I took a course named Advanced Math & Science during my senior year in high school (1974). It spent a few weeks on BASIC. After learning a few commands, we had to write a program and code it in on pencil cards. On the last day of the course, we took our stacks of cards to the school’s minicomputer room, and the guy in the lab coat ran them. Mine was the only one not to crash.
In college, I took a required course in HP BASIC. We learned in the classroom and had access to the computer lab’s teletype machines with punched-tape readers/writers. Only the cool kids had access to the Hazeltine CRT terminals.
When the home computer craze hit, I coded in Atari BASIC and learned some 6502 Assembly Language from a book so I could shell out to assembly for some subroutines, to accomplish some things beyond the hardware-access capability of BASIC.
Once the 8-bit home computers faded, that was pretty much the end of my coding, except for a bit in Linden Scripting Language for Second Life and other virtual worlds.
These days, retired with nothing but time, I am tempted to get back into the game. A young (early 30s is young to me) software engineer friend suggests RUST as a good place to start.
Took BASIC in H.S. and BASIC in college for a semester. Did a touch of ASCII (barely remembered what it was called). I remember a few commands but most…nope.
@olperfesser I resisted the move to management, even leaving a 15 year career at a major tech company when they insisted I make the jump (they had an up-or-out policy - I chose out). I wanted to keep my fingers in the guts of the technology, not shuffle people around on an org chart. I probably missed out on some big bucks/opportunities doing so, but I think the path I took was more personally satisfying.
I used to do a lot in K&R C and later VAX and DEC C on VMS systems, with VMS BASIC front ends. Some Fortan to support the MANMAN product. Better days before work turned into an MSP changing microsoft diapers. Meh.
Vague memories of Applesoft Basic and 6502 Assembly language in the before time
@duodec@PocketBrain
A VAX? Whippersnappers! Move over while I fire up the PDP-11 running RSTS/E and we can play this ASCII asteroids game I wrote on the VT-102.
@mike808@PocketBrain We still support several customers who give a crap about their operations and data so never downgraded to the shit put out in redmond.
My original home computer ran on DOS 3.1 so I knew how to write commands. I hung out in mIRC chat rooms all the time and knew how to do some fun commands in them. We had a BASIC computer at home too, but it was just for fun. I played around with it. Oh and I had a MySpace and Geocities site so I learned some HTML for that
Even though I’ve been coding SQL as my career for the past 11 years and I know both Oracle and SQL sever syntax, I still consider myself an intermediate at best.
I’m an electrical engineer, and right now mostly doing embedded software. I don’t feel right about the use of the term “fluency” in regards to programming languages.
@Limewater@PocketBrain To me, bare metal means assembly code. I’ve even had to write assembler macros for machine code for (valid) CPU instructions that were not supported by the assembler.
We were recently working with a company that was developing a VM product. They had to update their VM to support some code in our product. They had never encountered any other software that used that arcane CPU feature before.
@macromeh@PocketBrain I am using the term “bare metal” because there is no OS.
I barely ever have reason to mess with assembly, but I did have to figure out the machine instruction for a hard breakpoint in ARMv7 assembly earlier this week in an attempt to debug what eventually turned out to be a hardware problem.
@macromeh So what was writing Intel/AMD/ARM microcode CPU errata patches like? Or were you FPGA programming? What sort of developer tools? Is it emulators that spit out firmware images? Fun with the Intel IME?
Forced to learn one language when taking calculus. Cripes I was having enough trouble with calculus never having taken pre calc or trig which is not a good idea as I had to teach myself some trig to survive that (as an aside: if you ever have to take a finance class be sure to have taken accounting first. I had the same problem taking them in reverse order). Add to that the problem of telling a computer how to do it and it was a really lucky thing that my roommate was dating an engineer who worked in a computer lab.
Then I took another language for the sole purpose of writing an app to figure out a grocery list with quantities to buy from a menu when I took people camping for a living.
Then I took a different language to learn how to make card games. Nope. Dropped that class. I finally decided I lose interest when I know the problem can be solved, how to solve it, how to do it, set up the framework needed, etc. Don’t want to do that petty little detail of making the damn thing actually run, finding typos, fixing mistakes… I would prefer to delegate the nuts and bolts of that.
So I vaguely remember a few languages, but I prefer to buy my programs these days. (grin).
i loved deadjournal & livejournal back in the day and learned how to do some basic CSS stuff as a result to get my pages looking ~cool.~ () i couldn’t write any of it off the top of my head now, but i could access that information in the dusty corners of my brain with the help of google if i was so inclined.
I’ve been fighting with Python code all day (week, month…most of this year). I don’t know if the software project I’m working on was written by a committee of unintelligent monkeys or if I’m just a bad Python programmer (or maybe some of both) but this project has been kicking my butt for months.
I’m ready to go back to updating scripts in Matlab, I’m much more proficient in that language.
@dannybeans I had an Apple II+ compatible; I found a Star Wars text adventure that was written in BASIC. They put in a random encounter with a Wookiee in the prison level and sometimes he ripped your arms out, ending the game. I fixed it so he was always friendly and gave him a blaster.
I learned FORTRAN and COBOL in high school; that was the early '80s and THAT meant boxes & boxes of punch cards
I had one programming class in college - think it was C (?). Not interested in any coding, just basic applications
My kid is the programming whiz: taught himself Python; think he’s moved on to Cython, C, C++
/image Cython
@compunaut I had to learn fortran and cobol in college in the late 90s. Fortran when I was in engineering and then cobol when I switched to business/cis. They said we needed cobol to fix all the industry applications still written in it for Y2K, the only problem was I was on track to graduate in Spring of 2000.
In a former life I worked for an aerospace company as a software engineer coding in C, C+ and assembly (mostly for Motorola processors, some 8088), and DCL. I had to stop when I began having nightmares about lexical functions and conditional operators nearly every night. I moved on to become a tech rep and product mangler before leaving the company a couple years later.
Thankfully, nearly everything I ever knew about coding has become a footnote.
@ruouttaurmind I remember having nightmares years ago about endlessly single-stepping through assembly code. Let’s just say I did not wake well-rested the next morning. Thankfully, while I still code and debug, I don’t have those dreams anymore.
Don’t recall using it. My work in this setting was v short term anyway.
I think dept co-workers were working in it.
Had v slight academic interaction with some PDP and Control Data machines. I don’t remember which machines or which languages. Just messing around, or a “what the hell” course of some sort.
My code prob sucked. But it ran. I heard, a year or two after my time in the IBM shop, that small portions of my stuff were still in use (no doubt much amended). Had worked at thorough documenting along the way.
I currently write T-SQL, M, VBA, C# a bit, Python scripts, JavaScript a little, whatever makes computer go. Self taught and coming from IT, not software dev, so all my code is probably more engineer-tier than professional grade. Most of it’s small anyways though, hundreds of lines, not thousands.
I wish I was between Swift on the one hand and various asm languages otoh, kind of poking at those as a hobby. Have to get to mid-learning curve before really digging in is even a thing.
… feels like I’ve written that here before… probably so.
Played around with BASIC as a kid. Learned a little pascal in high school. Then decided to leave coding to the smart kids…
I’ve been waiting for this question. Computers are the only thing I know
I took an intro to coding logic class in college…13 years ago. Did pretty well, but fuck if I remember any of it.
I programmed in my youth, then I moved into internet protocols and cybersecurity. Programming has advanced, so now I call myself an architect.
I took a course named Advanced Math & Science during my senior year in high school (1974). It spent a few weeks on BASIC. After learning a few commands, we had to write a program and code it in on pencil cards. On the last day of the course, we took our stacks of cards to the school’s minicomputer room, and the guy in the lab coat ran them. Mine was the only one not to crash.
In college, I took a required course in HP BASIC. We learned in the classroom and had access to the computer lab’s teletype machines with punched-tape readers/writers. Only the cool kids had access to the Hazeltine CRT terminals.
When the home computer craze hit, I coded in Atari BASIC and learned some 6502 Assembly Language from a book so I could shell out to assembly for some subroutines, to accomplish some things beyond the hardware-access capability of BASIC.
Once the 8-bit home computers faded, that was pretty much the end of my coding, except for a bit in Linden Scripting Language for Second Life and other virtual worlds.
These days, retired with nothing but time, I am tempted to get back into the game. A young (early 30s is young to me) software engineer friend suggests RUST as a good place to start.
@ThunderChicken Are you sure you heard RUST and not rusty? Just making sure your hearing aid was working.
Depends on what “fluent” means. Is Stack overflow allowed?
Anybody here know ATLAS or LASAR?
@PocketBrain I know about three different ATLASes. My company seems to reuse acronyms a lot and it annoys the heck out of everyone.
@gt0163c
Abbreviated
Test
Language for
Avionics (All)
Systems
Took BASIC in H.S. and BASIC in college for a semester. Did a touch of ASCII (barely remembered what it was called). I remember a few commands but most…nope.
If we’re talking computer coding, I’ve got nothing. If we’re talking secret codes?! I’m extremely proficient.
It’s less about how many languages you know the syntax of and more how well you intuit the core concepts of programming and computer logic, really.
@lljk I see you have stairs in your house.
Also yup. It’s mostly about understanding how things function. I’ve successfully faked my way through things to test.
My career was in IT. Even after being promoted into management, I had to show the newbies how the system worked. Never lost those skills.
@olperfesser I resisted the move to management, even leaving a 15 year career at a major tech company when they insisted I make the jump (they had an up-or-out policy - I chose out). I wanted to keep my fingers in the guts of the technology, not shuffle people around on an org chart. I probably missed out on some big bucks/opportunities doing so, but I think the path I took was more personally satisfying.
I’m better at front-end coding, but I still remember a bit of Lisp and Prolog from my first bout with grad school long long ago.
I used to do a lot in K&R C and later VAX and DEC C on VMS systems, with VMS BASIC front ends. Some Fortan to support the MANMAN product. Better days before work turned into an MSP changing microsoft diapers. Meh.
Vague memories of Applesoft Basic and 6502 Assembly language in the before time
@duodec
OOoo VAX VMS. I programmed an autoresponse to every swear word I could think of once on an ALPHA-VAX system.
@duodec @PocketBrain
A VAX? Whippersnappers! Move over while I fire up the PDP-11 running RSTS/E and we can play this ASCII asteroids game I wrote on the VT-102.
@mike808 @PocketBrain We still support several customers who give a crap about their operations and data so never downgraded to the shit put out in redmond.
My original home computer ran on DOS 3.1 so I knew how to write commands. I hung out in mIRC chat rooms all the time and knew how to do some fun commands in them. We had a BASIC computer at home too, but it was just for fun. I played around with it. Oh and I had a MySpace and Geocities site so I learned some HTML for that
Even though I’ve been coding SQL as my career for the past 11 years and I know both Oracle and SQL sever syntax, I still consider myself an intermediate at best.
/slap @mbersiam
After 40 years as a systems software engineer, I know a few things
. But I learn new stuff all the time - that’s one reason I’m still in it.
I’m an electrical engineer, and right now mostly doing embedded software. I don’t feel right about the use of the term “fluency” in regards to programming languages.
@Limewater Considering how “fluid” they are in embedded, you likely don’t have time to truly master one before it evolves or is replaced.
@PocketBrain Not for me. Where I am it’s all bare metal C or C++ for the onboard stuff.
@Limewater @PocketBrain To me, bare metal means assembly code. I’ve even had to write assembler macros for machine code for (valid) CPU instructions that were not supported by the assembler.
We were recently working with a company that was developing a VM product. They had to update their VM to support some code in our product. They had never encountered any other software that used that arcane CPU feature before.
@macromeh @PocketBrain I am using the term “bare metal” because there is no OS.
I barely ever have reason to mess with assembly, but I did have to figure out the machine instruction for a hard breakpoint in ARMv7 assembly earlier this week in an attempt to debug what eventually turned out to be a hardware problem.
@Limewater @macromeh @PocketBrain
Isn’t “bare metal” really microcode in the CPU itself?
@macromeh @mike808 @PocketBrain Bare Metal Programming
@Limewater @mike808 @PocketBrain Yep, so I guess writing OS kernel code qualifies.
@macromeh So what was writing Intel/AMD/ARM microcode CPU errata patches like? Or were you FPGA programming? What sort of developer tools? Is it emulators that spit out firmware images? Fun with the Intel IME?
Forced to learn one language when taking calculus. Cripes I was having enough trouble with calculus never having taken pre calc or trig which is not a good idea as I had to teach myself some trig to survive that (as an aside: if you ever have to take a finance class be sure to have taken accounting first. I had the same problem taking them in reverse order). Add to that the problem of telling a computer how to do it and it was a really lucky thing that my roommate was dating an engineer who worked in a computer lab.
Then I took another language for the sole purpose of writing an app to figure out a grocery list with quantities to buy from a menu when I took people camping for a living.
Then I took a different language to learn how to make card games. Nope. Dropped that class. I finally decided I lose interest when I know the problem can be solved, how to solve it, how to do it, set up the framework needed, etc. Don’t want to do that petty little detail of making the damn thing actually run, finding typos, fixing mistakes… I would prefer to delegate the nuts and bolts of that.
So I vaguely remember a few languages, but I prefer to buy my programs these days. (grin).
i loved deadjournal & livejournal back in the day and learned how to do some basic CSS stuff as a result to get my pages looking ~cool.~ (
) i couldn’t write any of it off the top of my head now, but i could access that information in the dusty corners of my brain with the help of google if i was so inclined.
why… are you hiring?
@LordSalem https://mercatalyst.com/jobs
I’ve been fighting with Python code all day (week, month…most of this year). I don’t know if the software project I’m working on was written by a committee of unintelligent monkeys or if I’m just a bad Python programmer (or maybe some of both) but this project has been kicking my butt for months.
I’m ready to go back to updating scripts in Matlab, I’m much more proficient in that language.
My first computer was a Commodore 128. I knew enough BASIC to write a text adventure and a calculator.
I actually still have it, waiting to be reassembled after retrobriting. I might try to pick it up again once that’s done.
@dannybeans I had an Apple II+ compatible; I found a Star Wars text adventure that was written in BASIC. They put in a random encounter with a Wookiee in the prison level and sometimes he ripped your arms out, ending the game. I fixed it so he was always friendly and gave him a blaster.
I learned FORTRAN and COBOL in high school; that was the early '80s and THAT meant boxes & boxes of punch cards
I had one programming class in college - think it was C (?). Not interested in any coding, just basic applications
My kid is the programming whiz: taught himself Python; think he’s moved on to Cython, C, C++
/image Cython
@compunaut I had to learn fortran and cobol in college in the late 90s. Fortran when I was in engineering and then cobol when I switched to business/cis. They said we needed cobol to fix all the industry applications still written in it for Y2K, the only problem was I was on track to graduate in Spring of 2000.
/giphy waste of time
VHDL.
@PocketBrain I’d like to do VHDL again. We have need at my employer, but I’m not sure I’ll have time to spin back up on it.
In a former life I worked for an aerospace company as a software engineer coding in C, C+ and assembly (mostly for Motorola processors, some 8088), and DCL. I had to stop when I began having nightmares about lexical functions and conditional operators nearly every night. I moved on to become a tech rep and product mangler before leaving the company a couple years later.
Thankfully, nearly everything I ever knew about coding has become a footnote.
@ruouttaurmind I remember having nightmares years ago about endlessly single-stepping through assembly code. Let’s just say I did not wake well-rested the next morning. Thankfully, while I still code and debug, I don’t have those dreams anymore.
10 ? "I’m old ";
20 GOTO 10
From an old .sig of mine:
Whisper if you run it. And, yes, it does. You might have to adjust the path to the
spelldictionary.360/370 coding work from long ago. Including Fortran, Pascal, assembly.
Long gone from my brain.
Back then I also had the “dreams of code”, after long days w the punch cards and endless printouts.
@f00l What? No PL/1?
@mike808
Don’t recall using it. My work in this setting was v short term anyway.
I think dept co-workers were working in it.
Had v slight academic interaction with some PDP and Control Data machines. I don’t remember which machines or which languages. Just messing around, or a “what the hell” course of some sort.
My code prob sucked. But it ran. I heard, a year or two after my time in the IBM shop, that small portions of my stuff were still in use (no doubt much amended). Had worked at thorough documenting along the way.
@f00l @mike808 I’ve written my share of PL/M (an 80’s version of PL/1 for x86 microprocessors). Does that count?
I currently write T-SQL, M, VBA, C# a bit, Python scripts, JavaScript a little, whatever makes computer go. Self taught and coming from IT, not software dev, so all my code is probably more engineer-tier than professional grade. Most of it’s small anyways though, hundreds of lines, not thousands.
I wish I was between Swift on the one hand and various asm languages otoh, kind of poking at those as a hobby. Have to get to mid-learning curve before really digging in is even a thing.
… feels like I’ve written that here before… probably so.
If this discussion includes OS commands, I like to start my day with ~$ sudo apt-get install coffee.
@ThunderChicken Go fork() yourself and get me a cup too.