Slides for my session "Is C going the way of the Dodo?" at ACCU 2012. As it turned out, "Is C dead yet?" was a common topic throughout the conference. In this session, I was looking at it from the perspective of my employer, who's desperately seeking C developers. Where are those coming from these days? How was it "back in the day"? This then led to a discussion, from which some notes are included in this slide deck now.

1. Is C going
the way of
the Dodo?
Dirk Haun
ACCU 2012

2. Requiem for C

3. C will live forever
Requiem for C

4. C will live forever
When only C will do
Requiem for C

5. C will live forever
When only C will do
Is C going the way of the Dodo?
Requiem for C

7. "Java's long term
downward trend
line finally crosses
C's stable (almost flat)
popularity line"

8. Assumption:
There is a steady demand
for C developers (for now).

9. Where do C developers
come from?

10. C is not a good language
for teaching

11. 2nd Assumption:
Most C developers
are self-taught.

12. Back in the day ...

13. ... and then came the GUI ...

14. These days?
You write for the web
(or mobile).

15. Motivation? Discuss ...
Help?
ACCU?

16. Notes from the discussion
Where do C programmers come from?
"From the '80s."
Why rescue it?
Multi core vs. C
Market forces
Motivation / Use
Open Source projects
EE students(?)
Coming "down" from C++ Stability
Efficiency / power consumption Maintenance
Performance "No crisis"
Understanding the machine
Help
Internet - courses etc.
"gamify it" Role for the ACCU?
(no contributions)

17. @dirkhaun

18. Credits
Presentation: Dirk Haun,
TIOBE index via their website,
Dodo painting by Cornelis Saftleven from 1638, via Wikipedia
Other photos via Flickr, in order of appearance:
"morning sun" by Matt MacGillivray,
"Stork" by L.E Daniel Larsson,
"Numbers in the orange" by Leonid Mamchenkov,
"workstation" by hobvias sudoneighm,
"ZX81" by Dirk Haun,
"Untitled" by Marcin Wichary,
"wide web" by josef.stuefer,
"Conversation" by Paul Hart,
"Thank you" by Margherita J. L. Lisoni