrooms, with the lights off and curtains closed, eating Pot Noodle and writing Objective-C apps for the iPhone... (and making a few quid too, probably)
Rachel
Or some of us have got fed up with trying to work out where we left that chunk of memory and buggered off into Project Management where we are now trying to find some missing finance!
(Got fed of of trying to write the smallest program to do something useful!)
In their bedrooms, with the lights off and curtains closed, eating Pot Noodle and writing Objective-C apps for the iPhone... (and making a few quid too, probably)
Do you know my mate Tristan??? Exactly as described - just to finish the picture, he looks like Harry Potter, never had a girlfriend (despite his best efforts)..... but is absolutely loaded.......
errrmm ever heard of outsourcing = no jobs in uk = no skills
Never done 'C' programming but was a good COBOL programmer once, he says showing his age 😆
I come from a C-programming background and certainly in my current role as a research / scientific programmer the demand for C has reduced dramatically. These days I work mostly in Python and only dip down to C or C++ when we want to speed up some low-level library routines (usually maths functions).
I think the universities are also moving away from the mid-level languages like C. I taught C and C++ for a number of years and the uni I was working for was just about to scrap those components in favour of Java and Perl when I left.
-j
We are still around... I'm mostly doing managed c++ and c# .net stuff now; but we still have c knocking around in legacy systems so I keep my hand in.
I have worked with a lot of Indian devs over here on working visas; I don't like it.. the problem is not their skill level, but a cultural issue with asking for help. All the ones I have worked with have been too keen to tell you they understand, but then to go away and do something different/wrong for want of admitting that they didn't quite get it. That is not to say there aren't plenty of devs born and bred in blighty who are just as shite!
Dave
Lots of C experience here, learnt it in 1985-ish but haven't used it for at least 5 years now.
didn't all their palm crystals turn black and they had to go to some sleep conference or something?
RobinL - Member
Never done 'C' programming but was a good COBOL programmer once, he says showing his age
My first program was written using a teletype and stored on this stuff 😥
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C programmer here.
The company I work for specialises in firmware for real time and embedded systems, so C is frequently the de facto choice and all our engineers must pass a C test before they are hired.
We write code for other companies, so you can email if that would be of interest luked2.
We're expensive though!
luked2 - MemberAt the company I work, we're trying to find some good C programmers.
They just don't seem to exist anymore.
There are a fair few candidates from India on visas - some of these are quite good, some not.
But where are the people born in this country with good C programming skills?
Or did they all end up working in London for a bank.
Personally, when i came out of uni I couldn't find a job at entry to mid level doing C so I took up Java/PHP/.net/DB development job to pay the bills. 3 years later, still doing it.
Despite doing a fair amount of linux kernel hacking in C at work, I wouldn't feel confident to take on a full-time C role any more.
I think this probably happens to a fair amount of C programmers.
they all work in the Games Industry good luck in prising them away.
they all work in the Games Industry good luck in prising them away.
Actually I'm currently curing cancer
(though admittedly I'm using C++ for most of this one)
I didn't think there was much money/demand for C these days; people I knew moved into java and .net type things.
he did say "good C Programmers" 😉
Now machines are so fast, just hack it all in Python - way quicker.
I didn't think there was much money/demand for C these days; people I knew moved into java and .net type things.
Actually [url= http://www.tiobe.com/index.php/content/paperinfo/tpci/index.html ]C is currently at number 2 in the TIOBE charts.[/URL]
he did say "good C Programmers"
Going on for fourteen years experience. I know my way around a void*.
DSP/comms software engineer here. I still use C...
...mostly for developing and maintaining our build tools for assembly code...
...which is what I spend the rest of my time writing.
The old skills aren't dead yet 😉
Visual Basic is at number 6, that's quite disturbing!
Currently write most of our stuff in C for an embedded firmware design consultancy.
If the OP is still looking and is based in an office next to Whinlatter for the same money as Cambridge.. do let me know.
/* Confidently raised hand from the back of STW forum */
I program in C full time, well mix in a bit of product design, but mostly program. Just off the back of 10 clear years in Z80 assembler, plus other niche bits and bobs. C for the last couple of years.
Looking forward to the exciting days of C++ sometime in the next 18 months. Our company is so behind the times, but fun if you love programming/hardware/gambling. Its an odd mix.
luked2, where are you hiring? I'm looking!
I'm a C programmer too. Mostly C, occasionally C++, recently forced to actually start learning Perl. There's still lots of C programming to be done for embedded systems, which is what I do. I'm not curing cancer but I am helping the Internet to work. 🙂
The company I work for specialises in firmware for real time and embedded systems, so C is frequently the de facto choice and all our engineers must pass a C test before they are hired.We write code for other companies, so you can email if that would be of interest luked2.
Same for my employers and I'm sure they're always happy to speak to new potential customers too!
We're expensive though!
We're remarkably good value for money but still full of experience.
We're hiring. We need solid C/C++ skills and preferably experience with embedded systems.
Minimum five years industrial experience. Based near Edinburgh.
Email in profile if anyone wants details.
Near Edinburgh? You don't mean Livingston, do you? Aargh!
Nope, not Livi.
Fife way, but I'd rather not be anymore specific than that here.
they all work in the Games Industry good luck in prising them away.
Yeah, that's what I'm doing, 7ish years of making games for consoles in C/C++. Doing a bit of dabbling in mobile platforms in my spare time but I think the markets are rapidly getting a bit too crammed to be honest.
Very eager to find a company in Scotland actually, there seems to be lots going on up there and the idea of biking on my back door excites me greatly. Lots of demand for C/C++ coders about at the minute? I might have to broaden my career choices slightly 🙂
@UrbanHiker - Cambridge; email me if serious.
errrmm ever heard of outsourcing = no jobs in uk = no skills
+1. My job was sent of to Delhi a few years back, although shortly afterwards they closed that office because it was too expensive. It's weird though that we're now seeing so many people from India. It all seems very mixed up.
It's hard to tell your kids to get a job in an industry that is so prone to this.
I think the way schools teach "ICT" doesn't help either. My eldest son started on the ICT GCSE course, aiming to do it a year early (had a broken arm so couldn't do PE). But we just gave up, it was such an utterly soul destroying course. It seemed to be designed to suck you dry of any kind of enthusiasm or interest in the subject, unless writing bogus user requirements documents and developing excel spreadsheets was the kind of thing that turned you on. I don't think C was even mentioned. Utterly pointless.
They've gone to sit with all the Cobol and Fortran programmers.
C.. tch!
utterly soul destroying... designed to suck you dry of any kind of enthusiasm.. writing bogus user requirements documents and developing excel spreadsheets.. don't think C was even mentioned.
Well at least the course seems to reflect industry experience then 😀
VB is ahead of C#? Ugh.
Pleased to see PHP and JavaScript on the way down though!
molgrips - Member
They've gone to sit with all the Cobol and Fortran programmers.C.. tch!
I'm programming in fortran right now. 🙁 What a waste of my life.
I'm programming in fortran right now. What a waste of my life.
I've done my fair share of Fortran (F77 with a bit of F66). I feel your pain.
Just out of a sad sick curiousity, is that Fortran66, Fortran77 or Fortran90 (or whatever it was called)?
I refused to use Fortran at uni. They were on F77 - I mean computer science changes really quickly, right.. so let's use a TWENTY FIVE year old programming language should we? 🙄
Fortran 77. I'm using gfortran compiler though which has allowed me to use a few features from f90. Inherited a massive load of code so have not been able to introduce any modulus so I have loads of common blocks. It's a right mess.
I'm not a trained programmer just picked stuff up as I've needed so have been trying hard over the last year or so to improve my practices which of course were really bad when I started. Do ok now with my new code but old stuff is awful!
I need to learn a useful language somehow.
molgrips - Member
I refused to use Fortran at uni. They were on F77 - I mean computer science changes really quickly, right.. so let's use a TWENTY FIVE year old programming language should we?
Inherited code, a lot of the metoffice runs on FORTRAN. In it's defence it is very quick for number crunching and supports complex numbers without any libraries.
People in our Physics dept were writing loads of code that'd take days to execute, using up valuable computing time. Mostly they were taking days because they had no idea how to optimise code, not being programmers.
Someone's code was going to take three weeks to run - the sys admin optimised it down to about 10 minutes 🙂
Complex numbers, whoop de doo!
I's rather install a library than put up with ancient langauges 🙂
This is the problem. I have no programming training and I have improved a lot but I'm sure improvements could be made but I have no idea! My code is such a mess what with having to bolt on new stuff to an already pretty ugly code and it would be hard to work out were to start, I've improved it on what it was though considering the additions I've made.
molgrips - Member
Complex numbers, whoop de doo!I's rather install a library than put up with ancient langauges
But do you want to rewrite a huge and complex code?
Sure. I'll send you the invoice later 🙂
My code is such a mess what with having to bolt on new stuff to an already pretty ugly code
That's why Object Orientation was invented 🙂 Not too popular in 1977 tho 🙂
Ha! Re. I'll pay you when you have finished 🙂
I've played with C++ and so much of my stuff would be much easier, I just wish I could use it for what I'm doing!
I've played with C++ and so much of my stuff would be much easier, I just wish I could use it for what I'm doing!
Rewrite bits of what you've got, one small piece at a time.
Don't use C++, it's the Devil's language. It will lead you step by delightful step to destruction.
Use C for stuff that needs to be fast, and Python/Lua/Perl/... for anything that's just doing management/text mangling/setup.
The internal politics may well be the hardest part.