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Should have explained that a little bit more but I was in a hurry.
When I started in the 90's on the main frame, there were available compilers on the system. One could program in C, Pascal, COBOL, Assembly, Basic, OPS5, Fortran, LISP, maybe Prolog, and other languages. One just logged in, wrote their program in an editor, and then issued the necessary line commands at the base level.
These days with everything seeming to be server based (and menu driven), for the general user, writing anything other than a paper seems to be gone. Sure, I might be able to write a program in Visual Basic or Python in ARCGIS....but I need to actually be involved with those departments to access to that package. Further, ARCGIS is not the kind of package an individual has around just for the fun of it.
There are times when I miss those old days, of considering a problem or a perceived want and then spending a few nights (or months) writing programs to handle it.
...These days with everything seeming to be server based (and menu driven), for the general user, writing anything other than a paper seems to be gone. Sure, I might be able to write a program in Visual Basic or Python in ARCGIS...There are times when I miss those old days, of considering a problem or a perceived want and then spending a few nights (or months) writing programs to handle it.
I have dozens of free compilers on my PC, and I can compile and run programs from the command line if I'm feeling nostalgic. However, I'd rather use a development environment, like Eclipse.
I have dozens of free compilers on my PC, and I can compile and run programs from the command line if I'm feeling nostalgic. However, I'd rather use a development environment, like Eclipse.
Do you have those systems available to you on a university or work computer system?
When I got where I am now a quarter of century ago, I did. Now, however, student wise, it's mostly just for e-mail, net browsing, paper writing, and various other applications, but no real programming capability.
Now, I suppose I could haul around my lap top if I want to have the programming ability.......but you know, I really miss the capacity I had on the main frame of running a process that needed 45 minutes of that time............and dread of having to try it on a PC.
Location: God's Gift to Mankind for flying anything
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Uhmmm , since the title of the subject is *Lazy Youth* how old are you ?
If older than a *youth*, that you are just as lazy, since you could still do a lot of *Programming*, whether for fun or making a living !
In your original post you mention: *when I was your age*
Who were you addressing ?
Then you mention : *When I got where I am now a quarter of century ago*
25 years and you still are at it ! Kudos to you Lady !
(but no real programming capability.)
I worked over 40 years in the aerospace Industry and I am just now realising what I do NOT know !
Oh well ...
So please do not call people, young or old, who use modern programme languages to design aircraft lazy ...
Location: Mableton, GA USA (NW Atlanta suburb, 4 miles OTP)
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Quote:
Originally Posted by TamaraSavannah
"Why, when I was your age, if we had a simple arithmetic problem to work out, we'd............
.......................................write a program in BASIC and let the main frame do it for us!"
...but BASIC was mainly a micro language, and we did all of our mainframe coding in Fortran or Algol or assembler or something else cool.
I agree that some things today seem more complex.
As a developer who started with BASIC and Fortran, and who has shifted professionally over 25+ years from Fortran to C to Shell to Java, many of today's development environments are too complex for a beginner, and I have mixed feelings about that.
I learned on an Apple II with Integer BASIC. It didn't take much to type:
NEW
10 PRINT "HELLO WORLD"
20 GOTO 10
RUN
to get something silly but encouraging working.
Maybe MS and Linux need to clone GWBASIC again? Sorry, BASICA for IBM purists.
Location: Mableton, GA USA (NW Atlanta suburb, 4 miles OTP)
11,334 posts, read 26,089,277 times
Reputation: 3995
Quote:
Originally Posted by IDoPhysicsPhD
It's pretty darn easy to find a free compiler.
In my opinion, a purely interpreted language can be a better initial learning platform for a pure beginner. No need for any sort of compilation or linking stages. Just type something and go.
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