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How Can an Old-School Coder Regain His Chops?

Posted by timothy on from the just-eat-the-brain-of-someone-younger dept.

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?"

5 of 565 comments (clear)

  1. Re:C-sharp by WGFCrafty · · Score: 3, Funny

    Don't forget to B#.

  2. iPhone app developer by rainmouse · · Score: 4, Funny

    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.

    1. Re:iPhone app developer by stillnotelf · · Score: 5, Funny

      Clark Kent? Is that you?

  3. Re:C-sharp by boredsenseless · · Score: 4, Funny

    "We need a name that's witty at first, but that seems less funny each time you hear it." - Seymour Skinner

  4. Re:C-sharp by fuzzix · · Score: 3, Funny

    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?