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

Answer 1

If you are hiring young people just out of school, you should hire for IQ, not for any particular skill. You want people who are Smart and Get Things Done, not someone who knows how to frob pointers in a way that is particularly pleasing to you.

Answer 2

It's more difficult than turning a good C/C++ programmer into a good Java programmer. The emphasis is "good" here. Any people can program in any language poorly. Good C++ programmers must understand pointers well. One of the most important concepts in C++ is iterator which is a generalization of C pointer via operator overloading, which makes many algorithms truly generic in C++.

One great indicator whether NCGs get it, is their performance in operating system courses. If they passed an OS class with heavy project workload (like implementing any OS components in whatever languages) with flying colors and that they loved it, chances are they're among the best students you can get.

Answer 3

As someone who's primarily a "Java schooler", and a pretty recent graduate at that, I definitely think it'd be possible for me to learn C or C++ without too much pain...

However, I really don't want to. I can only speak for myself, but C can be a pretty ugly language if you've grown up with Java. I think motivation is going to be the bigger obstacle. Motivation and maybe some whining about that "in Java this is soo much easier, why isn't C Java?" :)

If you can find someone with the proper motivation, the rest will work out okay. :)

Answer 4

I think this idea of a "Java school" is largely manufactored. The university I am at uses java to teach it main sequence CS courses(Data Structures, Algorithms, etc) However, they are many other courses that use other languages like C/C++/Scheme and in higher level courses the work can be done in any language.

Do you really think it matters what language basic programming concept are taught in?