I was an extreme C++ bigot back in the late 90's, early 2000's. My license plate back then was CPPHACKR[1]. But industry trends and other things took my career in the direction of favoring Java, and I've spent most of the last 20+ years thinking of myself as mainly a "Java guy". But I keep buying new C++ books and I always install the C++ tooling on any new box I build. I tell myself that "one day" I'm going to invest the time to bone up on all the new goodies in C++ since I last touched it, and have another go.
When the heck that day will actually arrive, FSM only knows. The will is sort-of there, but there are just SO many other things competing for my time and attention. :-(
[1]: funny side story about that. For anybody too young to remember just how hot the job market was back then... one day I was sitting stopped at a traffic light in Durham (NC). I'm just minding my own business, waiting for the light to change, when I catch a glimpse out of my side mirror, of somebody on foot, running towards my car. The guy gets right up to my car, and I think I had my window down already anyway. Anyway, the guy gets up to me, panting and out of breath from the run and he's like "Hey, I noticed your license plate and was wondering if you were looking for a new job." About then the light turned green in my direction, and I'm sitting there for a second in just stunned disbelief. This guy got out of his car, ran a few car lengths, to approach a stranger in traffic, to try to recruit him. I wasn't going to sit there and have a conversation with horns honking all around me, so I just yelled "sorry man" and drove off. One of the weirder experiences of my life.
The programmers on the sound team at the video game company I worked for as an intern in 1998 would always stash a couple of extra void pointers in their classes just in case they needed to add something in later. Programmers should never lose sight of pragmatism. Seeking perfection doesn’t help you ship on time. And often, time to completion matters far more than robustness.
Funny, sounds like the Simpsons gag from the same time period: “what’s wrong with this country? Can’t a man walk down the street without being offered a job?”
Interesting. I was SO into the Simpsons at one time, but somehow I'd never seen that episode (as best as I can remember anyway). Now I feel the urge to go back and rewatch every episode of the Simpsons from the beginning. It would be fun, but man, what a time sink. I started the same thing with South Park a while back and stalled out somewhere around Season 5. I'd like to get back to it, but time... time is always against us.
That episode is by far my #1 favorite. Season 8 Episode 2, “You Only Move Twice”, during the period considered by most to be the peak of the Simpsons show quality, and IMO the best episode of the season.
Cypress Creek was intended to be a reference to Silicon Valley and the tech companies there of the time, and it’s got some of the best comedy in the season (Hank Scorpio is the best one-off character ever in the show IMO.)
Note to the above: I am wrong. My license plate back then was C++HACKR, with the actual "+" signs. NC license plates do allow that, although while the +'s are on the tag, they don't show up on your registration card or in the DMV computer system.
I mixed up the tag and my old domain name, which was "cpphacker.co.uk" (and later, just cpphacker.com/org).
When the heck that day will actually arrive, FSM only knows. The will is sort-of there, but there are just SO many other things competing for my time and attention. :-(
[1]: funny side story about that. For anybody too young to remember just how hot the job market was back then... one day I was sitting stopped at a traffic light in Durham (NC). I'm just minding my own business, waiting for the light to change, when I catch a glimpse out of my side mirror, of somebody on foot, running towards my car. The guy gets right up to my car, and I think I had my window down already anyway. Anyway, the guy gets up to me, panting and out of breath from the run and he's like "Hey, I noticed your license plate and was wondering if you were looking for a new job." About then the light turned green in my direction, and I'm sitting there for a second in just stunned disbelief. This guy got out of his car, ran a few car lengths, to approach a stranger in traffic, to try to recruit him. I wasn't going to sit there and have a conversation with horns honking all around me, so I just yelled "sorry man" and drove off. One of the weirder experiences of my life.