How difficult is it to turn a “Java School” programmer into a C or C++ programmer? [closed]

Answer 1

Programmers program. Someone who actually knows how to program can learn any language. Sure, there's a learning curve, but a good coder can get up to speed relatively quickly. If you're expecting someone with advanced knowledge, you wouldn't be looking to hire fresh grads anyway, right? So there's going to be a learning curve either way.

Answer 2

My rule of thumb is I'd much rather get a C/C++ programmer to write Java than a Java programmer to write C/C++. I can't tell which Java programmers can handle dealing with memory management and pointers until they try it.

If all I had to choose from were Java school kids, I'd tell them a few horror stories about assembly and C, then try to break them down into three categories.

1. Fearless. They weren't paying attention.
2. Fearful and panicked because they know they couldn't handle that kind of complexity.
3. Fearful and eager because they understand that even people smarter than them can get punched in the gut by weird-ass memory and hardware issues, but hell, it does sound like a good challenge.

I'd hire from group 3.

Answer 3

I think the problem Joel Spolsky was referring to in his article is that "getting" pointers and recursion requires a certain mental aptitude, and that a curriculum based on C would weed those who didn't have it out, and a Java school wouldn't necessarily do it.

So what is a hiring manager to do, since people don't put on their resumes, "I don't get pointers, and I never will."

So if you buy Joel's hypothesis that the ability to "get" pointers and recursion is an innate personal trait that people either have or they don't, I see the following options:

1. Hire exclusively from C/C++ schools rather than Java schools.
2. If there aren't C/C++ schools, then hire experienced C/C++ programmers rather than from college.
3. If you're committed to hiring from college, then accept than you are going to have a non-negligible failure rate in converting them.

Answer 4

Someone from a Java school should still have a strong grasp of data structures and computational complexity. The only area where they should be deficient is in manual memory management. If they understand what the garbage collector does for them and they seem bright enough that you could teach them memory management, then I'd say give them a shot. Since they didn't spend time learning memory management in Java school, try to find out if they're particularly strong in some other area that you need.

Answer 5

I'm a student myself and most of my course work in the early years was in Java but I always tried to do things in C++ just for the fun of it. This semester started a new course that required everyone to program in C++ + OpenGL + Qt and many of the other students, who have never used C++, have a very hard time adapting and often spend literally hours fighting simple compile-time errors. This could have many reasons (including stupidity) but I think it can be quite hard for someone who only used Java (and a lot of students just use the stuff they are told) to change to C++. Unfortunatly I cannot think of any way to ease the pain of transition and can only think of Dijkstra saying:

It is practically impossible to teach good programming to students that have had a prior exposure to BASIC: as potential programmers they are mentally mutilated beyond hope of regeneration.

Answer 6

Speaking purely from the perspective of a C++ programmer, I would think that a Java developer looking to learn C++ would face a fairly steep learning curve. Yes, at some level developing code is similar in all languages. I was once called upon to write code in Excel's macro language (pre-VBA). I managed but it was like trying to write War and Peace with a fifth-grade vocabulary.

There are other issues with C++ (pointers, memory management, operator overloading) which are just not present in Java as far as I know and they're not small issues either. Especially if you're looking at someone to help with legacy C++ code these could present big obstacles. And I think I would start any new hire with at least some maintenance work initially.