digg

Facebook Connect Join Digg About

The top 10 dead (or dying) computer skills

computerworld.com — Those in search of eternal life need look no further than the computer industry. Here, last gasps are rarely taken, as aging systems crank away in back rooms across the U.S., not unlike 1970s reruns on Nickelodeon's TV Land. So while it may not be exactly easy for Novell NetWare engineers and OS/2 administrators to find employers who require their

Who dugg this? Made popular May 24, 2007

Digg DudeWhat is Digg?

Digg is a place for people to discover and share content from anywhere on the web. Digg surfaces the best stuff as submitted and voted on by the community. Take the Tour to learn more.

230 Comments

show profanity settings
expand all
  • ghee, on 10/11/2007, -3/+195For those who don't want to deal with clicking next 50 times:

    1. Cobol
    2. Nonrelational DBMS
    3. Non-IP networks
    4. cc:Mail
    5. ColdFusion
    6. C programming
    7. PowerBuilder
    8. Certified NetWare Engineers
    9. PC network administrators
    10. OS/2
  • CCericola, on 10/11/2007, -3/+140That'll never compile! You spelled char wrong on line 3.
  • mtcow, on 10/11/2007, -5/+134The C language would be the last thing dying in the world today. What language do you think is used to write all the software in embedded devices (microwaves, cellphones, DVD players, modems, etc)? What language do you think is responsible for operating system kernels? C is (and will be for at least a few decades) the foundation of all systems that would run software.
  • zlintux, on 10/11/2007, -4/+91I think that's misplaced. C is an excellent starting place for programming, and every college with a computer science department teaches it. So many other languages are based on its syntax that it really shouldn't be considered a dead skill, but rather a base skill. Besides, some things are simply easier to do in C.
    If I need a quick and dirty, yet efficient structured program, C can be quite useful..
  • zydeco, on 10/11/2007, -3/+76C is the new assembly!
  • snapfisher, on 10/11/2007, -5/+50char y[]="You";
    char d[]="dead";
    cahr w[]="wrong";
    fprintf(stderr, "%s are just %s %s\n", y,d,w);
  • kronix, on 10/11/2007, -0/+40What moron says that C is dying skill? I just left a job where most of the work was done in C and that's because C is the absolute fastest way to do anything that can't be done in assembly. The linux kernel, arguably the largest open source project in existance is written in C.

    Just because you can't write a super sweet webapp with it doesn't mean it's dead. Someone had to write the threading library, kernel, and webserver that you take for granted while writing yet another content management system.
  • 350Zed, on 10/11/2007, -4/+4410 PRINT "YOU ARE A DORK"
    20 GOTO 10
    RUN
  • Roger, on 10/11/2007, -10/+47Not to mention the missing main() function and headers.
  • FearlessFreep, on 10/11/2007, -1/+32"Maintaining a website under traffic" seems to be a dying skill...
  • bysin, on 10/11/2007, -1/+32Heres a correction

    #include <stdio.h>
    int main(int argc, char **argv) {
    char y[]="You";
    char d[]="dead";
    char w[]="wrong";
    fprintf(stderr, "%s are just %s %sn", y,d,w);
    return 0;
    }
  • merreborn, on 10/11/2007, -1/+31The linux kernel is written in C. Right now, on every system out there, be it mac, windows, or linux, there's at least one bit of compiled C running somewhere. C is far from dead. Until the linux kernel's been rewritten, C is here to stay. It may not be as popular as it once was, but it's far from dead.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux_kernel#Programming_languages

    Sadly, coldfusion is not dead yet, either. There are still many large sites running on cold fusion. Again, the popularity has waned, but CF and C have no place on a list with OS/2, cc:mail, and non-relational DMBSes
  • ckentster, on 10/11/2007, -3/+29The CS department at my school (Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology) just announced they are switching from teaching JAVA to teaching C in the introductory level courses. Just saying...
  • Gilart80, on 10/11/2007, -1/+25You still have to use C to write anything OS related though right? Drivers? etc?

    So maybe a smaller margin, but I bet the people who write OS and drivers as a job consider it a good skill, or no?
  • swordedge, on 10/11/2007, -0/+24Second the embedded thing. Network routers, the big ones, don't use C++. Most languages are too big and slow for them. Remember, the big routers need to process an astonishing number of network packets at speed. If you have several OC12 or whatever attached to one, it needs to seriously move data. You ain't doing that with high level languages. (OC12 is 622 Mbs) The mantra for embedded routers is small/fast. Some sections of code get done in assembly though they try to avoid that as it isn't portable.

    A Sony Ericsson guy told me they have near internal wars over how much of the Rom each department gets for their cell phones. It too is NOT a high level language. They have no space on the Rom for the 20% plus size hit and no battery power for the speed hit. My question was a simple "how do you decide what goes in the phone" This is not a simple question to answer.
  • umbriago, on 10/11/2007, -0/+18The 11th is apparently the inability to create a website that doesn't keep an article to a single page. It's a skill that is pretty damn valuable.
  • xrisnothing, on 10/11/2007, -1/+19Yeah, that's an efficient piece of code right there...
  • rmetzger, on 10/11/2007, -0/+17are you kidding me? i cant go a day where i use dos commands for troubleshooting or even in windows with *.exe and things like that

    not to mention most corporate logon scripts and the like
  • Zoplax, on 10/11/2007, -1/+18I successfully passed the Novell CNE 5 exams (7 total). Unfortunately, Novell-based systems were disappearing in favor of Windows / Linux, so I never really had an opportunity to use the skills. On the bright side (for me, anyway) my employer paid for the exam fees and training.
  • dremspider, on 10/11/2007, -0/+17How is Network Admins on this list?

    "With the accelerating move to consolidate Windows servers, some see substantially less demand for PC network administrators. "You see the evidence for that in the demise of those programs at the technical and two-year schools and the loss of instructors," says Nate Viall, president of Nate Viall & Associates, an AS/400 (iSeries) recruiting company."

    This doesn't make any sense, just because you have less hardware does not mean that you have less to manage, in fact I would say you have more to manage. Who cares that there are less machines, most companies are running more services than ever and this will probably continue.

    And for the lack of education part that makes no sense either. There are less people going to these schools b/c they don't want to go, not b/c the demand is not there. This will actually create a shortage of supply which is beneficial to this skill, not harmful.

    Don't even get me started on the C comment.

    P.S. I am not a network admin, though I have worked as one in the past.
  • Slagged, on 10/11/2007, -4/+19Coldfusion has never been a top contender but it does not belong on that list.
    It is still widely used and support.
  • retral, on 10/11/2007, -6/+21fprint("Goodbye World");
    ..or something
  • seeyounorth, on 10/11/2007, -0/+15Me: "Do an ipconfig /all and see what you get for DNS." New guy: "Is that like the repair button?"

    I nearly died.
  • dracflamloc, on 10/11/2007, -1/+15They aren't saying the language is dead or dying, only that the people who have the skills to utilize the language to its fullest are dying. And its true. Most schools if they have a C class at all, teach C++ only, not ANSI C, and even THEN its usually just a 1-semester crash course with some basic file IO and stuff.

    Java is the worst thing to happen to CS departments.
  • hoelzro, on 10/11/2007, -1/+14One usually uses C, but it's possible to write an OS in other languages. There are operating systems written in Java, Lisp, and Haskell, to name a few.

    I would also say C is still alive and kicking. Maybe not so much commercially, but in the open source world, C is still responsible for a large number of projects.
  • Dyogenez, on 10/11/2007, -2/+15Someone better tell Adobe that ColdFusion is dying quick. CF8 is supposed to be released in the next few months.
  • Vlatro, on 10/11/2007, -0/+13C is being used increasingly less in today's programs. That's because other languages and frameworks are better suited for the types of applications we use today. That is not to say C is being replaced, only that people have more options today than they did 2 decades ago.

    Consider how valuable your programming skills will be knowing C 10 years from now. Support for expensive systems, complex databases etc. People will need new programs to run on old systems they can't afford to replace. Think back to Y2K, if you programmed in Cobol, Fortran, Pascal, or any other 35+ year old language, you had a decent job waiting for you. Some of us made good money with skills everyone claimed were useless. Skills that colleges refused to teach and worked like hell to get kids away from.

    Beyond that, C is a great language to know, even if you never program in it. Just like nobody teaches how to hand write HTML, Style sheets, or CGI scripts anymore, in favor of commercial development suites. It's sad that these kids can come out of a design school ready to launch massive web sites that support multi national bank transactions, yet can't troubleshoot their own SQL functions and take hours to make a simple change that could be done in notepad in 2 minutes.

    I showed a friend Telnet the other day. People marvel at your grasp of arcane and esoteric knowledge more than they do if you're on the cutting edge. Tweaking out that latest version of Beryl makes them think you're a geek, but if you can emulate analog tones for POTS carrier services (like geeks did in the 70's & 80's) they think you're a ***** Wizard.
  • MaximegalonInfo, on 10/11/2007, -0/+12OK, how can you define the "top" dead skills? If you really want the "top", it would be punchcard handling, parallel port driver writing, tape drives drivers, etc. etc.
  • merreborn, on 10/11/2007, -0/+12batch files are still the best and easiest way for automating many tasks on windows systems.
  • digitalarcanum, on 10/11/2007, -2/+13"9. PC network administrators"

    I call *****.
  • redled, on 10/11/2007, -0/+11Printable story (on one page)
    http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=printArticleBasic&articleId=9020942
  • inactive, on 10/11/2007, -0/+11No DBASE, Foxpro, or Visual Foxpro?
  • dyreschlock, on 10/11/2007, -0/+11COBOL needs to die faster. It still accounts for 90% of all financial transactions and 75% of business applications. Come on.. we can do better.

    source: http://www.regdeveloper.co.uk/2007/01/05/developing_legacy_systems_part2/
  • inactive, on 10/11/2007, -1/+12This site sucks. Lots of pop-ups (all blocked by Opera) and ads around content spread thin over 5 pages.
  • way2slo, on 10/11/2007, -2/+11If Cold Fusion is dying, then it is taking its sweet time doing so. I got two hits for that just yesterday.
  • theMurdocVolta, on 10/11/2007, -2/+11Fresh Air doesn't exist anymore... Douche.
  • soulpunisher, on 10/11/2007, -3/+128. Certified NetWare Engineers

    Thank God
  • Wisgary, on 10/11/2007, -2/+11Completely Overcomplicated *****-Oriented Language
  • solidus23, on 10/11/2007, -0/+8Think of how many cellphones are out there (hundreds of millions). Guess what languages make up 90% of the firmware code. It's C/C++.

    I speak from first-hand experience.
  • saranagati, on 10/11/2007, -1/+9I really don't see how C could even be on that list at all. Though maybe C isn't quite as popular as it was back in `95 when there weren't many other choices, it really hasn't died out much. Maybe it's not used to create user applications any more and was never really designed to do that but, it's still a very popular choice in designing system applications. And with linux becoming so popular on networks and embeded devices I'd say there's actually been an increase in jobs from companies needing people to design custom drivers and low level applications. Basically C is back where it started at, being used to create operating systems and applications on any sort of hardware.

    Edit: as I saw someone near the bottom say also say, games are another field that is mainly written in c.
  • emeraldik, on 10/11/2007, -0/+8I was just taking a break from debugging a C program when I read this... 10 years ago some people saw Java and said that C is useless.. 10 years from now it will something else, but C will still be the best way to get certain things done
  • mikev, on 10/11/2007, -3/+10clicking wont be on the list any time soon, each item on the list is on a separate page. :(
  • VSack, on 10/11/2007, -1/+8QUICK! Someone post an article the showcases advertisements that is a list of something people will Digg!

    Buried as inaccurate. As has been remarked many times in the comments above, just because the author thinks a thing is dead does not make it so.

    C is one of the fundamental languages in computers. Many languages are derived from it and I don't know where I would be today without having the training I did have in C back in the early 90s. Its like the Latin of computer languages.

    Also, if I am not mistaken, ColdFusion is expected to make a major resurgence under Adobe in the Apollo project. I don't know much about the language itself, but I seem to have heard that there are alot of things about it that are good.

    Then again I don't know how a proprietary RDBMS can compete when so many open source alternatives are really beginning to mature.
  • ate50eggs, on 10/11/2007, -0/+7@KayIslandDrunk

    Could be worse...I had to take 3 semesters of ADA programming.
  • enivid, on 10/11/2007, -3/+10@bysin

    +1 digg for the return 0;
  • merreborn, on 10/11/2007, -0/+7I actually ran into this at work. We've got a new kid who's just finishing highschool who's supposed to pick up the more mundane bits of my job. He'd never touched the command line. Then I realized that when I was using computers in middle school, DOS was mandatory -- windows 95 wouldn't come out for years. Kids graduating highschool this year, however, were 6 or 7 when windows 95 came out, and hence never had to touch a commandline, ever.
  • daftman, on 10/11/2007, -0/+7what are you talking about? Batch file is the most valuable tool in the system admins' and programmers' job
    Imagine compiling millions lines of code from different projects without batch files.
    Batch file is the equivalent windows equivalent of bash script in linux. EXTREMELY useful.
  • chubbymidget, on 10/11/2007, -0/+6...while writing yet another content management system

    Sweet!
  • desolan, on 10/11/2007, -0/+6@duhblow7

    Vista has telnet, you just have to install it manually via the Control Panel.
  • 83457, on 10/11/2007, -2/+8As many others have stated, ColdFusion is not dead or dying. Odd choice for the list.
  • Fetching more discussions...
    Show 51 - 100 of 229 discussions

  • Add a Comment

    Login or register to comment!
    Or, sign-in super fast with your Facebook account ...

© Digg Inc. 2009 — Content created and posted by Digg users is dedicated to the public domain | Terms of Use Updated | Privacy Policy
DIGG, DIGG IT, DUGG, DIGG THIS, Digg graphics, logos, designs, page headers, button icons, scripts, and other service names are the trademarks of Digg Inc.