₦airaland Forum

All these points point to the same thing: the Nigerian climate is not ripe yet for technology.

Why should there be expert programmers when you have to buy fuel, do marketing to find work, pay huge bills for limited data, keep up with a thousand new technologies (you dont know where the next project will come from), and still run your small startup on the side (andella got millions, you could be the next)? Which American, or Rwandan can thrive in these circumstances?

It has nothing to do with the people! Once these circumstances change, you will see people specializing! You will see people coding for weeks non stop. You will see serial founders!

And fact is: these circumstances are changing! Nepa is not nearly there yet but I think they are improving. 4g is slowly taking over. Data rates are falling. Tech companies are rising and they are slowly shifting from 'we want jack of all trades' to 'we want a .net developer'. Government is now using remita to transfer all funds. Buhari was there with Zuckerbarg when he came. All schools have embraced portals and students are seeing how technology simplifies things...students that will become leaders tomorrow.

Just give this profession 5 years, I say!!!

All the veterans here, am sure started when things were even much harder! Today, i can buy 10gb data for 2k while 3 years ago, 8500 couldnt get me 5.5gb. Today there are so many articles online BEGGING me to become a programmer while 3 years ago, it wasnt so. Today, i have companies harrassing me to come and work for them (no joke!), while am sure years back, there were very very few tech companies in the first place.

Just give this profession 5 years!!!

In 2021, everyone who peseveres in this huge market will be smiling.

asalimpo:
I disagree with you on some issues.
The google algorithm was the most realistic in its time. The market noticed the superiority of its search results and google took off. It's the market shifting to a better product that killed the competition.
Also note that the american market place is ultra competitive. Many startups die without creating any media buzz. If google was a flash in the pan, it wouldve died similarly.
before facebook there was myspace! so facebook wasnt particularly novel an idea.
Yeah, it had massive funding, but the funding came because, the market was already buzzing about it.
The prototype created a buzz in ivy league schools and campuses - people were jumping on the band wagon - before it was hot.
Snapchat - turned down a buy out.
People were using whatsapp - a lot before facebook acquired it.


Lawyers earn peanuts, but in the looong run, they could earn better.
Some law firms rake in huge figures (multiple 100m or billion+ a year).
Why do they earn so much? because they can charge huge fees? why can they charge huge fees?

The thing with these established professions is that they've got heavy prestige factors behind them.
That prestige capital, is usually , translated into money capital (increased earnings) with time.
With programming, the case is different. We do complex work, intellectual work, think deeply but people just see most no-name-yet coder as a little higher than a kid playing with legos! No wonder people want to migrate to other fields after a certain age - fields with higher prestige wrappings or less contempt around it.
its common to find an old person still practicing law - same doesnt go for I.T.
A lawyer has more social status than a coder because of the reach of his potential.
A lawyer can branch out into politics, get into governance, intimidate the ignorant etc He wields so much power because the fabric of modern civilization is written and interpreted in law!
ditto for architects, accountants , financial analyst/investment bankers, bankers.

Cogent points, bro.

Lol... A lecturer who studied for 7 years, and probably spent more years applying for the job, usually starts with a salary of 80-90k. While a junior programmer with a year's experience earns 120k. Let me not even talk about lawyers because the monthly earnings of your average 1 year experienced lawyer doesn't come close to 100k.

Programmers in Nigeria are underpaid, but when compared to other professions, we are rich!

That Mark Zuckerberg analogy is just shallow. If Mark was born in this country, he would have created a Facebook that no one uses, while someone in America will create a substandard version and it will get funding and become a multi billion dollar company. The Nigerian tech market has problems which only time will address. It is a miracle for any tech startup to succeed in this environment as it is right now. It has nothing to do with the quality of programmers.

You really think it's about solving problems people have? You think Google solved the search problem no one solved before them? Facebook solved the social network problem? My dear it is about getting funded quickly! These guys knew ppl that funded their mediocre products. That's y they outdid competition quickly. Google guys had a professor that invested in them. Mark met Sean Parker and the rest is history. Many Nigerians have developed brilliant solutions and it couldn't fly. People don't even understand what tech is, talk more, consider investing in it.

I hate it when common people are made to look smarter than we Africans because we are at a different economic stage.

As to your computer science, certification thing, you should know that computer science graduates who really understand programming are the exceptions:not the rule, and the reason technology grows at lightening speed is that there are no mediocrities set up in offices, "taking their time" to conduct research and advance the field... Or rather, there are such mediocrities, but before they are done discovering another way to search through an array which is just as fast as binary search, but which nobody ever thought of before, some kid in his basement has developed a virtual reality machine.

We are all very fortunate to be in this industry and in this country too. The real problem is our economy and the fact that people have not completely embraced technology in this country yet.

They will in the next 5 years. I would say I'll be jealous of anyone who is a programmer by then but God knows I'll still be one then.

No dull moment for this section these days

seunthomas:
All the challenges we have done what was the outcome ??
Its always one sided.
I wont allow you draw me into another e-fight.

Like you rightly said,

So what do i need to prove again.

All this talk of ego, maybe some of you guys should actually check yourself.

Like i keep saying "I may not be your problem"


Maybe you are your own enemy bro.

Good call, bro. Good call. U d have had your ass handed to you right now.

Since you ve admitted your level, am sorry for being too harsh. It won't happen again.

seunthomas:
What is the point of that?

I does not need to crawl the internet(i doubt you did that). You just need to find a site(s) with all the data you need and write a very simple html parser.

I do that like every other day.


I thought you were supposed to be matured??

But really why would i need to compete with you that i decrypted your encryption in under 5 mins. Must it be a challenge for you??

LOL.

I did not say compete with me. Your skill set is so shiny mine ll likely pale in comparison.

What am asking is: DO YOU WANT ME TO ASK YOU ALGORITHM QUESTIONS HERE ON THIS FORUM? IF YOU GET THEM RIGHT, YOU LL HAVE PROVEN URSELF, IF NOT, I LL SOLVE THEM AND YOU LL MOVE TO THE BLOGGING SECTION WHERE YOUR TALENTS LL BE BETTER APPRECIATED ONCE AND FOR ALL?

JUST SAY THE WORD!!!

seunthomas:
Okay @larisoft, sorry. But next time dont be cocky and try to mind your own business.

You made an algorithm that crawled the Internet, got Nigerian legal documents, categorized them, converted all to text (whether off, html, etc) in 10 mins?

Do you want me to test your algorithm skills here?

seunthomas:
Na that one you like, King Troll.

Our very learned oga @larisoft excuse for encryption is this:

(char) (toInt(c) - this.seed);

And una go come here come they make noise say una be programmers.

If you knew any better, you'd try to implement the algorithms that made that app. You ll probably learn enough to stop embarrassing yourself on this forum.

seunthomas:
Maybe beyond just reading books and documentation online, you should try to really study JVM behaviour.

Most of the assertion asalimpo and so many others made here are not accurate. I took the liberty to actually do verification in code.

But whats the point, once you dont know something you assume thats were all the knowledge in the world ends.

@larisoft In all honesty, i actually dont think you should even be commenting considering the best way to implement security in an app you build is by doing this:
(char) (toInt(c) - this.seed);

Am not about bringing people down anyway else i would make your code public, but i recommend you do something about that in caselaw, i may change my mind and just use that app for a thread lesson.

Please do! I'm sure a lot of us will benefit from such exposition. When developing an app, my strategy is to move quickly, release and Guage user response and then decide whether or not to continue. Your losing money every minute you spend fortifying something that may not work.

In the app you mentioned, security was the least of my worries and user validation was everything. Otherwise, you wouldn't have been able to decompile it in the first place.

The app is currently free since it wasn't validated as I would have liked. Dhtml18 was the first person to even comment on that hole but from my perspective user response was everything and if the users responded positively, one could go ahead to make the app fortified

In ur characteristic maturity, you imagined that that is my best way to secure an app...


Just feel free to do what you will with. It's open source now.

All these guys arguing against you are fools and you are the only great programmer on nl and we just can't see it because, your too far ahead... I understand.

Honestly.... I cant believe this is actually being debated!!!! Its so funny!

seunthomas:
And you are matured by joining a free for all right? I wish you the best man.

Lol...I have never claimed such, bro. I just stated my opinion. I wish you the best of the best.

I have interacted with these two guys personally. Asalimpo is very mature, and real. Seunthomas... I reserve my comment.

Really brilliant piece. Excellent sense of humor.

seunthomas:
You are actually right and wrong at the same time. In my array at compilation time, i am putting in primitive types which are all different types into the array. Simply am inserting totally different types at compilation and the compiler naturally would throw errors but because like i said in my other threads concept of "everything is an object in java" (Which was also argued at by @timtoday) the compiler actually accepts this values.

But the magic you describe at runtime, where the JVM now allocates enough memory to hold a generic object for our array.

But in plain text and for a layman, our array is taking different types but the JVM is converting it into java objects(which by the way happens to every primitive type) during runtime. So irrespective of if you do this:

int x[]=int[3];
the JVM will still convert into the associated Java type Integer which extends object.

At this point, I think we are just saying the same thing now.

seunthomas:
Then check this and explain if your assertion is true.
class Test{



public static void main(String args[]){
boolean status=true;
char c='Y';
int v=100;
Object s[]=new Object[3];
s[0]=status;
s[1]=c;
s[2]=v;

System.out.println(s[0].getClass().getName());
System.out.println(s[1].getClass().getName());
System.out.println(s[2].getClass().getName());

}

}


There is actually a class Array which is an extension of the primitive type [] and that can be extended.

In ur example, u are putting these types as their parent object (java.lang.object) and I already mentioned that while you could do this, you'd no longer be putting different types in one array as they are cast to their common type first.

Calling getclass on the object of course calls the overriding child method instead of the parent class and that's why you get the results you get.

dabigjoe6:
op c++ is not fading and is not going to be fading anytime soon

lol. I didnt say its fading. I said its not 'hot' in Nigeria right now. Very very few job requirements mention it.

Thanks for reading and commenting, bro.

To the best of my knowledge; the assertion that a java array can contain different types is false.

You could do this of course by making your objects extend one parent object, or implement a common interface, but then, they wouldnt be 'different types' anymore.

Also, to the best of my knowledge, arrays in java cannot be extended.

Badyear:
That is because outside people hardly go hungry or homeless even without a job, try being jobless in naija for just two months and let's see if you would still be choosing passion over food

As in eeeh... Badyear, e be like say you don see one or two bad years.

Its unfortunate that some people just have to criticize everything!

How does this make anyone less of a great programmer? If you are of the opinion that the likes of Jon Skeet are gods and the way they are chosen is the most ideal, what prevents you from towing that line? Have you opened your own contest, conducting it the way you believe is the best and we failed to participate?

This section has times when it is just dry. During such times, you guys that are criticizing now neither post nor do nothing reasonable to improve things.

Yet, when someone takes out his resources, and time, to make the section better; you rush here to criticize him.

Its just disappointing.

Thanks so much for contributing guys. I hope that all the newbies that are wondering what langauge to start with and earn big bucks fast, will know 'whatsup' after reading this thread.

dhtml18:
I completely agree with you that what is leading in Nigeria at the moment is: PHP, javaScript and C#.
But, you should not underestimate the power VB.NET - because it is quite powerful, and you can write VB.NET with C#. Unless your post is talking about Visual Basic 6 (which though is outdated, but some enterprise class applications especially in some certain industries like banks are still powered by visual basic 6 but even this is fading sha).
Now, you should also note that mobile application development is on fire too - this year for example, the ratio of PHP apps that i have done to mobile apps is like 10:2. Fact is, 90% of my time in the past 2 years have been mainly mobile apps (especially native android/ios), and fewer of web apps.
At this point, i rest my case. . . . .where is seunthomas, i know he will have contrary views to all this. . . .as the great great professor.

I think we completely agree with each other. I mentioned JAVA SE and observed that it's relevance for now, is tied to android development.

As for VB.NEt, i think the language is powerful and using the .net's common language runtime, its as good as C# (for .net programming oh). But I still think the langauge is dwindling in popularity in these climes (not in functionality).

Thanks for your input, bro.

What's hot, what's not series: languages:

This piece examines what’s reigning and what’s not for programming languages in Nigeria.


WHATS HOT

PHP: Hate or love it, PHP dominates Nigeria's programming scene. There are several reasons why this is so. One is the fact that PHP hosting is very cheap. With 3500 naira, you can host two PHP websites.
Another reason PHP reigns supreme, is the fact that the most popular content management systems e.g (WordPress, joomla majento) , used in Nigeria run on PHP. Finally, PHP is easy to learn. The Nigerian programming scene is filled with people who have very little time to learn, and yet; urgent money-needs. Hence, many Nigerian programmers start with it as a first language, and stick with it since it works.

Javascript :
Javascript is not just hot, it's on fire! Not only is javascript the undisputed king of the Web, it is fast expanding its Kingdom to previously untouchable platforms like servers, and mobile phones! Javascript is the language of mobile app frameworks like phone gap. Javascript is even used for unity game development. Javascript is the language of nodejs, angular js, ember js, and these frameworks are disrupting the Nigerian tech scene.

Apart from what javascript is already doing, it's clear that many frameworks yet to be released ll still be implemented in javascript since it's already so popular.

Javascript is so hot in the Nigerian tech scene that any programmer who refuses to learn it is seriously missing out
.

C#:
Gradually, c# has grown to become the dominant language of. Net (it used to be vb) . C# is also the default language for game programming (used to be c++) .

Also, c# is your best option for creating Windows desktop apps. It is also the language of xamarin which is the future of mobile app development.
The reason c# is boiling is that the language has so many frameworks and libraries that all you need to work with this language sometimes is forget coding and get a relevant degree. You ll learn the language within months after you've been employed for your degree. Also, the language has a ‘c’ in it. This means that even though its not nearly as hard as c, or c++, you almost always get the same ‘efizy’ ascribed to programmers of these other ‘fiendishly difficult’ languages.

Java SE: this is mainly for Android programming otherwise, Java is not so hot anymore. It's estimated that 70 % Nigerian smart phone users are on android so, anyone who intends to program for Nigerian Mobile phone users will sooner or later resort to java.


WHATS NOT

Java EE:
Knowing Java EE could be the distinguishing feature between a newbie and a pro, but the truth is that the demand for this skillset is shrinking. Few firms seek professionals in this segment these days and most of the projects that could be implemented satisfactorily in JAVA enterprise are now being implemented in C#. Net.

Visual basic: This is a classic case of the ‘efizy’ that characterizes the lifestyle of Nigerian programmers. There is no other reason visual basic is falling in popularity aside from the fact that it just doesn’t seem cool- not when it is rumored to be as easy as writing English Language and has a ‘basic’ in its name. Tech-savvy clients seem to have reservations about programmers that suggest to implement their projects in visual basic. And programmers tend to look down on visual basic programmers.

The guys who named this language really screwed up the language with that ‘basic’ in it.

C++:
who would have thought that c++ would eventually start fading? C++ was on fire when Symbian phones were in vogue. C++ used to be the only option for game programming, graphics simulation, and pretty much everything else that required acute optimization.

But today, a lot of factors are working furiously against this language, so much so that not only is the demand for it shrinking…but its also losing platforms on which it is relevant and will soon become a language reserved for extreme professionals in the trade.

One of these factors is the rise of the web and how every application written today aims to serve the 1billion+ users depending solely on their web browser for software. Now, its not that c++ cannot be used to make web applications, but your regular hosting company usually doesn’t have provision for that. And no; your regular programmer wouldn’t have the skill set to maintain that server either.

Another such factor is the decline of the Symbian platform: qt c++ used to be suuuper hot. Now, java android is the new black and ‘no one’ codes for Symbian anymore. Too bad for c++.

As if these are not enough, the introduction of unity game development engine which relies on c# and javascript issued yet another strong blow to c++’s market share. Unity Engine is awesome. With it, you can make awesome games and not know math. The company behind unity has a lot of money to throw around and they are winning hundreds of developers over to their platform each year, who would have otherwise relied on c++ for their game programming. Again: too bad for c++.

Please note that this is just an overview of whats trending and whats not in Nigeria; and is in no way to be interpreted as meaning that one language is superior to the other.

Did I miss a programming language that you consider hot? Please say so in the comment section

Got it, bro

I nominate larisoft

nairaland.com/larisoft

Daniel the geek

nairaland.com/danielthegeek

@oga html... Wonderful concept! How will the winner be decided?

damlax:
Please i need an android developer to compile my code

share the code with me, bro. My email is info@larisoft.com.ng

Lol...Reality indeed is a tricky thing. I'm sure that Christians reading this see nothing but more reasons to praise God-besides seeing a lot of reasons to think you are deranged. And they are sincere about it, trust me. Perception....Everything! No one can help it!

dhtml18:
The great programmer has spoken, I second the motion - I have my BAYGON SPRAY ready to kill any stray bug left.

LOL... Am still loyal o.

satmaniac:
Waiting have I to contribute here? Only to gain from the wealth of experience of people like you. Although, I have an issue I lie to bring to your attention. there is this php code that refused to insert the values into the database. I have taken a hard look at the codes, yet couldn't exactly pinpoint the problem. I have been on this particular problem for like 2weeks now. So, I decided it is high tie I bring it to expertz notice. dhtml18, larisoft, Danielthegeek, Adewaskco etc.

Share the code, bro.

As in eh... For me I just have to keep watching and comparing myself with the guys abroad (and keep taking a beating from them too) because if you focus on most of the guys who brand themselves programmers here, you would be feeling good not knowing you are comparing yourself with non-programmers.

leetcode.com, github.com, hackerank.com. These are some of the places I live.

0ubenji:
first offs, I'm not an Atheist, Buh thr are some largely erroneous perspective u got here.
What makes one a freethinker is the ability of reasoning without dogma. Juz coz a freethinker arrives at a conclusion(which is highly necessary) doesn't negates his though pattern. Ur definition of a freethinker is aimless thinking..nah..
The adjective free affixed to the noun thinker only emphasises the individual's power to reason independent of any religious or whatever authority. He simply is subjected to a conclusion drawn from his perceptivity.
Every thought pattern must definitely arrive at a conclusion, sooner or later. Whatever is being derived from this thought pattern is what becomes the ideology..
The ideologies of a freethinker is however dynamic or else dogma may set in.
So don't be swayed by the free term.. No matter how freely something flies or flows..Remember, there's always an orientation/direction which serves as the conclusion at every point in time.

I beg to disagree, in the hope that you might make your argument more aptly put. For I think that when 'arriving at a conclusion' becomes more important than arriving at a 'universally verifiable truth', an atheist becomes no different from a theist, who supplants absence of explanation with the most convenient fiction available to him.

Answers are simply not available now. It doesn't mean they wouldn't be available later. Every free thinker is supposed to leave a room in their minds for the possibility that there might be a God of sorts somewhere, since it has not been proven that there isnt one. Now, the existence or not of this God, the nature of this God, his reasons, and capabilities, are to be determined by further questioning and research. Not denial or hasty conclusions!

Ranchhoddas:
Freethought in many cases leads to atheism. They are not necessarily mutually exclusive.

Lol...I would say free thought is a journey, of which atheism is just the first probable bus stop. However, any traveller who remains at this bus stop is a lazy one. For absence of evidence, if anything, calls for a more thorough search. Not a conclusion!

hahn:
FREE thinking as the name implies the freedom to think freely. Atheists simply do not believe in god and are therefore free to think about any other possibility for the origin of the earth, mankind etc. Theists on the other hand do no believe such. Their god is the right one despite the amount of gods in existence.

Is it then not logical to say that both are fixed on conclusions already. The first; that no matter what evidence is discovered later on, it will always prove that there is no God. The second; that no matter what evidence exists already, or will be discovered later, that they know with unflinching certainty that there is God.

Is it also not logical to derive that none of the parties has a completely open mind?