[PCWorld]

Post your comments for Open Source Coders are Fresher, Forrester Says here

[FF22]

"Analyst firm Forrester has encouraged businesses to recruit software developers who take part in open source projects, as it shows they are keeping their skills current."
Like those working on the crown jewel of all open source projects: the Linux kernel, whose architecture (monolithic kernel) was obsolote already then when it was first created, and is still written using a 40-year old software technology (C++)? That surely proves the developers are "hip" and up-to-date with current technologies.

[dabeave666]

FF22, on 01 May 2012 - 06:23 AM, said:

"Analyst firm Forrester has encouraged businesses to recruit software developers who take part in open source projects, as it shows they are keeping their skills current."
Like those working on the crown jewel of all open source projects: the Linux kernel, whose architecture (monolithic kernel) was obsolote already then when it was first created, and is still written using a 40-year old software technology (C++)? That surely proves the developers are "hip" and up-to-date with current technologies.

a) The Linux kernel was written in C, not C++.
Linux != "all open source". Maybe you've heard about Ruby, PHP, etc?
c) I'm not sure if you have noticed, but little open source project sorta drive the world (Linux, Apache, PHP, Perl, the list goes on and on).
d) You obviously aren't "hip" enough to notice these little things.

[RickDobbelmannqbtt]

dabeave666, on 01 May 2012 - 01:45 PM, said:

FF22, on 01 May 2012 - 06:23 AM, said:

"Analyst firm Forrester has encouraged businesses to recruit software developers who take part in open source projects, as it shows they are keeping their skills current."
Like those working on the crown jewel of all open source projects: the Linux kernel, whose architecture (monolithic kernel) was obsolote already then when it was first created, and is still written using a 40-year old software technology (C++)? That surely proves the developers are "hip" and up-to-date with current technologies.

a) The Linux kernel was written in C, not C++.
Linux != "all open source". Maybe you've heard about Ruby, PHP, etc?
c) I'm not sure if you have noticed, but little open source project sorta drive the world (Linux, Apache, PHP, Perl, the list goes on and on).
d) You obviously aren't "hip" enough to notice these little things.

Python ftw

Linus Torvalds said:

It's mostly in C, but most people wouldn't call what I write C. It uses every conceivable feature of the 386 I could find, as it was also a project to teach me about the 386. As already mentioned, it uses a MMU, for both paging (not to disk yet) and segmentation. It's the segmentation that makes it REALLY 386 dependent (every task has a 64Mb segment for code & data - max 64 tasks in 4Gb. Anybody who needs more than 64Mb/task - tough cookies). [...] Some of my "C"-files (specifically mm.c) are almost as much assembler as C. [...] Unlike minix, I also happen to LIKE interrupts, so interrupts are handled without trying to hide the reason behind them.

This post has been edited by RickDobbelmannqbtt: 01 May 2012 - 02:31 PM

[nonseq]

Does this mean that Open Source coders are younger or are they just full of preservatives?

Is Red Bull a preservative? We already know that Twinkies have a half-life of about a million years.

This post has been edited by nonseq: 01 May 2012 - 03:11 PM

[Evildave]

I think the 'deal' is that open source programmers aren't as burnt out, demoralized, etc. by corporate 'bosses' that make life hell. You know, the 1,000th time you thought your were finally finished, and they changed their minds again? Yeah, that gets real old. Eventually, you never get ANY satisfaction for accomplishing ANYTHING, because you never do accomplish anything at a 'real job'. It's IMPOSSIBLE to. There are always half a dozen middle-managers gaining temporary supremacy, having their way with the design, then getting vetoed and and forcing each other to change it, with you, the programmer, at the bottom of that fecal tidal wave.

So OF COURSE open source coders are 'fresher'. They don't have to make retards happy for a living. And if it's their own project, they're the absolute boss of it.

BTW, 'C++' is an abomination.

Code written in C tends to still compile after decades. 40 year old K&R code still compiles! That's some serious stability.

Code written in C++ sometimes won't compile on a 'newer' compiler, even mere months after it was written. You can claim the programmers didn't 'follow the rules', but by the time you make it build and run with the new compiler, it will never compile on the 'old' one, because the old compiler ENFORCED 'rules' that the new compiler enforces 'differently'. C++ is pure misery. Always archive a C++ project with the compiler needed to build it, in a virtual machine. It can be a nasty surprise trying to bring an 'old' C++ project back to life to add minor tweaks, or language hacks, or bug fixes. Like a horror movie.

You can use templates and write object oriented code in C89 easily enough, and have complete control as you do it, and the code will generally compile with any C compiler, new or old. The rules, like the language, are simple. Though C99 does have some nice features, and when those are fully implemented, they make some template fun even easier. If you stick to GCC, it's almost always a no-brainer.

[MarcCoevoet]

FF22, on 01 May 2012 - 06:23 AM, said:

".... and is still written using a 40-year old software technology (C++)?

Math foirmulas may be written with a formula 4000 years old, as long as they are RIGHT. Software is a math formula. The re-invention of an API is not always something really "new", but we could do it, to generate more income, or was it: to generate more TAX money? We can find that a nice "agreement" in a secret Parliament.