posted 12-19-98 02:38 AM ET        

How many of the other regulars are programmers? And what is your language/OPSYS of choice? I'm just curious.

I'm a C++/WinNT guy who is switching jobs to a place that uses Java as their primary langauge. Learning time!

posted 12-19-98 09:45 AM ET            

I also know some MATLAB, Moscow ML, Pascal (and BASIC of course), but I prefer C++.

Some holiday I will probably try to learn OpenGL or DirectX, so I can make some nice 3d-graphics.

posted 12-19-98 09:49 AM ET            

I'm a major league C programmer, with some C++ and Java skills. I consider C++ to be an abomination as an OO programming language. Java is an improvement, though I wish it supported multiple inheritance. (Interfaces, while useful in their own right, aren't an adequate substitute for MI, in my opinion.) Personally, I wish Eiffel was more of a mainstream language.

I have a solid UNIX background, but most of my recent work has been for Win32.

posted 12-19-98 02:42 PM ET            

I've written code in Pascal, C, and C++, and I like C++ the best.

posted 12-19-98 02:49 PM ET            

My language of choice is C++ (gotta love it), using a Linux compiler... and although I don't use Linux for much else, I spend a lot of time in Linuxland. My main OS is Win98.

posted 12-20-98 11:09 PM ET            

Moved onto VB (which is now my area of expertise), and dabbled in C. Writing for Win16 at the moment, but we'll be moving to Win32 soon. Finally.

posted 12-21-98 01:08 AM ET            

guess what!! i now know how to say "Hello World" in a message box!

posted 12-21-98 09:02 AM ET            

I still remember a lot of 8080 and 6502 assembler (how I loved my Atari 800XL :-)). As PCs became more common, I moved from assembler/basic programming to Pascal and eventually C, learning 80x86 assembly in the meantime. I'm stuck with C/C++ as it's probably the best language ever :-), and yeah, I've done some Java (booo - no pointers - it's like riding a bicycle with those learning wheals on the side!!! :-))

Also done some functional programing, Prolog and such.

Done a lot of DOS programming in the old days, now mainly Win32 though work pushes me now towards more Unix.

Work has also pushed me towards VB, which I regret very much...

In my spare time I usually try to code games, which is probably the most fun one can have with their clothes on :-)

Oh yeah, I think all the programmers should unite, buy some deserted island, and move away from this world that doesn't understand us :-)
There we'll program robots to do everything for us and live in this utopia spending our time coding SMAC sequels (and playing them) :-)

posted 12-21-98 11:03 AM ET            

Zan Thrax - Java uses references instead of pointers. You can use references in C++ (and Microsofts MFC does use them) but most of the time anyone who has come from a C background ignores references and uses pointers because that's what we're used to. )

posted 12-21-98 01:01 PM ET            

BTW, depending on how you look at it, everything except primitive types in Java can be considered a pointer. You just don't have to use the * and -> operators anymore. You still get to use new and still have the fun:

Point a = new Point(1.0, 3.5);
Point b = a;
b.move(3.5, 1.0);
a.print(); // oops, I didn't mean to change a!

posted 12-21-98 01:20 PM ET            

Another friend of mine was the son of BYTE magazine's legal counsel, and he'd get a lot of spillover tech from the magazine, which Mark and I would play with.

posted 12-21-98 01:30 PM ET            

I can actually program well though in only C++, Qbasic(commercial), and Cobol.

Operating system flavors I have tried are system 5 - system 7.1(MAC) AMiga GEOS, Windows 1.18<-Yes it existed - Win 98 and winnt 3.51 and 4.0, Dos 5 and above, and some different interpritations of Unix.

My favorite operating system flavor was probibly SGI's Version of unix on an O2 workstation, That was probibly the most stable and powerful OS I have used. With win95being on my game machine.

posted 12-21-98 01:30 PM ET            

Fluke - Bjarne Stroustrup wrote C++.

brag list: assembly languages I've used: Z80, 8080, 6502, 680x0, 80286, PDP-10, PDP-8, MIX

high-level languages: BASIC, COBOL, FORTRAN, Pascal, LISP, Prolog, C, C++, APL, Java

Yeah, I'm a programmer...! I can't seem to get OUT of programming. It's as hard to kick as smoking! I'd rather be a musician, but the pay's terrible. Two gigs over the weekend, and I only got paid $15 (but the second one had great food!)

posted 12-21-98 03:17 PM ET            

And if you do become a programmer, you can't beat the lifestyle. You get everyone yelling at you because the program was supposed to be done yesterday and then when you do get it finished the QA people yell at you because it doesn't work. When you get it working, the customer yells at you because it's late AND because it doesn't work the way they wanted it to. So you go back to fix it and realize that there is now some new langauge/tool/feature that makes the last 2 months of work obsolete because you can now do all those tasks with a couple of mouse clicks. However, when you ask your boss to send you ona training course so that you can learn the new tool/language/whatever he says 'no' because you're late on some other ridiculous deadline.

Actually, it isn't really all that bad. A lot of places don't make you dress up in a suit or even wear a tie. It can be very fun and rewarding and it's really easy to scare technophobes just by telling them what you do.

Here's a few "rules" for all you aspiring programmers:
- 80% of the work takes 20% of the time, and the remaining 20% of the work will take 80% of the time. (Forget the name of that one.)
- whatever estimate (time) you arrive at, multiple it by 1.5 and you'll still be late (again, I forget who tht's attributed to)
- No matter how much detail you get the customer to put down in a requirements document, when you're done something will not be what they wanted

One more tip: don't go into programming if you want to be famous. You usually don't get any credit (although that will probably vary a bit depending on where you work).

posted 12-21-98 03:31 PM ET            

System.out.println(a.toString());

posted 12-21-98 09:30 PM ET            

but now i'm learning C++ and i want to make some cool windows apps so i'm learning that!

posted 12-21-98 09:50 PM ET            

i "know" how to program in dos and thats not the hardest thing in the world but it does take work..and you have to love reading! did you hear me? LOVE READING...!!

Visual basic huh? well i got hooked to this programming thing with Q basic

well i'm kinda tired and i wanna get some sleep.... in 3 to 4 days

posted 12-21-98 10:18 PM ET            

Started programming on a Commodore PET in BASIC. My first real class in programming was a community ed program at the University of Kentucky -- BASIC on a Prime *mumble* computer. Took Pascal in HS, so I could take the AP Exam and get out of 2 semesters of CS in Uni(with credit for A's in the classes, too). Taught myself C between HS and Uni. Now I generally use a mix of C and Python, except when I help debug some other's Perl of C++ code. Never felt a Java itch, so...

posted 12-30-98 06:05 PM ET         

They don't let me out much, you see. I don't think I've seen sunlight since sometime in the 60's. Would have plumb forgot what it was if I didn't have this nice picture on the wall.

posted 01-21-99 05:45 PM ET            

Would be(decimal):
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