Hacker News Reader

Comment by n_t | Hacker News Reader

Not able to edit! But i meant NOT worth the switch.

Indeed! Low level libraries are good enough from hardware vendors. They are written once, debugged and kept forever. No money in this layer, move up in the stack!

Are the jobs still there or are they disappearing?

I am bored of the churn associated with stuff higher up the stack. I would prefer to master a craft rather than chase new fads every few years.

There aren't as many jobs in the embedded space as there are for higher level software. Nowadays, lots of new embedded processors are hitting the market and there will probably be a shake-out sooner or later. So the embedded space isn't necessarily more stable than the web based stack. Lots of the processors are getting huge with lots of memory, faster and more capable cpu's; all of which will require programming at a higher level. Arduino's use C++, Raspberry Pi's are usually programmed with Python (although you can use any language that runs on linux), and most embedded processors can be programmed with the C programming language. One niche that you might be interested in is the amount of high level software that's required for today's newer and larger cpus/SOCs that have a lot of connectivity, such as wifi, bluetooth, and software that communicates with TCP/IP. Connectivity is driving a lot of the newer stuff. with that, security is a big deal and might become required knowledge. There are also a lot of experimental attempts at introducing new and higher level languages on embedded systems. Rust, javascript, go-lang, elixir/erlang, are some recent examples. The embedded space is beginning to experience the churn that you're dreading in the high level stack.

These are valid points for embedded systems without latency/power requirements, but I want to add that many embedded systems require rolling custom assembly and writing everything else in C to avoid the overhead of other languages and meet battery life and/or performance requirements.

As an extreme example: I just saw a new micro the other day which costs 3 cents per unit... but it only has 64 BYTES of RAM.

Maybe look into mainframes such as the i series. You won't experience churn there. And there will be an increasing need for younger developers in this area in the near future as many of the current developers will be retiring.

Also, you won't be required to work on pet side projects, push them to Github, blog about them and post Show HN comments to build up street cred for future job interviews.

But I have no idea how one breaks into this field. Maybe that's worth an Ask HN or a Stack Exchange post.

There's still quite a few local govt that I've worked with that still use AS/400s / iSeries type stuff for all financials. One just bought a brand new one a year or so ago because it was cheaper to buy a new one than replace it with any other system.

I learned enough to know when to call IBM for support, but with that experience it wouldn't be too difficult to find another job managing one.

I remember 12+ years ago, my old boss bitching about working on an AS/400, then he'd hire his brother (who worked on them for years) to come out to do very simple stuff for quite a high premium.

I just wish they weren't so proprietary, but at the same time, I am glad they are. It's been a love hate relationship.

Now I work with an AIX system. Unix under the hood, but IBM still has a stranglehold on it. Both tanks though.

I saw one at Turkey Hill yesterday, with the text banner. The banner was pretty sweet. You'll find them all over the place. I'm pretty sure a lot of places are still using these systems like department stores and whatnot.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com