Thread: The top 10 dead (or dying) computer skills

As the Web takes over,

Takes over what? It's a curious premise, isn't it, in which to move onto

C languages are also becoming less relevant, according to Padveen.

If the original listed this in plural, is that just an odd way of referring to the various versions of C, or inclusive of derivatives like Objective C, C++, et al?

"C++ and C Sharp are still alive and kicking,

As languages go, isn't C Sharp a bit new to be in the state of "still" alive.

but try to find a basic C-only programmer today, and you'll likely find a guy that's unemployed and/or training for a new skill," he says.

I suppose the contributors to Linux are not employed when the volunteer.

The one thing I'll give in to there is this. C is not the casual study that other languages are. A student can become functional, even proficient, in Java or C# in less time than it would take in C, and for that alone the population of people willing to put in the effort wil be small.

I submit it's not the C is fading way, but that the population of programmers is increased by these other means of developing applications, and most of them don't like the work involved in writing in C.

Originally Posted by Salem

You don't think M$ will kill off C# just as soon as it stops making money for them?

and start suing like crazy as soon as (or if) it starts making money for anyone else.

The future is in Excel programming, learn a useful skill people, C is dead.

>> try to find a basic C-only programmer today

Isn't that a rather pedantic career choice? Choosing a single language to program in (edit: and apparently a dead one, heh. Bad choice)? Maybe it was common in the days of the past, I really don't know, but just cause C is good doesn't mean it's the best choice for every application. It's robust and can be used for most things ... but it can be easier to do things with other languages.


>> As the Web takes over

People need to stop taking Slashdot articles so seriously. I've seen so many articles so incredibly far from the truth and laughed as I read in the comments at how all the slashdot users just buy it and argue over it. Half the time the sites that the articles link to are in whole unreliable and never base anything on proper sources. I'm still giggling over the article that stated the brain used neurotic sound waves to communicate with itself based on a breakthrough Dutch study which all the users blindly soaked up.

In terms of C being dead/rapidly dying, google "most popular programming languages", and then consider if you really believe what that woman who thinks she's a New York Times visionary journalist has to say. Most of the results I personally found on google provided information regarding all the methods and techniques they used to find their data. C, by itself, was among the top three for most of them as well, many times surpassing C++. And 'as the web takes over', C will grow with it. If I have to write any serious client/server applications in a language other than C/C++ I'll barf.

This article provided absolutely no sources besides a single quote from the 'CEO' of a spyware 'company' who said finding a programmer that specialized in C alone was a delicacy. She based everything on a scammer whose website I can't trust as far as I can throw. It's in no way a study, it's biased journalism.

C# sucks. C and C++ will never die out.

Anybody who thinks that the C and C derived languages are dying out because of the web is a complete idiot.
Hell id like to see the day when we run OS's that are coded in PHP and JavaScript lol.

There's some crazy people about.

As useful and increasingly more specialised new languages are getting, most depend on the existence of C. For interpreted languages, the interpreter would likely be written in C and things like compilers, OSs, virtual machines and other stuff like cutting-edge game engines C/++ is the main choice for many.

There's nothing you can't write in C++.