And another thing. Java Swing is soooooo horrible. The focus sub-system only works sometimes, on certain components, on certain operating systems, with certain versions.

Also, Eclipse has to be one of the absolute *worst* C++ IDEs, on *any* platform.

Thanks for confirming that, I thought it was just me. I certainly ranted several times using it myself.

Oh, and I thought it was only me. I'm probably writing a journal entry about my "adventures" with the Android SDK. How to get it setup and work with it.

Heavens, they should be ashamed of naming that SDK.

Yeah, I downloaded that too. Looked like the software they used to program the Terminator. I have been looking at all the videos for the WWDC lately, and I realize how good Apple is at this stuff. Things are more unified and structured and purposeful. I haven't done any mobile development, but developing for IOS is a no brainer for me at this point, especially with the new Swift programming language, the new Metal API, Sprite Kit, and Scene Kit modifications.

OP, perhaps you could start with teaching that? That way you can use a higher level syntax and translate to how C++ handles the data?

C++ was the language all of us old guys learned to program with. There wasn't anything easy to start with.

Disagree.

For starters I learnt to code with BASIC.. sure then I went to 68K Assembly.. and then fiddled with a spot of Java and it wasn't until I'd been coding for a good 6 years before I got anywhere near C or C++.

I dare say many others have similar tales of not starting with C++, in part because it didn't exist or you couldn't get a compiler for it... (I don't recall if my Atari ST had a C++ compiler; it had a Pascal one and might a C one but not a C++... although I spent my days either in STOS BASIC land or in Devpac 3 making extensions for the former)

C++ was the language all of us old guys learned to program with. There wasn't anything easy to start with.

Disagree.

For starters I learnt to code with BASIC.. sure then I went to 68K Assembly.. and then fiddled with a spot of Java and it wasn't until I'd been coding for a good 6 years before I got anywhere near C or C++.

I dare say many others have similar tales of not starting with C++, in part because it didn't exist or you couldn't get a compiler for it... (I don't recall if my Atari ST had a C++ compiler; it had a Pascal one and might a C one but not a C++... although I spent my days either in STOS BASIC land or in Devpac 3 making extensions for the former)

Yeah, you're right. I'm just trying to defend my position.

Unity's editor. Why is it single threaded? Really? At least have some cycle detection or something in there. Not that I'm that prone to doing possibly cyclical C# scripts, but it just seems nutty to me that after all the time they've spent iterating on that editor, they haven't moved to a model where you can't make the thing explode accidentally via an infinite loop. Coupled with it's, "Save, sure I saved, but I'm not actually going to save until you try to close the editor", means that the first time I did it, I lose more work than I thought I was going to.

Oh boy! Complaining! I'm good at that!

OK, I do a lot of crap in my job, everything from desktop apps to web apps to ritual sacrifice of junior developers.

I ABHOR web development. It's a bloody mess. Everything from ASP.Net (which for simplistic things, is not too terrible) to the back and forth between client - server via Javascript. I avoided learning that bastard of a language for years, and every day I'm reminded of why.

Then there's the plethora of stuff that sits on top of Javascript to make life "easier" (jQuery, node, etc...). Except it doesn't, especially when you have to work with people who think that version numbers are meant to be ignored and different code bases can be mixed with ease (of course, that could be defined as a PEBKAC problem). Don't even get me started on the browser issues (and no, Microsoft isn't the only one to blame for this).

That said, this thread actually reminded me of something I thought about last week. I had stumbled upon this blog of this dude who was writing stuff for unchained VGA mode (Mode-X for the old people) in DOS. Then he decided to port it to CGA, EGA, Tandy/PCJr, C64, Amiga and his toaster. So, that inspired me to do something that I always wanted to do since I was 12: Write graphics routines for EGA. There's a ton of reasons why I never learned this when I was younger. Most notably, the internet not being the wonderful warehouse for porn and cat pictures knowledge that it is now. And that I couldn't actually get access to it until I was much older. But I digress... old people like me do that sort of thing.

So, with that long winded explanation in mind, I opened up Dosbox and installed a copy of Borland C++ 3.1 and began my code. And now, to the point: I realized just how easy it was to set up Borland C++ and just start writing. And I realized just how easy it was to open 320x200 16 colour mode and plot a pixel and then many pixels. I contrasted this to writing Direct3D (or Open GL for those that like that sort of thing) and realized that it is a major pain in my ass to get even the most simple things up and running (and I usually work with C#, so it should be stupid simple). I often get burned out because of all the boilerplate before actually doing something interesting. And I didn't even remotely experience that with my DosBox/BC++ experience, I actually felt like I was accomplishing something.

Anyway, yeah, that's my rant. Things are too damned complicated. And kids are on my lawn! And the rent is too high! And... I'm tired... I have to go nap now.

You know what really doesn't suck?

C# development on windows. It is just fucking..... awesome.

Download Visual Studio and start programming. Almost everything works great right out of the box. Add in resharper and it's even better, but it's still perfectly usable without it.

or

Python development on just about any platform.

but since we're complaining, why can't other platforms be that awesome?

Python development on just about any platform.

Doesn't python have pretty big issues with maintaining backwards compatability with older code bases?