[Wildly off-topic, seeking advice] What do programmers do these days?

[ivan.lt]

Hi! Since there are a lot of IT people hanging out here I thought I would ask you guys. So I was a programmer about 15 or 20 years ago. While most of my work was about databases and CRM, I dabbled in a lot of things including the usual stuff (Windows, C/C++, VB, Java, HTML/CSS/JS/PHP/Perl) and more niche interests (Forth, LISP, x86 assembly, 3D graphics). Long story short, now I am considering going back into IT business but there's so much going on that I just can't wrap my head around it. So I guess I'm asking whether you could direct me to some online resources with practical advice on how to start making money using IT skills these days. Or maybe a site like stackexchange.com where these questions are appropriate. Like what is a "frontend Boost developer" (maybe that's nonsense, just improvising) and do I want to be one. Thanks!

P.S. Also, why do people say "Recall" when it's called "Teleport" in Daggerfall?..

[DigitalMonk]

I'm a software engineer, so IT isn't exactly my focus. For me, modern C++ and Python (and C# if you're making Windows apps or developing Unity-based games ) are my main go-to languages. I have some interest in Rust, as a modern language that makes memory safety mostly guaranteed at compile time and that can also be used for bare metal embedded programming.

With the availability of Unity, Unreal Engine, Godot, and other engines, I would say that full 3D programming probably isn't a thing people generally do unless they're working inside one of those projects (I could easily be wrong here, though). As near as I can tell, Pixel, Vertex, and Fragment shaders are where graphics programming happens out on the edge now.

As to IT, if you're thinking infrastructure/backend/support, Python and Windows Powershell (depending on OS) seem to be the main automation languages. If you're thinking web development, I can't really help you -- there are so many frameworks, and to be honest they all seem to be "similar but incompatible" to me. But I have a deep and abiding hatred for web development, so my bias is going to show there...

Oh, and of course, Cloud cloud cloud cloud cloud... AWS, Azure, all those goodies. Only actually need them if you're doing big data analysis or BIG company web presence, but you need to understand the pros and cons so that you can dissuade the boss of a 10 employee company from putting the interoffice memo system in the cloud "because it's cool"...

As for Recall/Teleport, my guess would be that it comes from Morrowind and the later TES games breaking Teleport into two spells, Mark and Recall. I personally prefer the split, because you can Mark once, and it stays there through an arbitrary number of Recalls. Only another Mark will move it. Not a big deal, but one fewer thing to have to ritualize (ie, you don't have to reflexively re-cast Teleport to re-set the marker after each recall use). But it's probably a matter of taste. (My CRPG life started with Might and Magic 6, and the teleportation spell there let you teleport to any city you knew and also to "memorize" up to 5 personal locations if your magic level was high enough -- so I've always found TES teleportation to be extremely limiting anyway)

[Ralzar]

P.S. Also, why do people say "Recall" when it's called "Teleport" in Daggerfall?..

Because the effect is called "Teleport". The teleport spell you can buy is called "Recall"