Re: F-22 ADA Programming

[Bill White <billjwhite@notan.org>]

On 2014-10-28, Natasha Kerensikova <lithiumcat@instinctive.eu> wrote:
> On 2014-10-27, Maciej Sobczak <see.my.homepage@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Anyway, I think Bob is right that it shouldn't make a difference--a
>>> competent programmer should be able to switch to a new language (or
>>> OS or platform or toolset) fairly easily.

That's ok for people with no purpose other than to make money. Good
programmers, the ones you want working for you and with you, usually love
and hate languages for good reasons. Most of the mainstream languages are
worth hating for very good reasons.

Like Natasha sortof said there is a lot of angst prostituting yourself as a
code monkey if you're a really talented and passionate developer. Many people
like to kid themselves and point out how they can learn new languages and
technologies all the time and they happily bounce from job to job coding web
or iPhone apps.

But those people are either lying to themselves in that they don't really
ever learn anything and become cut and paste junkies or they are more
focused on business or how many apps they have worked on or other issues and
coding is just a way to accomplish that.

OTOH if coding is the journey and coding is the destination and if you
really love what you do and believe in it you're likely to be much better in
almost every aspect of your job then somebody who just goes with the
flow. But there aren't a lot of jobs where somebody like that can thrive.

As somebody who has spent almost 40 years coding in one mostly one language
on mostly one platform I can identify with people who love this or that
language or tech and can't find a job anymore for reasons that aren't
technical or even good business reasons. I'd rather change jobs than code on
another language or platform but I'm too old for anybody to hire me. It's a
bitter feeling when good is defined by cheap and stuff like quality and
performance don't matter anymore. Because I remember when they did. Be glad
if you're young enough to change now so you don't get unvoluntarily retired
when you're past the point of old dogs learning new tricks as far as they
know.

>> The problem is - once you are competent you are recognized as a senior
>> or expert and this recognition has a value - both in terms of peer
>> relations and on the job market. Why would such a person "switch" to
>> some other language? To become a novice again? To write in his CV that
>> instead of having (let's say) 8 years of Java experience, he has only
>> 1 year in Ada? And what is the value of such CV if nobody is looking
>> for Ada programmers anyway? Isn't it better to have N+1 years of Java
>> experience instead?

Yes, it is. Reality is often not pretty.

> And I feel the problem is even worse after the switch, but maybe I'm
> based by currently living through it.
>
> I switched years ago, but it isn't worth much without Ada-related job
> openings. And on top of that I will have to live through the frustration
> of using unhelpful tools and not-so-readable languages when I broaden my
> search (which will happen as soon as I finish accepting that said
> frustration is unavoidable).
>
> I wonder whether it would be easier to bear if I gave up Ada in my free
> time too, and bury it with all reliability wishes in some remote place
> of my mind.

I think Ada is a poorer than average choice for a hobby language (and I
don't use the word hobby lightly but only in the lack of vocabulary) since
you're stuck with essentially one toolchain regardless that it happens to
be a very good one. But there isn't any reason if you love Ada not to keep
using it for your own projects. If nothing else, you'll stay sharp and
notice things that will help you and your coworkers that people working with
inferior and unsafe languages would probably miss. And you may even be able
to wrapper safety valves around unsafe code in those languages that will
stop problems from happening before they ever start. The only thing is
nobody will have any idea what you did and they won't understand why you
"wasted" time doing that. But at least you'll be able to sleep at night.

Bill