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  3. Does anyone miss programming in old languages?

Does anyone miss programming in old languages?

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  • F Offline
    F Offline
    Forogar
    wrote on last edited by
    #1

    I recently got pulled in to help out on a 30+ years old mainframe project written in COBOL. It was a bit of shock to realise how much I remembered, since it had been 30+ years since I last worked with COBOL! I occasionally miss my old FORTRAN days (most recently Fortran 77 rather than FORTRAN IV) but I never have yearned to do COBOL (or even PL/1) again. Nostalgic thoughts?

    - I would love to change the world, but they won’t give me the source code.

    R L M L OriginalGriffO 33 Replies Last reply
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    • F Forogar

      I recently got pulled in to help out on a 30+ years old mainframe project written in COBOL. It was a bit of shock to realise how much I remembered, since it had been 30+ years since I last worked with COBOL! I occasionally miss my old FORTRAN days (most recently Fortran 77 rather than FORTRAN IV) but I never have yearned to do COBOL (or even PL/1) again. Nostalgic thoughts?

      - I would love to change the world, but they won’t give me the source code.

      R Offline
      R Offline
      realJSOP
      wrote on last edited by
      #2

      I kinda miss Turbo Pascal... Most fond memory of it was that it was only $30.

      ".45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly" - JSOP, 2010
      -----
      You can never have too much ammo - unless you're swimming, or on fire. - JSOP, 2010
      -----
      When you pry the gun from my cold dead hands, be careful - the barrel will be very hot. - JSOP, 2013

      G B H S R 5 Replies Last reply
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      • R realJSOP

        I kinda miss Turbo Pascal... Most fond memory of it was that it was only $30.

        ".45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly" - JSOP, 2010
        -----
        You can never have too much ammo - unless you're swimming, or on fire. - JSOP, 2010
        -----
        When you pry the gun from my cold dead hands, be careful - the barrel will be very hot. - JSOP, 2013

        G Offline
        G Offline
        glennPattonWork3
        wrote on last edited by
        #3

        $30 Dollars, or a few floppies to the right person at college... I wonder why Borland had troubles $30! Pascal and it's grown up brother Modula2... Begin writeln("hello world") End. and on...

        R 1 Reply Last reply
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        • G glennPattonWork3

          $30 Dollars, or a few floppies to the right person at college... I wonder why Borland had troubles $30! Pascal and it's grown up brother Modula2... Begin writeln("hello world") End. and on...

          R Offline
          R Offline
          realJSOP
          wrote on last edited by
          #4

          $30 was a long way from $1000 for Borland Pascal...

          ".45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly" - JSOP, 2010
          -----
          You can never have too much ammo - unless you're swimming, or on fire. - JSOP, 2010
          -----
          When you pry the gun from my cold dead hands, be careful - the barrel will be very hot. - JSOP, 2013

          G 1 Reply Last reply
          0
          • F Forogar

            I recently got pulled in to help out on a 30+ years old mainframe project written in COBOL. It was a bit of shock to realise how much I remembered, since it had been 30+ years since I last worked with COBOL! I occasionally miss my old FORTRAN days (most recently Fortran 77 rather than FORTRAN IV) but I never have yearned to do COBOL (or even PL/1) again. Nostalgic thoughts?

            - I would love to change the world, but they won’t give me the source code.

            L Offline
            L Offline
            Lost User
            wrote on last edited by
            #5

            FoxPro for DOS (pre-MS). I wrote a sales lead tracking application (think early CRM) that ran unchanged for well over a decade. It even survived Y2K. ;P

            D 1 Reply Last reply
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            • F Forogar

              I recently got pulled in to help out on a 30+ years old mainframe project written in COBOL. It was a bit of shock to realise how much I remembered, since it had been 30+ years since I last worked with COBOL! I occasionally miss my old FORTRAN days (most recently Fortran 77 rather than FORTRAN IV) but I never have yearned to do COBOL (or even PL/1) again. Nostalgic thoughts?

              - I would love to change the world, but they won’t give me the source code.

              M Offline
              M Offline
              Maximilien
              wrote on last edited by
              #6

              It's weird. I've always programmed in C++ (and sometimes C) in the last 30 years; there was a small stint in pascal at one earlier point, but not enough to be nostalgic. So, no false nostalgia of better days.

              I'd rather be phishing!

              1 Reply Last reply
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              • F Forogar

                I recently got pulled in to help out on a 30+ years old mainframe project written in COBOL. It was a bit of shock to realise how much I remembered, since it had been 30+ years since I last worked with COBOL! I occasionally miss my old FORTRAN days (most recently Fortran 77 rather than FORTRAN IV) but I never have yearned to do COBOL (or even PL/1) again. Nostalgic thoughts?

                - I would love to change the world, but they won’t give me the source code.

                L Offline
                L Offline
                littleGreenDude
                wrote on last edited by
                #7

                I miss Clarion. Surprisingly, it is still around (I just checked). I used it back in the DOS days.

                “The palest ink is better than the best memory.” - Chinese Proverb

                K 1 Reply Last reply
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                • F Forogar

                  I recently got pulled in to help out on a 30+ years old mainframe project written in COBOL. It was a bit of shock to realise how much I remembered, since it had been 30+ years since I last worked with COBOL! I occasionally miss my old FORTRAN days (most recently Fortran 77 rather than FORTRAN IV) but I never have yearned to do COBOL (or even PL/1) again. Nostalgic thoughts?

                  - I would love to change the world, but they won’t give me the source code.

                  L Offline
                  L Offline
                  Lost User
                  wrote on last edited by
                  #8

                  I Sometimes miss the Univac 1100 Assembler that I spent so many years working on. But most modern languages are so much better in many ways.

                  J Y 2 Replies Last reply
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                  • F Forogar

                    I recently got pulled in to help out on a 30+ years old mainframe project written in COBOL. It was a bit of shock to realise how much I remembered, since it had been 30+ years since I last worked with COBOL! I occasionally miss my old FORTRAN days (most recently Fortran 77 rather than FORTRAN IV) but I never have yearned to do COBOL (or even PL/1) again. Nostalgic thoughts?

                    - I would love to change the world, but they won’t give me the source code.

                    OriginalGriffO Offline
                    OriginalGriffO Offline
                    OriginalGriff
                    wrote on last edited by
                    #9

                    I spent a lot of my life coding in Z80 assembler, and sometimes - but not often - I do miss it. Being that "close" to the hardware feels ... natural, if you know what I mean.

                    Sent from my Amstrad PC 1640 Never throw anything away, Griff Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay... AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!

                    "I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
                    "Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt

                    D A 2 Replies Last reply
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                    • R realJSOP

                      $30 was a long way from $1000 for Borland Pascal...

                      ".45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly" - JSOP, 2010
                      -----
                      You can never have too much ammo - unless you're swimming, or on fire. - JSOP, 2010
                      -----
                      When you pry the gun from my cold dead hands, be careful - the barrel will be very hot. - JSOP, 2013

                      G Offline
                      G Offline
                      glennPattonWork3
                      wrote on last edited by
                      #10

                      Was there a difference then? I always thought Turbo was the update for 386.

                      R 1 Reply Last reply
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                      • F Forogar

                        I recently got pulled in to help out on a 30+ years old mainframe project written in COBOL. It was a bit of shock to realise how much I remembered, since it had been 30+ years since I last worked with COBOL! I occasionally miss my old FORTRAN days (most recently Fortran 77 rather than FORTRAN IV) but I never have yearned to do COBOL (or even PL/1) again. Nostalgic thoughts?

                        - I would love to change the world, but they won’t give me the source code.

                        M Offline
                        M Offline
                        Mark_Wallace
                        wrote on last edited by
                        #11

                        I used to like using identifiers and COBOL's 88 lines to make the code sound as much like English as I could. That's not so satisfying (or possible) with other coding languages.

                        I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!

                        1 Reply Last reply
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                        • G glennPattonWork3

                          Was there a difference then? I always thought Turbo was the update for 386.

                          R Offline
                          R Offline
                          realJSOP
                          wrote on last edited by
                          #12

                          "Turbo Pascal" with a single manual and 5-1/4 floppy disk became "Borland Pascal" - a monstrosity with four/five manuals and several 3.5 floppies. Along with the change, the cost increased astronomically.

                          ".45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly" - JSOP, 2010
                          -----
                          You can never have too much ammo - unless you're swimming, or on fire. - JSOP, 2010
                          -----
                          When you pry the gun from my cold dead hands, be careful - the barrel will be very hot. - JSOP, 2013

                          1 Reply Last reply
                          0
                          • F Forogar

                            I recently got pulled in to help out on a 30+ years old mainframe project written in COBOL. It was a bit of shock to realise how much I remembered, since it had been 30+ years since I last worked with COBOL! I occasionally miss my old FORTRAN days (most recently Fortran 77 rather than FORTRAN IV) but I never have yearned to do COBOL (or even PL/1) again. Nostalgic thoughts?

                            - I would love to change the world, but they won’t give me the source code.

                            G Offline
                            G Offline
                            grralph1
                            wrote on last edited by
                            #13

                            No not really. Gee you must have a good memory. I could never do that. You miss Fortran !!!. I can't remember anything about it now except all those punch cards that knocked me around so much. I do get a tiny bit nostalgic about some of them. But it is more about the good memories of the times than the language.

                            "Rock journalism is people who can't write interviewing people who can't talk for people who can't read." Frank Zappa 1980

                            1 Reply Last reply
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                            • F Forogar

                              I recently got pulled in to help out on a 30+ years old mainframe project written in COBOL. It was a bit of shock to realise how much I remembered, since it had been 30+ years since I last worked with COBOL! I occasionally miss my old FORTRAN days (most recently Fortran 77 rather than FORTRAN IV) but I never have yearned to do COBOL (or even PL/1) again. Nostalgic thoughts?

                              - I would love to change the world, but they won’t give me the source code.

                              J Offline
                              J Offline
                              jeron1
                              wrote on last edited by
                              #14

                              Fortran 77, I took a Basic class (my first programming class) before this and darn near swore off programming, as the spaghettification factor was overwhelming. A math instructor talking me into taking Fortran class and I loved it. Motorola HC11 assembler is another one, my first assembler language. At the time Motorola had what I thought was really good documentation regarding the chips' operation and the instruction set, coded a lot of assembler back then.

                              "the debugger doesn't tell me anything because this code compiles just fine" - random QA comment "Facebook is where you tell lies to your friends. Twitter is where you tell the truth to strangers." - chriselst "I don't drink any more... then again, I don't drink any less." - Mike Mullikins uncle

                              Y 1 Reply Last reply
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                              • F Forogar

                                I recently got pulled in to help out on a 30+ years old mainframe project written in COBOL. It was a bit of shock to realise how much I remembered, since it had been 30+ years since I last worked with COBOL! I occasionally miss my old FORTRAN days (most recently Fortran 77 rather than FORTRAN IV) but I never have yearned to do COBOL (or even PL/1) again. Nostalgic thoughts?

                                - I would love to change the world, but they won’t give me the source code.

                                D Offline
                                D Offline
                                dandy72
                                wrote on last edited by
                                #15

                                I've learned BASIC "programming" (and I use that term loosely) on a Commodore 64. Line numbering, only having the first two characters of variable names being significant, resource limitations of the hardware...the short answer would have to be "no".

                                1 Reply Last reply
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                                • F Forogar

                                  I recently got pulled in to help out on a 30+ years old mainframe project written in COBOL. It was a bit of shock to realise how much I remembered, since it had been 30+ years since I last worked with COBOL! I occasionally miss my old FORTRAN days (most recently Fortran 77 rather than FORTRAN IV) but I never have yearned to do COBOL (or even PL/1) again. Nostalgic thoughts?

                                  - I would love to change the world, but they won’t give me the source code.

                                  W Offline
                                  W Offline
                                  W Balboos GHB
                                  wrote on last edited by
                                  #16

                                  I miss real C - when I could access anything any way I wished. Even earlier - once upon a time I could write FORTRAN faster than most others could do a spreadsheet (Lotus 123 and Symphony). And never forget: Feed Register Release

                                  Ravings en masse^

                                  "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein

                                  "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010

                                  1 Reply Last reply
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                                  • F Forogar

                                    I recently got pulled in to help out on a 30+ years old mainframe project written in COBOL. It was a bit of shock to realise how much I remembered, since it had been 30+ years since I last worked with COBOL! I occasionally miss my old FORTRAN days (most recently Fortran 77 rather than FORTRAN IV) but I never have yearned to do COBOL (or even PL/1) again. Nostalgic thoughts?

                                    - I would love to change the world, but they won’t give me the source code.

                                    P Offline
                                    P Offline
                                    PIEBALDconsult
                                    wrote on last edited by
                                    #17

                                    Somewhat. But I still use a text editor and command-line complier with C# when I don't need a full IDE, so I continue to have that feel anyway. And, of course, on my OpenVMS systems I have no IDE at all. If I recall correctly, I have installed only C on my OpenVMS systems, although I have licenses and packages for Pascal and COBOL and other languages which I may never use again. I would like to have Turbo Pascal 5.5 and Turbo C on my PC again, but only for fun. I have found that Turbo BASIC won't run on Win 10. :(

                                    N 1 Reply Last reply
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                                    • OriginalGriffO OriginalGriff

                                      I spent a lot of my life coding in Z80 assembler, and sometimes - but not often - I do miss it. Being that "close" to the hardware feels ... natural, if you know what I mean.

                                      Sent from my Amstrad PC 1640 Never throw anything away, Griff Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay... AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!

                                      D Offline
                                      D Offline
                                      DRHuff
                                      wrote on last edited by
                                      #18

                                      Griff. We have received complaints from various hardware devices about you not respecting personal space...

                                      This space for rent.

                                      1 Reply Last reply
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                                      • F Forogar

                                        I recently got pulled in to help out on a 30+ years old mainframe project written in COBOL. It was a bit of shock to realise how much I remembered, since it had been 30+ years since I last worked with COBOL! I occasionally miss my old FORTRAN days (most recently Fortran 77 rather than FORTRAN IV) but I never have yearned to do COBOL (or even PL/1) again. Nostalgic thoughts?

                                        - I would love to change the world, but they won’t give me the source code.

                                        T Offline
                                        T Offline
                                        theoldfool
                                        wrote on last edited by
                                        #19

                                        APL? You can always tell an APL programmer. But not much.

                                        If you can keep your head while those about you are losing theirs, perhaps you don't understand the situation.

                                        G 1 Reply Last reply
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                                        • F Forogar

                                          I recently got pulled in to help out on a 30+ years old mainframe project written in COBOL. It was a bit of shock to realise how much I remembered, since it had been 30+ years since I last worked with COBOL! I occasionally miss my old FORTRAN days (most recently Fortran 77 rather than FORTRAN IV) but I never have yearned to do COBOL (or even PL/1) again. Nostalgic thoughts?

                                          - I would love to change the world, but they won’t give me the source code.

                                          M Offline
                                          M Offline
                                          Mike Hankey
                                          wrote on last edited by
                                          #20

                                          Had to write a short cobol program in the 90s to handle communications between IBM mainframe and DEC because the resident mainframe people couldn't and wouldn't do it. That was one time to many.

                                          Technician 1. A person that fixes stuff you can't. 2. One who does precision guesswork based on unreliable data provided by those of questionable knowledge. JaxCoder.com

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