First True Love?
-
I was reading and answering comments from a fellow author when he told me that he had fallen in love with technology. And, by "technology", I assumed he really meant "programming", as that is his forte. So that got me thinking about my "first love" in relation to programming. I was a BASIC programmer, and had some significant experience with Z-80 assembly programming, when that sultry vixen, Pascal, blew me a kiss. Holy moley! I was smitten, but good. Everything (and I really mean *everything*) took a back seat to Pascal for a while after that. Now, 20+ years later, I survive in this world by coding tsql or C# bits to keep my employer afloat. Pascal and I have maintained a furtive relationship over the years. I have all the Borland releases on floppy, one Inprise version of Pascal, and now Embarcadero's XE4. Only the Embarcadero version is in use. Yes, I use Pascal for my fun-time programming adventures...still! What a babe. :)
I piddled around with BASIC on a CPM machine after doing 8080/Z80 assembly, which I found more challenging. But at some point I started using Mix Software's C compiler and I've used little else but C derivations since. I never liked having to reference files by a number.
I'm not a programmer but I play one at the office
-
I was reading and answering comments from a fellow author when he told me that he had fallen in love with technology. And, by "technology", I assumed he really meant "programming", as that is his forte. So that got me thinking about my "first love" in relation to programming. I was a BASIC programmer, and had some significant experience with Z-80 assembly programming, when that sultry vixen, Pascal, blew me a kiss. Holy moley! I was smitten, but good. Everything (and I really mean *everything*) took a back seat to Pascal for a while after that. Now, 20+ years later, I survive in this world by coding tsql or C# bits to keep my employer afloat. Pascal and I have maintained a furtive relationship over the years. I have all the Borland releases on floppy, one Inprise version of Pascal, and now Embarcadero's XE4. Only the Embarcadero version is in use. Yes, I use Pascal for my fun-time programming adventures...still! What a babe. :)
-
I piddled around with BASIC on a CPM machine after doing 8080/Z80 assembly, which I found more challenging. But at some point I started using Mix Software's C compiler and I've used little else but C derivations since. I never liked having to reference files by a number.
I'm not a programmer but I play one at the office
-
I started programming BASIC on a VIC20, then C64, but really loved HiSoft BASIC on the Amiga. C# comes a close second :)
I learned some hard lessons on C64 with my siblings. Example: Spend an hour or two typing in a game program (Castle Dungeon) from a magazine article. Run it. Computer locks up and you cannot even break the program. Huh? Power off. Spend an hour or two typing it the second time. Run it. Computer locks up and you cannot even break the program. Huh? Power off. Spend an hour or two typing it the third time. SAVE THE PROGRAM FIRST Run it. Computer locks up and you cannot even break the program. Aha! We were expecting that to happen. Power off. Load the program, start trouble shooting. We were already pair programming back then! My sister who was probably eight at the time was reading the text out to me because I could type faster. I was probably twelve. For the trouble shooting, I read the magazine to her while she read the program on screen. The magazine font was awful. It turned out to be some confusion between a number 1 and a capital I that totally cratered the BASIC interpreter on a FOR loop. Once we fixed the issue, it turned out to be a pretty cool game. Tons better than Flappy Bird IMHO. Lessons Learned: Save early, save often. Double check all manual entry. Switch tasks to keep sharp. Find all of the explosives before time runs out or the castle (with you inside it) is a goner. (cue the explosion sound effect) Lions will eat you if you bump into them. (cue the roar sound effect)
-
I was reading and answering comments from a fellow author when he told me that he had fallen in love with technology. And, by "technology", I assumed he really meant "programming", as that is his forte. So that got me thinking about my "first love" in relation to programming. I was a BASIC programmer, and had some significant experience with Z-80 assembly programming, when that sultry vixen, Pascal, blew me a kiss. Holy moley! I was smitten, but good. Everything (and I really mean *everything*) took a back seat to Pascal for a while after that. Now, 20+ years later, I survive in this world by coding tsql or C# bits to keep my employer afloat. Pascal and I have maintained a furtive relationship over the years. I have all the Borland releases on floppy, one Inprise version of Pascal, and now Embarcadero's XE4. Only the Embarcadero version is in use. Yes, I use Pascal for my fun-time programming adventures...still! What a babe. :)
I first had an interest in VB6, it wasn't a very good relationship. She was one of those types your mom tells you not to hang around with, always teaching bad things. I graduated from VB6 onto VB.net, it was one of those short relationships. It lasted maybe a couple of weeks, until I was smitten by C#. C#, now that was love at first sight. We met about 6 years ago I believe, and I have been head over heels in love with her ever since. Although I am pretty sure it is a one sided love. :((
-
I learned some hard lessons on C64 with my siblings. Example: Spend an hour or two typing in a game program (Castle Dungeon) from a magazine article. Run it. Computer locks up and you cannot even break the program. Huh? Power off. Spend an hour or two typing it the second time. Run it. Computer locks up and you cannot even break the program. Huh? Power off. Spend an hour or two typing it the third time. SAVE THE PROGRAM FIRST Run it. Computer locks up and you cannot even break the program. Aha! We were expecting that to happen. Power off. Load the program, start trouble shooting. We were already pair programming back then! My sister who was probably eight at the time was reading the text out to me because I could type faster. I was probably twelve. For the trouble shooting, I read the magazine to her while she read the program on screen. The magazine font was awful. It turned out to be some confusion between a number 1 and a capital I that totally cratered the BASIC interpreter on a FOR loop. Once we fixed the issue, it turned out to be a pretty cool game. Tons better than Flappy Bird IMHO. Lessons Learned: Save early, save often. Double check all manual entry. Switch tasks to keep sharp. Find all of the explosives before time runs out or the castle (with you inside it) is a goner. (cue the explosion sound effect) Lions will eat you if you bump into them. (cue the roar sound effect)
-
Yep. Borland got me to C++ with TC++ 1.0. It's been my favorite language since, though I'm mostly a perl/sql guy in practice nowadays. I wonder what it takes to actually install (assuming it can be) the Turbo Pascal 5.5 I downloaded yesterday on a modern machine.
Just try running the exe. That works for Turbo BASIC. Ah, life was simpler in those days.
You'll never get very far if all you do is follow instructions.
-
I was reading and answering comments from a fellow author when he told me that he had fallen in love with technology. And, by "technology", I assumed he really meant "programming", as that is his forte. So that got me thinking about my "first love" in relation to programming. I was a BASIC programmer, and had some significant experience with Z-80 assembly programming, when that sultry vixen, Pascal, blew me a kiss. Holy moley! I was smitten, but good. Everything (and I really mean *everything*) took a back seat to Pascal for a while after that. Now, 20+ years later, I survive in this world by coding tsql or C# bits to keep my employer afloat. Pascal and I have maintained a furtive relationship over the years. I have all the Borland releases on floppy, one Inprise version of Pascal, and now Embarcadero's XE4. Only the Embarcadero version is in use. Yes, I use Pascal for my fun-time programming adventures...still! What a babe. :)
My first love was also Pascal, but I haven't seen her in a long while...
CEO at: - Rafaga Systems - Para Facturas - Modern Components for the moment...
-
Wasn't my first language. But my first programming love was absolutely Turbo Pascal 3, as that (I think) was when they introduced OO stuff to the language. I thought I loved 1.0. But when I could integrate Code + Data? It was all over.
Mine was Pascal through Turbo Pascal. It was my senior year of high school. We had long walks on the elevated floors next to the rows of PS/2 Model 25s. It was a pretty happy time. Other people weren't as happy as they were constantly fighting with simplistic DR. PASCAL. They still asked us for help, though the cute names we used weren't compatible with their rigid stiff-collared DR. PASCAL interpreter. I remember us being asked to do simple tasks, but because we shared such a deep bond, that we went to the back of the TP 3.0 manual and used all of the extensions such as named constants so that we could spend more time together instead of just focusing on the mundane things we were asked to do. During that time I felt just about everything could be solved with programming, and that Pascal was such a beautiful language that I could do it all. And this same expertise did get me my first real job while I was going to community college so I could afford to go to a real university to become an aerospace engineer. I never get to use it or Delphi anymore. Fortran is the language du jour, where time approaches infinity.
-
I was reading and answering comments from a fellow author when he told me that he had fallen in love with technology. And, by "technology", I assumed he really meant "programming", as that is his forte. So that got me thinking about my "first love" in relation to programming. I was a BASIC programmer, and had some significant experience with Z-80 assembly programming, when that sultry vixen, Pascal, blew me a kiss. Holy moley! I was smitten, but good. Everything (and I really mean *everything*) took a back seat to Pascal for a while after that. Now, 20+ years later, I survive in this world by coding tsql or C# bits to keep my employer afloat. Pascal and I have maintained a furtive relationship over the years. I have all the Borland releases on floppy, one Inprise version of Pascal, and now Embarcadero's XE4. Only the Embarcadero version is in use. Yes, I use Pascal for my fun-time programming adventures...still! What a babe. :)
Yea, very similar for me. Was doing BASIC on a TRS-80 as a kid, moved into some Z-80 assembly, then hit Pascal when the original Mac 128k was released. Borland was good, but I really liked Turbo Pascal.