Python Dominates, But Developers Are Adding New Skills To Stand Out (zdnet.com) 18
An anonymous reader writes: Ransomware is driving developer interest in cybersecurity while the Internet of Things and games development has spurred more interest in 35-year-old programming language C++, according to O'Reilly Media's 2021 learning platform analysis. However, it could the case that developers are looking at some newer languages to give them the edge. O'Reilly, a developer-focused education content provider, creates an analysis of search terms and content modules consumed on its learning platform each year to reveal developer trends. Content usage is an aggregate measurement of "units viewed" across all forms, including online-training courses, books, videos, online conferences, and other products.
The topic of cybersecurity has grown significantly on the platform, likely as a result of the high-profile ransomware attack on Colonial Pipeline, and software supply chain attacks on customers of SolarWinds and IT management firm Kaseya. Content usage on ransomware grew 270% over the past year, according to O'Reilly, while privacy grew 90%, identity was up 50%, and application security was up 45%. Developers building Internet of Things products and games are boosting interest in the C++ programming language. Software quality firm Tiobe has also noted a recent surge in interest in C++. While interest in C++ did see a noteworthy rise, Python and Java still dominate O'Reilly's platform usage. O'Reilly says it has seen usage of content about Mozilla-hatched Rust and Google-backed Go "growing rapidly." Both are popular for systems and infrastructure programming. Rust in particular is being used in place of C++ to help avoid memory-related security issues. It's being used at Microsoft, AWS and Google, and has been positioned as the second official language for the Linux kernel.
The topic of cybersecurity has grown significantly on the platform, likely as a result of the high-profile ransomware attack on Colonial Pipeline, and software supply chain attacks on customers of SolarWinds and IT management firm Kaseya. Content usage on ransomware grew 270% over the past year, according to O'Reilly, while privacy grew 90%, identity was up 50%, and application security was up 45%. Developers building Internet of Things products and games are boosting interest in the C++ programming language. Software quality firm Tiobe has also noted a recent surge in interest in C++. While interest in C++ did see a noteworthy rise, Python and Java still dominate O'Reilly's platform usage. O'Reilly says it has seen usage of content about Mozilla-hatched Rust and Google-backed Go "growing rapidly." Both are popular for systems and infrastructure programming. Rust in particular is being used in place of C++ to help avoid memory-related security issues. It's being used at Microsoft, AWS and Google, and has been positioned as the second official language for the Linux kernel.
Anyone else think it's crazy (Score:3)
This was the pre-H1-B days though. Before the Dark Times of Unlimited Cheap Labor. I do wonder if India & China's plummeting birthrates will mean they're going to be less likely to let their populations immigrate, but that won't slow outsourcing.
Meanwhile back to putting in 10, 20 sometimes even 30 or 40 hours of free labor a month to keep my skills current so we "stand out". On top of the 50+ hour work weeks. And if you don't when the axe inevitably comes down due to decisions you had zero say in, good luck finding a new job!
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Meanwhile back to putting in 10, 20 sometimes even 30 or 40 hours of free labor a month to keep my skills current so we "stand out".
this sounds like an approach you think you have to take that you really don't have to - or in the very least doesn't make a difference
I manage to stay up to date in my c++ field/skillset by learning stuff on the job or in parallel between tasks. I don't think there's much value in learning stuff beyond the core field skills or state of the art unless it's inevitable that it's s
Re:Anyone else think it's crazy (Score:5, Insightful)
I think as long as technology continues to change, and the market continues to make way for new fads, that the adapting and keeping our skills up to date will be standard practice in the industry.
If we were pharmacists we would hopefully be armed with more knowledge about new drugs, dosage, and methods of administration than what we were taught in school 20 years ago.
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I keep my skills up to date by volunteering at work for everything I possibly can and never saying that I can't do something. There are so many buzzwords on my resume that I don't answer my phone anymore.
If we were pharmacists ...
How many pharmacists started learning their trade when they were in 2nd grade?
How many programmers had a decade of experience before even starting college? Most. All the good ones, anyways. That's the part we don't get paid for.
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I keep my skills up to date by volunteering at work for everything I possibly can and never saying that I can't do something. There are so many buzzwords on my resume that I don't answer my phone anymore.
If we were pharmacists ...
How many pharmacists started learning their trade when they were in 2nd grade?
How many programmers had a decade of experience before even starting college? Most. All the good ones, anyways. That's the part we don't get paid for.
Have some humble pie. You're no different than any other starving artist with a passion. So you started on the drums at 6, who cares. You don't get paid for that.
You get paid for how relevant you are. The passion is its own reward.
Chasing something new each day to stay relevant is depressing. You couldn't do it without passion.
It's a fortunate position to be in, but nothing to brag about, because you're at the center of two strong opposing forces.
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My company *is* paying for it. I have been programming for over 30 years as a hobby, I am just now finally able to work on finishing up my degree, on the company dime no less, and will transfer to software engineering within my company.
People used to have long-term employment (Score:4, Insightful)
From my peer group, it seems to have improved in the last 5-10 years, but that's actually due to consolidation, which I view as potentially scary. You can't hop jobs if Google, MS, Oracle, etc buy all the startups in your area.
But regardless, tech companies seem to have applied that "Just-In-Time" theory of inventory management that fucked us over during the pandemic and is the main reason supply chain issues were so severe and applied it to personnel as well. They would routinely hire as quickly as they could and then lay us off as quickly as they could. The employees were technically full-time, but basically contract workers with full time pay (which is usually lower), health insurance, but no overtime. My company shows me no loyalty and thus I show them none as well. As soon as I get an offer for a nicer job with nicer pay (and I get e-mails from recruiters daily promising as such), I'm jumping because my manager has never invested time in me and barely knows my name. My company, while investing more than most conventional businesses, isn't matching the big tech norm of perks.
So yeah, I work to keep my skills updated because while I like having a big paycheck, my job otherwise leaves a lot to be desired and I am optimistic other employers do better. I know this because our best tend to leave my current employer and tell me how much better it is at other places. Now that my kids are getting a little older and less needy, I can focus on myself, invest in my skillset, and soon get higher pay and better treatment.
We talk about being a capitalist system all day, but we're not. We're lorded over by the corporations and their leaders when the equation is in their favor and when it's not, they whine and people shit on workers, like Red State-ers are doing now, who whine stupid shit like "no one wants to work" when in reality, we just have options.
It's simply Supply and Demand. Since the Supply dried up due to people actually enforcing immigration restrictions due to COVID or just simply skilled H1Bs not wanting to work here or people retiring early, the demand is greater than the supply. The problem is the companies with the demand are greedy and lazy and entitled. They think offering a job with a median wage for their sector is enough when their competitors are doing what they can to make the employees happy, ranging from free food in the office to nice programs to bonuses and stipends to paying above median wage. We're all brushing up our skills because the companies that have figured out how to treat workers are eagerly hiring, just like everyone else...so why stay at a company that doesn't invest in you or treat you well?
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Meanwhile back to putting in 10, 20 sometimes even 30 or 40 hours of free labor a month to keep my skills current so we "stand out".
That's a little extreme.
On top of the 50+ hour work weeks.
Wow, don't do that.
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If H1Bs didn't exist, you can bet that a few things would be happening:
1) Technological changes would still be requiring you to put a bunch of work to upskill, because that's how technology works.
2) A toooon of companies would have decided to run major dev hubs outside of the U.S.
3) The marke
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how much work we put in for free to keep our skills up to date? A long, long time ago companies used to pay people to do training.
Actually, for this type of job it is completely adequate and "training" usually cannot cut it, unless is actually college or university level courses or very specialized training. The thing is that coding is a very hard and still evolving engineering discipline. It is quite standard for engineers to continue educating themselves and you cannot be good at any type of engineering without having the interest and the energy to keep abreast of the developments in your field and acquire new skills.
What is absolut
Ugh (Score:2)
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On the contrary. Python ks on many levels an excellent tool that allows you to create high-quality code that is quite maintainable. It runs in everything from relatively small micro-controllers up to mainframes. And when you need performance, it has a very good interface to C (of C++ if you like that abomination) and thereby basically to many types of libraries and all system functionality.
What Python is not is beginner friendly. Or simple. The OO model (basically "conform" inheritance a bit like Eiffel, bu
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What Python is not is beginner friendly.
That depends on the definition of beginner friendly.
I consider it quite friendly, because to get started you can ignore all that OO / classes stuff
and just write some straight forward code like you would in BASIC. The code
is much more readable to beginners than Javascript, C or Java. And there's
a standard library filled with useful stuff so you don't need to install third party
packages just to left pad a string.
It's also beginner friendly because there's loads of free ressources around. The
python2/3 divide
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What Python is not is beginner friendly.
That depends on the definition of beginner friendly.
I consider it quite friendly, because to get started you can ignore all that OO / classes stuff
and just write some straight forward code like you would in BASIC. [...]
I agree on that. It is beginner friendly if you get taught competently or are smart enough to not try OO and functional stuff and some other things in your own code until you have a firm grasp on the rest. You definitely can do that and still get a full-featured language. If you just try to muddle through yourself that may or may not work though.
And since the original poster thinks it's an awful language: Valid opinion, but which
of the top languages isn't?
Well, computers are pretty awful to program for in general and there is no real way to fix that. Low-Code/No-Code are just accidents waiting to happen or limit you