I was a C/C++ programmer from 1995 to 2012, almost 20 years. I moved on to more SaaS-friendly languages, but when I look at C++ now, it's incomprehensible to me. It's an entirely different language. I think I could get back into it, but it's been so long and the gap between where I left it and where it is now is so vast, coupled with the dearth of jobs compared to Python or Go, that it doesn't feel worth it anymore. It's weird knowing that a language that I spend so much time on is relegated to the past.
> I was a C/C++ programmer (...) to 2012 (...) when I look at C++ now, it's incomprehensible to me.
Understandably so. You've used C++ during a time where C++98 reigned and stagnated C++, and left just when that long-standing stagnation finally finished.
Since then 4 new C++ standards have been published. Smart pointers are in. Move semantics are in. Lambdas are in. Auto type deduction is in. Hell, range-based for loops are in.
Your timing was unfortunate. I'm sure programmers who were used to Fortran77 also have problems reading Fortran95 code.
Yep, exactly this. It was only 8 years ago, but its several generations of changes for C++. As you said, it was very unfortunate timing, but not much I can do except pick up a book and start learning. But I'd probably dedicate that energy to delving deeper into Python, Go or even Java at this point. Sad to see decades of work no longer relevant, but it got me to where I am today, so it was worth something I suppose.
I have a love/hate relationship with C++, when programming python I really miss the strong typing and other compile time checks, not to mention the performance.
Other times I hate it especially templating compile errors.
I've been out of the game for a while, so I could be way off here, but my experience during my brief (15-20 year) career was one could always get paid significantly more for doing C++ than Python.
Which makes intuitive sense to me since it's a lot harder to master C++.
This isn't true. Go/Python/non-C++ can get you dozens of jobs with very high total comp, well over anything for C++. A Senior Software Engineer at any FANG will get you over 400k/yr TC. Getting an equivalent job with C++ would be much harder.
You misunderstand me: I'm not claiming its "mostly C++", I'm claiming that its "mostly C++ and Java". Python isn't zero, but its very far down the list, both in lines of code and machine cycles spent.
Certainly, although you can work there using almost entirely python (I did for two years, although I'm now having to use more and more c++ and java as my work shifts to be infra that involves products instead of just raw infra)
I was under the impression that one would need C++ to get one of those 400k+ FAANG jobs. Obviously, I could be wrong.
I've never worked at one myself, but they do hit me up from time to time, and seem to be mostly interested in my C++ experience.
As I said in my disclaimer, my actual experience is very dated at this point, but a strong C++ developer could earn 400k+ even way back in 2011 in the NYC financial industry. Back then, I don't think I'd heard of any Python developers making much more than 150k.
Nowadays, the people I know working in C++ in NYC finance are all making significantly more than 400k.
