Slashdot Mirror
How Can an Old-School Coder Regain His Chops?
DonLab writes "I was a proficient software engineer in the 1980s, writing hundreds of thousands of lines of ALGOL, FORTRAN, COBOL, and Pascal programs, as well as working in 370 and 8080 assembly language & pre-relational DBMS systems. My hands-on programming career ended when I became a freelance analyst and designer, ultimately retiring young in the early '90s. Now I'd like to reenter the field, but I'm finding that I know nothing about today's post-C languages, programming tools, and computing environments. I wouldn't know where to start learning C++, PHP, Java, HTML5, or PERL, much less how to choose one over the other for a particular application. Can I be the only pre-GUI software designer or hobbyist searching for a way to update his skills for Windows, iOS, or Android?"
Don't forget to B#.
You're both wrong. It's D flat (same as C sharp). No minors were harmed in the writing of this snide comment.
Don't learn PYTHON (I'm a Perl programmer returning the complement, hence the inappropriate upper case):
1] It's too metrosexual for a real man
2] significant whitespace
3] ESR
If you develop apps for the new iPhone, can I put in a request for an app that uses GPS to direct you towards the nearest public phone box.
Thanks.
"We need a name that's witty at first, but that seems less funny each time you hear it." - Seymour Skinner
If you need pianos with the keys clearly marked, you're probably not the best person to ask for advice on music theory.
True confidence comes not from realising you are as good as your peers, but that your peers are as bad as you are.
No Shit, Sherlock.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
I wonder what kind of job requires you to practice music, horticulture and computer science at the same time. And can keep you occupied for nearly 25 years.
Tech guy for The Wurzels.
Yes, your first infinite loop right there.
I would recommend starting with C#, also. One big advantage is the excellent and free IDE available from Microsoft (C# Express). There are also some excellent books available, such as Programming Microsoft Windows with C#, by Petzold. Also, C# is similar in syntax and structure to Java and C++, so you can more easily transition to these languages, if needed.
Haven't tried C# express but I did use SharpDevelop in a previous gig when doing a little windows dev - it struck me as very polished.
I ended up doing what I needed with Win32 API calls and building with wxDev-C++ but I don't like talking about it... (Because of Winsock2 rather than wxDev-C++.
Troll, eh? Is that because winsock2 is actually good or because I didn't close the bracket?
I doubt anyone else in FOSS land or other technologies companies relish the idea of getting into bed with Microsoft. They have a history of fucking their partners.
Isn't that the whole point of going to bed with someone?
Could possibly be worse. Is COBOL like FORTRAN in that EVERYTHING IS CODED IN ALL CAPS AND READING THE CODE HURTS YOUR EYES?
I did a tiny bit of FORTRAN work when I was at an internship while in college. The code was painful to read, almost entirely because it was ALL CAPS. :(
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?