IT/Software career thread: Invert binary trees for dollars.

ShakyJake said:

If he hasn't done any programming before I would suggest NOT to do C++. That shit is awful and will likely discourage someone new to programming from pursuing coding as a profession or hobby.

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Depends on the version. C++ has cleaned up a lot of pain points with C++11 and later, although it could be argued that sometimes the solution is worse than the perceived problems it fixes.

Also:

Noodleface said:

Honestly once you learn one language at a fundamental level, picking up a new language is mostly learning the intricacies and syntax.

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Also known as: "Good C programmers can write in any language, great C programmers can write C in any language."

ShakyJake said:

Yeah, I think game development isn't all it's cracked up to be. In fact, sounds like a really punishing career -- tight deadlines and potentially super long hours. You better freakin' love coding if you want to go down that road.

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Its not that you have to love coding, it's that management, especially middle management and project management in game studios is a total shitshow ruled by nepotism with a side of incompetence and narcissm. Mostly of the "he already shipped a game once, so he knows what he is doing!" and "he's a famous designer with his name on the front of the box" shit.

From a computer science perspective game development is interesting, because not only do you have a lot of different problems to solve (who are different for each game, depending on the game even realtime) but it constantly evolves at the edge of CS knowledge, like AI.

The downside is that as a programmer you have to accomodate designers who think they are the idea men and who push programmers around even when the programmers can prove that what the designers want is impossible, either with current hardware or mathematically. The coder is always the one who gets blamed that he didn't make it work.

Also, the development for games is basically agile on hyperdrive: no defined goal, because the design for most of the games is fluid while in development. Things didn't work out, weren't fun or there are great last-minute ideas that get added. Due to a deadline looming technical debt never gets resolved, and you never have post-mortems to learn what worked and what didn't.

Noodleface said:

I used to write Python like it was C and it was a mistake. Just didn't jive well

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To this day I have problems switching between C-style languages and Python. For the first hour or so I when switching to Python I end statements with a semicolon - it is so fucking ingrained into my brain that I can't even help it, because while programming I am actively thinking about other things. Same goes for Lua.