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  3. Does anyone miss programming in old languages?

Does anyone miss programming in old languages?

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  • L Lost User

    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

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    DrTechnical
    wrote on last edited by
    #50

    I used FoxPro for DOS at my workplace to create some pretty complicated applications. Once, during an upgrade to our payroll system used for almost 20,000 employees, I wrote an application to compare the master file output from the old version with the new version, looking for differences which would signal compatibility issues. This app helped to eliminate a lot of confusion and busy work by our HR and payroll folks to ferret out those problems. My star shone a little brighter for a while...sigh.

    FoxPro fan

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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.

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      Daniel R Przybylski
      wrote on last edited by
      #51

      I programmed in a new language called C# almost twenty years ago when it first came out. I don't miss it though. I still use it nearly every day.

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      • L Lost User

        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.

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        YaakovF
        wrote on last edited by
        #52

        I learned programming in college by writing programs in Algol-60 on a Univac 1108. My, how time flies!

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        • J jeron1

          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

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          YaakovF
          wrote on last edited by
          #53

          I had a job once programming in Fortran 77 on a VAX 11/780. That was a nice machine!

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          • S Steven1218

            I loved the VAX/VMS system. I used Pascal, some C, DCL, FMS, and others. I had a 2 shelf set of manuals from DEC, which if you followed the rules everything would just work. I even developed a primitive pre-object system where I would pass a structure for specific data entry forms to several routines; saved a lot of coding.

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            YaakovF
            wrote on last edited by
            #54

            Yeah, that was some system. I don't miss the languages as much as the system itself. You read the directions and wrote the program, and it worked.

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            • Y YaakovF

              I learned programming in college by writing programs in Algol-60 on a Univac 1108. My, how time flies!

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              Lost User
              wrote on last edited by
              #55

              I learned Assembler, Fortran and PLUS on the 1108. Never got into Algol-60, but I know one of the Burroughs systems used it for all their Operating System code.

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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.

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                Davie21240
                wrote on last edited by
                #56

                I have a warm spot in my heart for Ada. Think more teams should consider Ada2012 for their next project at least if it's realtime embedded development.

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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.

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                  ormonds
                  wrote on last edited by
                  #57

                  Sigh. Yes, I miss FORTRAN77. My first love, I guess.

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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.

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                    Davie21240
                    wrote on last edited by
                    #58

                    I have a warm spot in my heart for Ada. Think more teams should consider Ada2012 for their next project at least if it's realtime embedded development.

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                    • O ormonds

                      Sigh. Yes, I miss FORTRAN77. My first love, I guess.

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                      Forogar
                      wrote on last edited by
                      #59

                      Yeah, me too. :sigh:

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

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                      • L Lost User

                        Yes, but remember how long it took to write out the coding sheets, get the cards punched, submit them for compilation, only to find you made a simple spelling mistake, or the punch girl mis-read your hieroglyphics.

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                        jsc42
                        wrote on last edited by
                        #60

                        Ah yes - happy days (not). Two weeks turnround. It ensured we did desk debugging properly. Still got some of my old programs. Has anyone got a card reader?

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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.

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                          Old Ed
                          wrote on last edited by
                          #61

                          Assembler on many pre-PC mainframes and "minicomputers". I miss it each and every time I open Visual Studio.

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