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#! rnews 3004 bsd Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.anu.edu.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!simtel!pravda.aa.msen.com!spool.mu.edu!howland.reston.ans.net!tank.news.pipex.net!pipex!dish.news.pipex.net!pipex!sunic!sunic.sunet.se!newsfeed.tip.net!news.seinf.abb.se!nooft.abb.no!Norway.EU.net!nac.no!ifi.uio.no!nntp!enag From: Erik Naggum <erik@naggum.no> Newsgroups: misc.jobs.offered,comp.lang.c,comp.lang.c++,comp.lang.c-cat,comp.object,comp.lang.eiffel,alt.syntax.tactical,comp.lang.misc,comp.unix.bsd.386bsd.misc Subject: Re: Beginner looking for advice. Date: 30 Aug 1995 16:17:32 GMT Organization: Naggum Software; +47 2295 0313 Lines: 36 Message-ID: <19950830T161732Z@naggum.no> References: <41m918$jkf@nova.umuc.edu> <macgremd-290895162327@ck5121gm45b.open.ac.uk> <41vgj7$k78@ixnews6.ix.netcom.com> <DE3Jzu.CsF@pentagon-ai.army.mil> NNTP-Posting-Host: gyda.ifi.uio.no Xref: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au misc.jobs.offered:196229 comp.lang.c:110958 comp.lang.c++:121427 comp.object:30958 comp.lang.eiffel:9012 alt.syntax.tactical:927 comp.lang.misc:17144 comp.unix.bsd.386bsd.misc:143 [Pete Grant] | In article <41vgj7$k78@ixnews6.ix.netcom.com> theaxiom@ix.netcom.com (Michael Herried ) writes: | > I'm about as new as you can getin programming. I have just started | >my C for Dummies book. I hope to excel far beyond that, but this is it | >so far. I was told to learn C then C++ as they are supposedly the | >money makers. Is this true? If not, what do I really want to learn | | You sound like you are only concerned about how much programmers earn. | I hope that's not so because if it is, you won't make it. You have to | like this stuff or you're better off doing something else. not so. if you don't like something, you need to get paid more than you would if you liked it. the word "compensation" has an interesting set of meanings. if the likelihood of losing your job is higher, you can demand more pay to compensate for the increased risk. if you use a language that you or your boss knows won't deliver in more than, say, 40% of the attempts you also want to get paid more, because if you lose a high-profile project, it will seriously affect your ability to get onto future high-profile projects, especially if it wasn't your fault. (you can't sue the compiler vendors, because you have per "license agreement" assumed all risk in using it.) these issues partially explain why C++ programmers make much money. managers also want to pay an employee a lot of money if the employee can convince the manager that he won't have to go out on the job market and look for another C++ programmer in three months' time to save a project. and if you really _liked_ programming, you wouldn't use C++, anyway. the same goes for COBOL and FORTRAN, two other "winners" in terms of lines of code in the world. Naggum's #1 rule of quality assessment: -- if it's popular, it probably isn't any good. #<Erik 3018788252> -- they accepted the results of science, but rejected its methods.