What language???

[Blake Miller]

The first computer I programmed was a Commodore PET. Then an Apple II (BASIC), then Vax 11-780 (FORTRAN), then Apple Macintosh (BASIC and C), then IBM PC (DOS) (ASSEMBLY, BASIC, C), then DEC MicroVAX II (C OPS5), then generic Intel PC (Windows - C, BASIC, C++). Been writing Windows software since 1992 - C and C++. Some BASIC, when forced X| People that start writing code immediately are programmers (or hackers), people that ask questions first are Software Engineers - Graham Shanks

[Blake Miller]

I used to pass C-Code through the Aztec-C compiler on the Commodore Amiga to see what the 68000 assembly language looked like. People that start writing code immediately are programmers (or hackers), people that ask questions first are Software Engineers - Graham Shanks

[SoftDevVB]

VB VB.Net VB.Net I can program in C or C++ but why bother.:cool:

[edeloye]

1. Fortran on a 16K, yes 16K :omg:, IBM 1130 2) Toss up between PL/1 and IBM 360 Assembler 3) PERL

[KreativeKai]

Ok, I hope no one falls off their chair with this answer: 1)COBOL 2)COBOL 3)COBOL :omg: I've been coding COBOL for 17 years and to this day, my job still requires about 80 percent of my time in COBOL. I've been coding in VB.NET since the day .NET came out and VB6 a very small amount prior to that. Our shop is converting from a HP 3000 Image database environment to a Microsoft Server environment, but still at least 90 percent of our applications still reside on the HP 3000. I have to say that as my experience with VB.NET grows, I'm hoping my answer for 3 will change to VB.NET. Don't laugh too hard! :laugh: Lost in the vast sea of .NET

[stephen hazel]

Ha haaa... WRONG compiler to use :) The Lattice C compiler ruled! Ok. I guess it wouldn't really matter. But MAN i loved that ole Amiga. What were you using asm for on the thing? I was using it for Midi I/O - fast interrupt code to mess with the midi adapter. For your amusement: :)

; MidiIOx.a - asm midi i/o stuph

     INCLUDE "exec/types.i"
     INCLUDE "hardware/cia.i"
     INCLUDE "hardware/custom.i"
     INCLUDE "hardware/dmabits.i"
     INCLUDE "hardware/intbits.i"

EXECBASE equ 4 ; base fer ole exec.library
CIAB equ $BFD000 ; base fer CIAB hardware registers
CUSTOM equ $DFF000 ; base fer custom chips
MAXIBUF equ 512

     XREF    \_LVOSignal

     XDEF    \_TimerBgn
     XDEF    \_TimerEnd
     XDEF    \_TimerICR

     XDEF    \_MidiOBgn
     XDEF    \_MidiOEnd
     XDEF    \_MidiOGo
     XDEF    \_MidiOICR

     XDEF    \_MidiIBgn
     XDEF    \_MidiIEnd
     XDEF    \_MidiIICR

     STRUCTURE MidiDef,0           ; MAKE SURE this guy syncs w C
     APTR      MTask               ; ...who to signal (me)
     ULONG     TMask               ; ...signals to use for dif msgs
     ULONG     OMask
     ULONG     IMask
     ULONG     XMask

     ULONG     Time                ; ...Timer stuff
     ULONG     SigTime
     UWORD     TErr
     UWORD     Tempo

     APTR      OBuf                ; ...MidiO stuff
     ULONG     OLen

     ULONG     IErrHard            ; ...MidiI+X stuff
     ULONG     IErrSoft
     ULONG     Add
     ULONG     Rem
     APTR      xBuf
     ULONG     xMax
     ULONG     xLen
     UBYTE     pCmd
     UBYTE     dLen
     UWORD     alignit2
     APTR      tAdd
     UBYTE     IBuf
     LABEL     MidiDef\_SIZEOF

     MACRO
     SIGNAL  who,how
     movem.l A0-A1/A6,-(SP)
     move.l  how,D0                ; signal mask to set
     move.l  who,A1                ; task pointer
     move.l  EXECBASE,A6
     jsr     \_LVOSignal(A6)
     movem.l (SP)+,A0-A1/A6
     ENDM

     csect   text,0,,1,2

;-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
_TimerBgn:
movea.l #(CIAB),A0
move.b #(204),ciatalo(A0) ; magic countdown value for 1-ms timer
move.b #(002),ciatahi(A0)
move.b

[Blake Miller]

We had a hand-built 68000 'computer' (breadboard, circuit wrap, etc.) in our lab that was containing a PID controller to control a motor's speed. It was easier to write the PID control code in C and use the Amiga C-compiler to convert the C to 68000 ASM that we then burned into an EEPROM that ran on the 68000 custom 'computer'. The Amiga was just the middle-man in this entire operation. I would tune and debug the PID code written in standard C on an IBM PC using version 4.0 of Microsoft C. Then the source would be uploaded to a Prime 5350. Then the source would be downlaoded into the Amiga and 'assembled'. We would remove any extra ASM commands from the assembly listing. Then the listing would be uploaded back into the Prime and then burned from there onto the EEPROM. The EEPROM would be snapped into the socket on the custom computer and we would boot it - hopefully the motor would work correctly after all that, or else it was another round trip ... :rolleyes: People that start writing code immediately are programmers (or hackers), people that ask questions first are Software Engineers - Graham Shanks

[stephenbayer]

1. Z80 Assembly 2. C++, for some reason the transition from C to C++ was particularly difficult for me.. Tutorials at relisoft.com way back in the day was the only thing that pulled me through. Now, after a decade, I'm better than 99% of the developers out there. 3. C++ (despite the bad transition, it is now the language I am most proficiant in) or possibly C#

[stephenbayer]

wow.. I'm amazed that another person started out with Z80 Assembly. That's what a started out in many, many years ago.

[Hugh S Myers]

IBM 360 assembler Lisp C To be fair, I'd point out that the reason the 'Lisp' is the answer to 2. is that it took me a while to wrap my head around the difference between procedural languages versus functional languages, not because of 'Crunch Time' or the like... --hsm

[stephen hazel]

Yep. 6502 was kind of a let down after learning Z80 :) But the C64's graphics n sound hardware MORE than made up for it! ...Steve

[stephen hazel]

I would kill to do that kinda stuff and get paid... I am gettin SOOOOOOOOOOO sick of SQL and perl X| I'm close to microsoft, but not close enough. The commute would just suck. So i do the fun programmin at home (and sometimes a BIT at work if the contract is a slowww one). But so far all of my experience is with oracle pl/sql and perl and billing systems :doh: Why did i do this to myself ??? ...Steve

[stephen hazel]

(falls off chair) WOW! Guess there's someone else out there worse off than me :) JUUUST kiddin. You must work on a billing system or somethin I'm guessin? Amdocs? ...Steve

[JGonzalezGUS]

1. Autocoder (old, old, old mainframe back in mid-60s) 2. PL/I (still mainframe early 80s - I had to get it done if I wanted to keep my temporary job) 3. C++ (have forgotten everything else!) :) Jose

[Xoy]

code-frog wrote:

Which language did you first learn programming in?

Turbobasic

code-frog wrote:

Which language did you sweat bullets in for the first time? (What language was your trial by fire? Your very first maximum stress experience...)

C++. objects never worked well in that language :( too much of a hack job. plain C is much better :sigh:

code-frog wrote:

If you knew pressure was coming which language would you be more inclined to have at your back? Not necessarily your favorite but the one you know best.

VB.NET (currently 2005) - works expectedly, can make relatively complicated programs in a short amount of time. if its not too big, asm is pretty good too :D but if time is an issue... defintely vb :)

[Ryan Binns]

Jeremy Falcon wrote:

You old fart.

:rolleyes: Thanks

Ryan

"Punctuality is only a virtue for those who aren't smart enough to think of good excuses for being late" John Nichol "Point Of Impact"

[Neil_In_Wales]

Good question! 1st was a Commodore Pet, but can't really class it as 'learning', as I was 10! Would say Basic then Pascal as a 'taught' language. Real pain came with assembler - some low level routines we were writing to catch keyboard interrupts on an obscure piece of kit. Fallback nowadays, based on the projects we build, would be Visual Foxpro as long as nothing too esoteric was involved Neil

[RoboTheToolMan]

1. First introduced to computers back in 1989 when I trained in BASIC and COBOL programming at the same time. Both were very interesting languages and I like both very well. I went from BASIC all versions and finally to Visual Basic for DOS when it hit the market. Then got in on the beta release of VB for Windows and loved it. Have experienced all the version upgrades of VB to my present Enterprise development version of Visual Studio .NET 2003 2. I first found going from VB 16 to VB32 was difficult but have to say VB.NET and ASP.NET are very challenging for me. Until these upgrades I felt programming was fairly simple thing to do. 3. It would be VB6. :-D

[KreativeKai]

Local County Government. The apps were running are, as you guessed, water/sewer billing, permits, tax collections, hr, and payroll. :-D Go COBOL Go... :laugh: Lost in the vast sea of .NET

[Jeff Dickey]

1. Forth - through a suitably bizarre set of circumstances. 2. Z80 assembler; fitting about 200K worth of compiler into a 45K allowable memory footprint. 3. Python, Ada and C++ (in that order). Open standards, clean interfaces and effective exploratory/prototype code support have saved my bacon more times than I care to think about. On the other hand, if I wanted to permanently frell a project and guarantee that it would go dramatically over budget, be behind schedule and have questionable future maintenance capability, I've yet to see anythihng with the power to obfuscate that Java has. I prefer to use languages as tools, not religious icons. -- Jeff Dickey jdickey@seven-sigma.com Seven Sigma Software and Services Phone/SMS: +6012 373 8513 FOAF: http://www.seven-sigma.com/foaf.rdf Yahoo! IM: jeff_dickey ICQ: 8053918 Tencent QQ: 30302349 -- If you can't reach me by any of these, one of us may be permanently offline -- I use and recommend GNU Privacy Guard to authenticate and secure email messages! Public key: Download from public servers - Key ID 27F20D92 Fingerprint: B6FB B5DB 9FB5 2ADE B4B3 AF6C 3467 5D64 27F2