<story><title>Postgres: The next generation</title><url>https://redmonk.com/jgovernor/2023/10/10/postgres-the-next-generation-investing-in-the-next-generation-of-committers/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>candiddevmike</author><text>I wonder if C codebases are going to have problems finding maintainers in the future.  Postgres has commercial backing and inertia, but it seems like we are lacking a pipeline of (proficient) C developers.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>swatcoder</author><text>In some future, of course, but that future is &lt;i&gt;decades&lt;/i&gt; away. C is a living language with no shortage of active users and a learning curve that&amp;#x27;s not very steep for systems programmers working in other language.&lt;p&gt;It can feel daunting to today&amp;#x27;s web and application developers who are used to an opaque curtain between themselves and the underlying system architecture, but systems programmers using C++, Rust, etc already work behind that curtain (but with thicker gloves). They&amp;#x27;ve often worked with C in the past, at least in education or experiment, and can ramp up on the footgun quirks with some intentional study when taking it up professionally.&lt;p&gt;There are arguments against picking C for some &lt;i&gt;new&lt;/i&gt; systems projects, but -- outside a lack of systems programmers more broadly -- there&amp;#x27;s no pressing concern around finding maintainers for what already exists.</text></comment>
<story><title>Postgres: The next generation</title><url>https://redmonk.com/jgovernor/2023/10/10/postgres-the-next-generation-investing-in-the-next-generation-of-committers/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>candiddevmike</author><text>I wonder if C codebases are going to have problems finding maintainers in the future.  Postgres has commercial backing and inertia, but it seems like we are lacking a pipeline of (proficient) C developers.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>anarazel</author><text>(postgres hacker)&lt;p&gt;Yes, I think that will be the case. Obviously not a scientifically measured, by I think we&amp;#x27;re already seeing that average C skills for new contributors are lower than what they used to be - of course that might just be my slowly greying beard speaking. So far I think people just &amp;quot;learn on the job&amp;quot;, but how much delta that bridge I am not sure.&lt;p&gt;I think eventually we&amp;#x27;ll have to make it easier to use some other language in parts of the system (e.g. in-core data type implementations). But realistically I think that&amp;#x27;s still a bit off.</text></comment>