[Interest] [Development] Windows 7 support will be dropped in Qt 6

[Matthew Woehlke]

On 16/06/2020 18.59, Jonathan Purol wrote:
>> it's well "known" that you can teach C programmers Java, but you
>> can't teach Java programmers C
> 
> How is that well known? What studies can you provide for this?

No studies, but it seems to be a common attitude among most or all 
technical professionals with which I've worked.

That said, yes, there is some exaggeration there. Obviously, some people 
*can* learn "real" programming regardless of what they started out 
doing. The fact is, however, there are plenty more people that *can't*; 
people that can only perform certain tasks with the help of 
technological "crutches". For evidence, look no further than the large 
number of people that struggle with basic arithmetic.

You may be blessed to not have to work with many of these people 
(indeed, they aren't the sort of people that make desirable employees in 
any case). What I was saying was intended to reflect Roland's point, 
which is that there are plenty of people that can muddle through 
"programming" tasks when you give them an "easy" language (e.g. "Qt6" 
QML + javascript) that are in over their heads if you ask them to do 
something in e.g. Qt3 + C++. Yes, there *are* people that can learn, but 
they are less common than the muddlers that can passably do the former 
job and are hopeless when it comes to the latter.

I think the *real* point is that if none of your candidates already know 
"real" programming, it can be difficult to separate the ones with real 
underlying skill from the muddlers.

> Most of my local universities teach Java, do you want to imply those
> people will never ever be able to learn C?
All of them? No. *Some* of them? Absolutely.

> People can learn, people can change. All that's required is the
> incentive to do so, which is probably where you should have put your
> argument at instead: If Qt migrates away and drops win7 support, you
> get fewer and fewer people over time that have the incentive to learn
> the skills required to still develop for older versions.

That was, indeed, part of the point.

However, I also believe that not everyone is capable of every task, no 
matter how incentivized. (Plus, not everyone has the necessary 
determination.)

-- 
Matthew