Folks, does anyone here pre-date me? First computer language, 1965: EDSAC2 Autocode in a programming course taught by Dr. Maurice Wilkes (who wrote the first book on computer programming, published in 1951). But there was a huge resource-constraint! Computer time was so valuable that we students were not allowed to run our programs. Dr. Wilkes desk-checked them. Then, for an interesting "software" project, later in 1965, I worked as a programmer for Electronic Associates who manufactured analog plug-board computers. One of my first projects was a real-time oil-field simulation on an EAI 360 which was somewhat bigger than this: http://www.technikum29.de/shared/photos/rechnertechnik/eai180.jpg - programming was done with wires.

Your son knows Java, so tell him to quickly read through a book on Javascript. It is a great language for enhancing websites. Then: 1. Look at the websites of all local companies he can find. 2. Identify websites which can be easily and usefully enhanced with some neat Javascript add-ons. 3. Identify the local contact person or department who is responsible for the website. 4. Call them to arrange a visit to show a printed picture of what the website would look like with the enhancement (use a picture of the screen, clip-art etc.). 5. Quote a fixed price or whatever for the job. This is the "foot in the door". He may well discover that a local company are desperate for a webmaster with programming capability and initiative. BTW, I got my first programming job after only one programming class by following this type of procedure.

That old "real programmers" document is talking about Fortran 77 or earlier. Since then, there have been Fortrans 90, 95, 2003. These now include all those structured features which make it difficult for end-user mathematicians to match the source code with their algebra and flow-charts. But current Fortran compilers can compile original F77 programs! Fortran features backward-compatibility. I maintain Fortran programs originally written in the 1980s for obsolete computers with obsolete operating systems, but the programs continue to work correctly. The only real change is that the user-interface needs tweaking with each migration to a new operating system. Hardware comes and goes. Operating systems come and go. But some software needs to go on forever .... :) The biggest problem for long-term Fortran maintenance is that data files become inaccessible as their storage media become obsolete. Paper tape, punched cards, big disks, data cassettes, zip drives, 8-inch diskettes, 5.25 inch diskettes, now 3.5 inch diskettes ... It is a race against technological innovation to move the data from one storage medium to another. And don't trust other people to look after your data and back-up files for you. They can be gone like a cloud in the winds of time.

Mike L.