C++, Data Management with the Object Database presented by Rene Eng

I was given a chance to interview Rene Eng, a C++ enthusiast who is actively involved in the Zürich Tech Community. Rene gave a talk in the offices of Stamford Consultants in Zurich with the aim to educate the members of the C++ User Group Zurich  on Datamanagement with the Object Database. You can get to know a bit about Rene’s  interests and his relationship with IT  by reading this little interview I conducted with him. Thanks to these series of interviews of IT Professionals, we are trying to give insights into the life of an IT professional here in Switzerland.

How did you first become interested in IT? When did you realise this would become your profession?

At school, in 1985, we bought pocket computers that could be programmed in Basic. When we typed in our first 'for' loop and let it run, I knew this was what I wanted to do.

What does it take to become a successful developer?

You need a good knowledge of the programming language and the operating system you are using in order to find good and efficient solutions, use the resources that are provided instead of re-inventing the wheel. The knowledge of design patterns also helps you to find solutions to common problems faster. And last but not least, you must be able to remember how your application works, how the classes interact, where the important features are located.

What advice would you give to a young developer starting off their career today?

Make sure you understand what happens in your source code. Never stop learning. Try pair programming and code reviews. 

How do you choose what programming language to learn? What connected you with C++?

First I used a lot of different programming languages, so I did not mind to learn C in my first employment as a  software engineer. Then, I learned C++ and got a new job where I also used C++. Over the years, my understanding of the language features increased, and with the current changes that C++ is going through (C++ 11, 14, 17 …), it has become my favourite programming language.

What do you enjoy most about working as an IT professional?

Finding elegant solutions for the problems I have to solve.  Elegant here of course meant in the context of software design. 

If you were going to start this over again, what three things would you do differently?

Start earlier to follow the “Separation of Concerns” design principle. Write even more test programs.

And do more code reviews and pair programming.

You have been working with the Six Group for many years, can you give me some insight into the journey you have made with them?

When I started in 1998, the application I was going to work on was capable of handling 1700 messages per second on a dual CPU server, which was quite impressive for this time. Today the same application can handle 1 million messages per second. Of course, part of this increase is coming from the increased power of today's server, but we also had to change a lot in the application itself e.g. to make it use more parallelism.

Another point is the constant change. IT and its tools is still quite new, so everything changes more or less often: The operating system you work on, project management principles, tools, even the programming language itself.

You were recently presenting here at the Stamford offices on behalf of the C++ User Group. Can you tell me more about the group and how you got involved with them?

For some years now I’ve been focusing on improving my skills regarding software design in general and C++ and its features in particular. As far as I remember I was on the meetup site (at https://www.meetup.com) for another meeting, when I found the C++ meetup group in Zurich that had just been established. I joined the group to learn more about C++, how other people use C++ and, last but not least, to get to know other people who use C++.

How do you see the future of C++ as a language?

I think it will prevail for high-performance applications, where you need the kind of control over your resources that C++ gives you. And with the ongoing changes to the language, I hope (and believe) that it will attract even more people in the future.

What is your favourite piece of technology?

What continues to impress me is the development of the computer graphics. When you started with games like Pacman, Snake or raytracing programs that run for hours for one black&white image, and then look at the quite realistic games nowadays with reflections in mirrors, reflections of clouds in windshields and stuff like that: Amazing.

What sci-fi tech would you like to be seen developed in the near future?                      

Space ships with faster-than-light engines, otherwise all the other stars and their planets are way too far away to reach.               

If you are interested in career advice on how to enter the Swiss IT job market please get in touch. You can find more information on the website of our company The Stamford Group. 

 The Stamford Group, has evolved from its origins in recruitment to a group of companies offering a full range of Talent Sourcing Solutions, to reflect the change in our Clients' needs within today's Global market. This enables our customers to choose or combine a variety of sourcing solutions and specialist services to ensure a 'Right Fit' model, a model based on flexibility and adaptability.