Does anyone miss programming in old languages?
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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.
I've been coding for 30+ years. Started with GW Basic, the did some QuickBasic. But for 15 years I did Fox based languages in all it's flavors: FoxBase, FoxPLUS, FxoPro for DOS, FoxPro for Windows, and all version of Visual FoxPro. I've been doing C# for 15 years now and have't looked back. But I really did enjoy Fox.
If it's not broken, fix it until it is. Everything makes sense in someone's mind. Ya can't fix stupid.
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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.
There are the languages I really liked working in at the time: Ada, VAX FORTRAN, VAX/VMS DCL (scripting), LISP, and Intel assembly language using a flat memory model. At the time I developed sufficient fluency in each of these that I could solve any programming problem you like in them, given enough time. Interestingly, I don't feel any nostalgia to go back to programming in any of them. The amenities available now in most languages are so superior it's incredible. I know that Ada, FORTRAN, and LISP all have contemporary versions with modern facilities, but those all seem to have a "me too!" flavor to them. Today my language of choice is C# unless there's substantial bit/byte-fiddling to be done, and then it's C++.
Software Zen:
delete this; -
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.
theoldfool wrote:
You can always tell an APL programmer
Yeah, he/she's the one that the SETI folks are always following around, trying to decipher his code as the one line design for a hyperdrive.
Software Zen:
delete this; -
theoldfool wrote:
You can always tell an APL programmer
Yeah, he/she's the one that the SETI folks are always following around, trying to decipher his code as the one line design for a hyperdrive.
Software Zen:
delete this;Only wimps use more than one line. Hold my beer and watch this!
If you can keep your head while those about you are losing theirs, perhaps you don't understand the situation.
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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. :(
PIEBALDconsult wrote:
I would like to have Turbo Pascal 5.5 and Turbo C on my PC again
me too (specially the turbo C), and I am not that old
M.D.V. ;) If something has a solution... Why do we have to worry about?. If it has no solution... For what reason do we have to worry about? Help me to understand what I'm saying, and I'll explain it better to you Rating helpful answers is nice, but saying thanks can be even nicer.
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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.
About as much as I miss Latin. A few of us (about 3 out of 60) got fairly good at it. It became like a secrete language. The priests recognized it but could not understand it. There was one exception, the priest that taught it. I wonder if any of these languages will ever take on similar religious connotations?
So many years of programming I have forgotten more languages than I know.
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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.
Not bloody likely, SuperBase was a bitch with weird errors that could not be identified. At one point I fixed an error by deleting the entire line and retyping exactly the sane code, weird.
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity - RAH I'm old. I know stuff - JSOP
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Not bloody likely, SuperBase was a bitch with weird errors that could not be identified. At one point I fixed an error by deleting the entire line and retyping exactly the sane code, weird.
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity - RAH I'm old. I know stuff - JSOP
I had something similar happen with a DCL script. It was very strange, like the script would run, and then the system would try to execute the output. There was no way it could happen. I had to delete and rewrite the file.
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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.
I forgot that I also have VAX BASIC on my MicroVAX, because it has immediate mode: HelloWorld.png[^]
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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.
I'm working on Turbo Pascal in DOS right now. Does that qualify?
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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
Yup it is still being used. I just created a .net for clarion to use.
[Signature space for sale]
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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.
I miss programming in ActionScript. The Language which was used for the FlashPlayer.
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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.
To really go back to basics... I miss changing the type writer ribbon sometimes ;-)
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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.
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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.
Sometimes I miss programming in PostScript, the language that, so long ago, gave me my technical "fifteen minutes of fame:" it's like Lisp with a stack, and RPN, welded to a very powerful vector based graphics engine. PostScript's control of namespace lookup by an explicit stack of Dictionaries is very cool. Like Lisp, or other interpreted languages with a full REPL, turning text to code, and the reverse, was easy.
«Where is the Life we have lost in living? Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?» T. S. Elliot
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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.
I miss PLAN (Programming LANguage for the ICL 1900 series). Wrote many nice utilities in that. Still a member of the BCS Fortran SIG, but mainly used FORTRAN IV (and dabbled with F77). 'Modern' (post 1970) languages have added layers of complexity in the guise of simplification.
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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.
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I miss PLAN (Programming LANguage for the ICL 1900 series). Wrote many nice utilities in that. Still a member of the BCS Fortran SIG, but mainly used FORTRAN IV (and dabbled with F77). 'Modern' (post 1970) languages have added layers of complexity in the guise of simplification.
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I miss PLAN (Programming LANguage for the ICL 1900 series). Wrote many nice utilities in that. Still a member of the BCS Fortran SIG, but mainly used FORTRAN IV (and dabbled with F77). 'Modern' (post 1970) languages have added layers of complexity in the guise of simplification.
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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
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You can never have too much ammo - unless you're swimming, or on fire. - JSOP, 2010
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When you pry the gun from my cold dead hands, be careful - the barrel will be very hot. - JSOP, 2013Turbo Pascal was my first thought as well!
