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  3. What was the "Next Big Thing" when you started programming?

What was the "Next Big Thing" when you started programming?

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  • J Judah Gabriel Himango

    Inspired by this SO thread, What was "the next big thing" when you guys started programming? I remember a couple things in college: -Java was big. Write once, run anywhere...people believed it. -There was some interest in, and lots of articles about, Microsoft's new version of COM+, which they named DotNet. Oh, and some interest in the Java copycat they called C#. -I distinctly remember my college textbooks claiming "natural languages" would be the future of programming. -To prepare me for the future, my college taught us Fortran and C. The closest thing I've come to utilizing either of these is the rare piece of C++ code I have to deal with on contracting gigs.

    Religiously blogging on the intarwebs since the early 21st century: Kineti L'Tziyon
    Judah Himango

    J Offline
    J Offline
    Jakob Olsen
    wrote on last edited by
    #79

    The Commodore was pretty crazy. It had 128kb of RAM, and ran at 2MHz.... And came with a Basic version that had a RENUMBER command. A RENUMBER command i tell you !!! What sweet joy.

    Bitmatic - C# & .NET programming

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    • J Judah Gabriel Himango

      Inspired by this SO thread, What was "the next big thing" when you guys started programming? I remember a couple things in college: -Java was big. Write once, run anywhere...people believed it. -There was some interest in, and lots of articles about, Microsoft's new version of COM+, which they named DotNet. Oh, and some interest in the Java copycat they called C#. -I distinctly remember my college textbooks claiming "natural languages" would be the future of programming. -To prepare me for the future, my college taught us Fortran and C. The closest thing I've come to utilizing either of these is the rare piece of C++ code I have to deal with on contracting gigs.

      Religiously blogging on the intarwebs since the early 21st century: Kineti L'Tziyon
      Judah Himango

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      nostradammit
      wrote on last edited by
      #80

      GO TO-less programming in FORTRAN!

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      • J Judah Gabriel Himango

        Inspired by this SO thread, What was "the next big thing" when you guys started programming? I remember a couple things in college: -Java was big. Write once, run anywhere...people believed it. -There was some interest in, and lots of articles about, Microsoft's new version of COM+, which they named DotNet. Oh, and some interest in the Java copycat they called C#. -I distinctly remember my college textbooks claiming "natural languages" would be the future of programming. -To prepare me for the future, my college taught us Fortran and C. The closest thing I've come to utilizing either of these is the rare piece of C++ code I have to deal with on contracting gigs.

        Religiously blogging on the intarwebs since the early 21st century: Kineti L'Tziyon
        Judah Himango

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        T Offline
        Thomas Vanderhoof
        wrote on last edited by
        #81

        .Net 2.0. I guess I'm young in the programming world, but I picked it up fast. I was thrilled with the partial classes, generics, generic collections, and ClickOnce deployment. That thrill wore off, but I am very grateful for generics and the futured feature of LINQ to object.

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        • J Judah Gabriel Himango

          Inspired by this SO thread, What was "the next big thing" when you guys started programming? I remember a couple things in college: -Java was big. Write once, run anywhere...people believed it. -There was some interest in, and lots of articles about, Microsoft's new version of COM+, which they named DotNet. Oh, and some interest in the Java copycat they called C#. -I distinctly remember my college textbooks claiming "natural languages" would be the future of programming. -To prepare me for the future, my college taught us Fortran and C. The closest thing I've come to utilizing either of these is the rare piece of C++ code I have to deal with on contracting gigs.

          Religiously blogging on the intarwebs since the early 21st century: Kineti L'Tziyon
          Judah Himango

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          B Offline
          billythekidney
          wrote on last edited by
          #82

          The keyboard. Making sure there were no errors on the punched cards before sending them off to the computer room was a real chore.

          BillyTheKidney

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          • J Judah Gabriel Himango

            Inspired by this SO thread, What was "the next big thing" when you guys started programming? I remember a couple things in college: -Java was big. Write once, run anywhere...people believed it. -There was some interest in, and lots of articles about, Microsoft's new version of COM+, which they named DotNet. Oh, and some interest in the Java copycat they called C#. -I distinctly remember my college textbooks claiming "natural languages" would be the future of programming. -To prepare me for the future, my college taught us Fortran and C. The closest thing I've come to utilizing either of these is the rare piece of C++ code I have to deal with on contracting gigs.

            Religiously blogging on the intarwebs since the early 21st century: Kineti L'Tziyon
            Judah Himango

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            L Offline
            Lost User
            wrote on last edited by
            #83

            I guess this shows my age :) The norm in college was using punch cards and programming in Fortran. The "Next Big Thing" was the two terminals that used Basic. They could actually compile their code live!

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            • J Judah Gabriel Himango

              Inspired by this SO thread, What was "the next big thing" when you guys started programming? I remember a couple things in college: -Java was big. Write once, run anywhere...people believed it. -There was some interest in, and lots of articles about, Microsoft's new version of COM+, which they named DotNet. Oh, and some interest in the Java copycat they called C#. -I distinctly remember my college textbooks claiming "natural languages" would be the future of programming. -To prepare me for the future, my college taught us Fortran and C. The closest thing I've come to utilizing either of these is the rare piece of C++ code I have to deal with on contracting gigs.

              Religiously blogging on the intarwebs since the early 21st century: Kineti L'Tziyon
              Judah Himango

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              L Offline
              Lost User
              wrote on last edited by
              #84

              Coding on a monitor instead of the dreaded punch cards I used in college. My first 8086 PC with a c compiler with an IDE. Much better than writing basic on my TI99/4a. The wheel.

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              • O Oakman

                upgrading from cassette tape to SSSD 51/4 floppies.

                Jon "I don't think the human race will survive the next thousand years, unless we spread into space. There are too many accidents that can befall life on a single planet. But I'm an optimist. We will reach out to the stars." ~ Stephen Hawking, Soap Box 1.0: the first, the original, reborn troll-less

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                IncredibleMouse
                wrote on last edited by
                #85

                Oakman wrote:

                upgrading from cassette tape to SSSD 51/4 floppies. Jon

                Yea! Same here Jon. When I heard I wouldn't need cassette tapes anymore, I was "Wha? No way!". :thumbsup:

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                • J Judah Gabriel Himango

                  Inspired by this SO thread, What was "the next big thing" when you guys started programming? I remember a couple things in college: -Java was big. Write once, run anywhere...people believed it. -There was some interest in, and lots of articles about, Microsoft's new version of COM+, which they named DotNet. Oh, and some interest in the Java copycat they called C#. -I distinctly remember my college textbooks claiming "natural languages" would be the future of programming. -To prepare me for the future, my college taught us Fortran and C. The closest thing I've come to utilizing either of these is the rare piece of C++ code I have to deal with on contracting gigs.

                  Religiously blogging on the intarwebs since the early 21st century: Kineti L'Tziyon
                  Judah Himango

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                  C Offline
                  Chris Quinn
                  wrote on last edited by
                  #86

                  4GL's

                  ==================================== Transvestites - Roberts in Disguise! ====================================

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                  • J Judah Gabriel Himango

                    Inspired by this SO thread, What was "the next big thing" when you guys started programming? I remember a couple things in college: -Java was big. Write once, run anywhere...people believed it. -There was some interest in, and lots of articles about, Microsoft's new version of COM+, which they named DotNet. Oh, and some interest in the Java copycat they called C#. -I distinctly remember my college textbooks claiming "natural languages" would be the future of programming. -To prepare me for the future, my college taught us Fortran and C. The closest thing I've come to utilizing either of these is the rare piece of C++ code I have to deal with on contracting gigs.

                    Religiously blogging on the intarwebs since the early 21st century: Kineti L'Tziyon
                    Judah Himango

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                    W Offline
                    WilliamCWells
                    wrote on last edited by
                    #87

                    Hexadecimal. Seriously. :)

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                    • M Martin Hart Turner

                      We must be from the same vintage :-) What about Turbo Pascal from a guy named Frank Borland? Ahh, good times... Martin.

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                      Lost User
                      wrote on last edited by
                      #88

                      The next big thing was the CRT terminals in the other room at the GA Tech computer center. I was still using the IBM 026/029 Keypunch to enter my FORTRAN IV programs into the Cyber-74 behemoth behind the glass wall.

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                      • M Maximilien

                        Artificial Intelligence was always a hot topic, but always failed to impressed.

                        Watched code never compiles.

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                        Lost User
                        wrote on last edited by
                        #89

                        Every 5 years or so I hear that programmers are going to be eliminated, won't be needed any more. Well? -Max :D

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                        • J Judah Gabriel Himango

                          Inspired by this SO thread, What was "the next big thing" when you guys started programming? I remember a couple things in college: -Java was big. Write once, run anywhere...people believed it. -There was some interest in, and lots of articles about, Microsoft's new version of COM+, which they named DotNet. Oh, and some interest in the Java copycat they called C#. -I distinctly remember my college textbooks claiming "natural languages" would be the future of programming. -To prepare me for the future, my college taught us Fortran and C. The closest thing I've come to utilizing either of these is the rare piece of C++ code I have to deal with on contracting gigs.

                          Religiously blogging on the intarwebs since the early 21st century: Kineti L'Tziyon
                          Judah Himango

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                          R Offline
                          RogelioP EX DE HL
                          wrote on last edited by
                          #90

                          Judah Himango wrote:

                          Inspired by this SO thread, What was "the next big thing" when you guys started programming?

                          Going from Basic to Pascal to C, on an 8 bit Tandy Color Computer circa 1983. Come to think of it, I'm still going from Basic to Pascal to C. Same system. Today. :wtf: At work I use something called Windows, Visual Studio something. Still waiting for the Next Big Thing. :-\ -- Rogelio

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                          • M Martin Hart Turner

                            We must be from the same vintage :-) What about Turbo Pascal from a guy named Frank Borland? Ahh, good times... Martin.

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                            MikeTheFid
                            wrote on last edited by
                            #91

                            Frank Borland was a fictional person used in documentation. Will the real Frank Borland please stand up.[^] Anders Hejlsberg wrote Turbo Pascal. He was the lead architect for Delphi and C#. When I started programming the next big thing in my circle was the Intel 8080, the Motorola 6800, Vax PDP 11, ...

                            Cheers, Mike Fidler

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                            • I Ian Shlasko

                              Youngun :) There was CGA, then MCGA, EGA, VGA, SVGA... And you probably know the rest. I remember working with 16 colors, aptly numbered 0 to 15 (After that it looped through the first 16, but flashing).

                              Proud to have finally moved to the A-Ark. Which one are you in?
                              Author of Guardians of Xen (Sci-Fi/Fantasy novel)

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                              Lost User
                              wrote on last edited by
                              #92

                              Ian Shlasko wrote:

                              There was CGA, then MCGA, EGA, VGA, SVGA... And you probably know the rest. I remember working with 16 colors, aptly numbered 0 to 15 (After that it looped through the first 16, but flashing).

                              Remember when they first came out with the EGA monitors? I was at Quadram then. Man, did those things look SMOOTH after looking at a CGA for so long! My first one was a Princeton Graphics monitor. I thought it could never get better! -Max :D

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                              • I Ian Shlasko

                                CGA[^] :) Of course, I was quite young at the time, so didn't know much about the state of technology, aside from BASIC on my old Atari 800XL.

                                Proud to have finally moved to the A-Ark. Which one are you in?
                                Author of Guardians of Xen (Sci-Fi/Fantasy novel)

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                                Toto1107
                                wrote on last edited by
                                #93

                                ouch! i remember learning fortran with .... don't drop that deck![^]

                                Toto1107

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                                • J Judah Gabriel Himango

                                  Inspired by this SO thread, What was "the next big thing" when you guys started programming? I remember a couple things in college: -Java was big. Write once, run anywhere...people believed it. -There was some interest in, and lots of articles about, Microsoft's new version of COM+, which they named DotNet. Oh, and some interest in the Java copycat they called C#. -I distinctly remember my college textbooks claiming "natural languages" would be the future of programming. -To prepare me for the future, my college taught us Fortran and C. The closest thing I've come to utilizing either of these is the rare piece of C++ code I have to deal with on contracting gigs.

                                  Religiously blogging on the intarwebs since the early 21st century: Kineti L'Tziyon
                                  Judah Himango

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                                  E Offline
                                  eslsys
                                  wrote on last edited by
                                  #94

                                  punch cards :)

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                                  • J Judah Gabriel Himango

                                    Inspired by this SO thread, What was "the next big thing" when you guys started programming? I remember a couple things in college: -Java was big. Write once, run anywhere...people believed it. -There was some interest in, and lots of articles about, Microsoft's new version of COM+, which they named DotNet. Oh, and some interest in the Java copycat they called C#. -I distinctly remember my college textbooks claiming "natural languages" would be the future of programming. -To prepare me for the future, my college taught us Fortran and C. The closest thing I've come to utilizing either of these is the rare piece of C++ code I have to deal with on contracting gigs.

                                    Religiously blogging on the intarwebs since the early 21st century: Kineti L'Tziyon
                                    Judah Himango

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                                    F Offline
                                    Fabio Franco
                                    wrote on last edited by
                                    #95

                                    I started programming, but didn't realize what I was doing was programming. I was 13-14 and I was trying to organize my games, so I could access them easily. That's when I found out about MS-DOS .bat files. I read a lot of the help command in DOS and built my first program: A games menu, with password (so my lil brothers would need my permission to play) built in a batch file. By that time I dind't realize where I would land, so my expectations were how could I build a cooler games menu, with more features like the dos .EXEs. My dream was to be able to make a .exe program. But by the time I was 15 to 16 years old I discovered by accident a "program tha makes programs", aka Visual Basic 5. That's when I realized what I wanted to do for fun and for living. At that point the next big thing to me would be game programming. A little later I figured I'd had to learn C/C++ to enter the gaming industry and my dream job was to work at Blizzard. I was a huge fan of their games, specially Warcraft II. It's still some sort of a dream, but it's not exactly easy to emmigrate from Brazil to US and get a job at Blizzard, maybe someday. I ended up learning a bit C/C++ but never really worked with it. So I didn't end up doing what I considered to myself the next big thing I would do. By then I didn't know what really was the next big thing on software industry, I just wanted to program. Now I work with C# in manufacturing industry. What is the next big thing now?

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                                    • J Judah Gabriel Himango

                                      Inspired by this SO thread, What was "the next big thing" when you guys started programming? I remember a couple things in college: -Java was big. Write once, run anywhere...people believed it. -There was some interest in, and lots of articles about, Microsoft's new version of COM+, which they named DotNet. Oh, and some interest in the Java copycat they called C#. -I distinctly remember my college textbooks claiming "natural languages" would be the future of programming. -To prepare me for the future, my college taught us Fortran and C. The closest thing I've come to utilizing either of these is the rare piece of C++ code I have to deal with on contracting gigs.

                                      Religiously blogging on the intarwebs since the early 21st century: Kineti L'Tziyon
                                      Judah Himango

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                                      RickRoc
                                      wrote on last edited by
                                      #96

                                      For me it was the awesome 16-bit Texas Instruments 99/4a. 16-bit was the NEW technology then. :omg: I saved up tons of money to get one and started creating video games that had to be saved on cassette tape! Later they came out with a large floppy disk drive that I drooled over but never got because it was just way too much money (about $400). That was two weeks pay back then. Give me ambiguity or give me something else!

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                                      • M Martin Hart Turner

                                        We must be from the same vintage :-) What about Turbo Pascal from a guy named Frank Borland? Ahh, good times... Martin.

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                                        A Offline
                                        Asday
                                        wrote on last edited by
                                        #97

                                        Turbo Pascal? Wow, my college still teaches that. Feels so... Icky. C++/Python/Perl plx. >:

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                                        • J Judah Gabriel Himango

                                          Inspired by this SO thread, What was "the next big thing" when you guys started programming? I remember a couple things in college: -Java was big. Write once, run anywhere...people believed it. -There was some interest in, and lots of articles about, Microsoft's new version of COM+, which they named DotNet. Oh, and some interest in the Java copycat they called C#. -I distinctly remember my college textbooks claiming "natural languages" would be the future of programming. -To prepare me for the future, my college taught us Fortran and C. The closest thing I've come to utilizing either of these is the rare piece of C++ code I have to deal with on contracting gigs.

                                          Religiously blogging on the intarwebs since the early 21st century: Kineti L'Tziyon
                                          Judah Himango

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                                          E Offline
                                          englebart
                                          wrote on last edited by
                                          #98

                                          1. Baby steps for protected memory segments for Windows. This probably flushed out thousands of bugs from Windows 2.1 to Windows 3.0. 2. HP NewWave was the big thing. Way ahead of its time. AT&T and NCR were both reselling NewWave to large corporate clients. It supported Object Linking and Embedding type of concepts running ontop of Windows 2.x platforms & higher. You could cross script all applications via the Agent language (think AppleScript). It had a standard platform installer package similar to what MS did not deliver until late 1990's early 2000's. The file system was completely irrelevant to the GUI layer. If you did actually look at the file system, it was all GUIDs. It is barely a blip in the records now. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HP_NewWave[^]

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