Have you ever written a program?

[yoda313]

So can you write software programs?

I can't. The closest I've ever come to programing is doing some basic .bat files in the old dos days for some video game stuff.....

How about you?

[redwudz]

A few in basic, but that was years ago when I couldn't afford much in the way of software.

[gadgetguy]

I'm fairly proficient in VB6 and wrote a monitoring/notification software package that I licensed to a few clients. Unfortunately I couldn't afford to keep buying M$ "upgrade" packages to continue development, so I'm no longer doing that. Now it's just a hobby. I write things for my own enjoyment or personal needs.

[Mr. Dweezel]

https://forum.videohelp.com/viewtopic.php?t=299927

[edDV]

The tools are easier than they ever have been if you want to roll your own program.

[Ai Haibara]

Does HTML coding count?

I haven't really done much in the way of programming since I was actively using my Commodore 64. I guess I can say I was a BASIC/ASM programmer... who really needs to get around to learning 32-bit programming, at the very least. And C/C++, maybe Python... and some of the languages used to write interactive-fiction text games, like Inform.

Ah, that's one way of making myself feel old.

[thecoalman]

You should have a semi-pro category, that would be where I would fit in but way down on the bottom rung. I'm just starting to learn PHP in earnest. I've enough knowledge now that I could whip up a simple forum or guestbook but my big hurdle is security so it's not somethingI could use in a live enviroment. It has helped tremendously for password protected pages, right now I'm working on a small CMS style interface, security not an issue since only the client or myself will be able to access them.

I haven't really done much in the way of programming since I was actively using my Commodore 64.

I had a commodore 64 , my greates achievement was making a stobe light from the TV, Dad was not happy....

[jameshgross]

Well lets see... C, C++, C#, assemblers, FORTRAN, BASIC, VB,
ADA, PLM. Mostly embedded systems. But more important then a particular language are the principles of good design, testing, documentation and support.

[FulciLives]

10 PRINT "STFU"
20 GOTO 10

That's about the extent of my programming. I fooled around with BASIC back when I had a C-64 but I never really did all that much with it.

Back then there were several books (alas I don't think I have any of them anymore) that talked about how to program text only adventure games (akin to the INFOCOM games like ZORK) and I had at least 2 or 3 such books but the programming was such a Pain-In-The-Ass partly due to the nature of it and partly due to the C-64 basic lacking "basic" BASIC commands (you had IF .. THEN but not IF ... THEN ... ELSE without elaborate "work arounds") that I never did end up doing much in the way of creating a game in total.

Was kinda fun though for a while.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[trhouse]

C and assembler for embedded microcontrollers, Visual C++ for control programs, and HTML for web site. A long time ago, Fortran and Basic. I had a VIC 20 at one time but did not write in Basic for it. There was a plug-in module, HESMON, which allowed programming it in assembly language for much faster execution times.

[fritzi93]

Yeah, 30-odd years ago in grad school. In FORTRAN. :P

Had to crunch some numbers to get some demographics and it wasn't like there was anything widely available. So it was very much do-it-yourself.

In those days I was, with some fellow grad students, one of the "troglodytes", spending long hours in the library basement. You entered your data on punchcards. The mainframe computer took up a good part of the basement, and was a wheezing beast prone to crashes. We were awestruck by it, but in hindsight it was indescribably primitive. :P

[trhouse]

You entered your data on punchcards

Yep. Hollerith cards and the mainframe we had was made by the same company that made the HAL computer in "2001, A Space Odyssey". I am really dating myself now!

[Biggmatt]

Yes, many. Games on the c64 in basic/asm. Assembly terminate and stay resident dos interrupt programs including pop up notes. Amiga C and Rexx for sockets and an usenet news poster. PHP & Perl including a purchasing request/approval system, lots of individual page scripts, sys admin scripts, and a custom cms system. Pascal including a television traffic log creater/analyzer/distribution system, and numerous 5 minute apps for various purposes.

It's just instructions like a shampoo bottle.

wet hair
apply shampoo
rinse
repeat if necessary

when i get winff cleaned up and a good stable release i am going to start on a nzb downloader

[impmon2]

I used to do a lot of programming back in the old day. Did mostly simple games in BASIC for Commodore 64 and also converted a number of PET BASIC programs to run on C64 without needing PET Em program to remap some memory location (ie screen location for POKing characters)

I also did a bit of PILOT and LOGO but it's more graphic than actual program.

I haven't done anything on that scale for some time, the last one I did was to hand code in ASM a simple screen program for Atari 2600. Someone had made a BASIC compiler that converts BASIC program for use on Atari 2600 so I may be getting back into BASIC.

[akrako1]

KSH, PHP, Java Programming and Perl here... use 'em for work... haven't really ever coded for my own purposes...

[ofbarea]

I do not code much anymore.

I did some work with RPG II (IBM), COBOL, Link (Unisys A series) and Pascal.

I started programing in a Radio Shack Color Computer using MS Basic and assembler for Motorola 6809.

[Betamax]

C++ is my main skill.
It's been a while now when I developped something. I do so when I need something but can't find some existing. Nowadays I'm overwelmed with tools of others, so I don't need to write it again myself - so I keep it with more 'simple' things, like HTML/XML stuff.

[lordsmurf]

I'm a bit amazed at the results. I can only imagine how different it might have been 5-10 years ago.

[edDV]

I'm sparing y'all the sad Fortran era tales of walking trays of punch cards miles in the snow to the centralized computer building which housed the IBM360. A couple of hours later you called to learn the job didn't run because of a misplaced comma. Repeat the ordeal until it runs. Then debug the results.

[dwill123]

I started programming about 27 years using Cobol and (see below)



Those of you old enough to remember those know what a joy it was to carry your 2000 card masterpiece around and then drop them.

Since then I've done some coding in assembler, Pascal, c, VB3,6, Java and now have started VB.Net & C#. (also T-SQL but thats not a programming language)

[edDV]

Later grad students were issued there very own 9 track tapes that held huge 50MB capacities. If you had a fancy project you might even get a removable hard disk platter (100-200MB).


It was a total bummer when you had to change out a system hard drive.

[SLK001]

I'm sparing y'all the sad Fortran era tales of walking trays of punch cards miles in the snow to the centralized computer building which housed the IBM360. A couple of hours later you called to learn the job didn't run because of a misplaced comma. Repeat the ordeal until it runs. Then debug the results.

Or, the embarrassing situation where you were using the line printer (the ONLY output device available to the general user at that time) and inadvertently coded an infinite loop, with a print command inside. The only way to stop it was to "buzz" the operator (inside his "clean room") and tell him what job to kill. Hopefully, he got to it before too many trees were wasted! The looks of everyone waiting for their job to print was indescribably cold!

Hopefully, you only made that error once!

[mikel]

early 70's ....Fortran with punch cards...later played with Forth.

[TheFamilyMan]

I've been professionally "coding" for about 23 years. It's C++ now, though I done a fair amount of C , assembly, a little fortran and a few other obscure vendor specific languages. I can't say enough about how wonderful OO (object oriented) is with its modelling and testing paradigms, compared to the structured (and spaghetti) crap I've had to deal with in the past. I remember using those 'washing machine' removable platter drives and 9 track tapes (nice pictures, as always, edDV). My favorite computer folk story comes from a friend who worked in an Amdahl data center, where he claims they used a steam iron with an ironing board to recover munched 9 track tapes with about a 70% success rate.

[dwill123]

Amdahl ahh there's a name I haven't heard in a long while.

[CogoSWSDS]

Right now C++, C#, and T-SQL. Have been doing some ASP.NET and PHP stuff too. Years ago I did RPG II and COBOL. I don't quite go back to the days of punch cards, but I do remember the TRS-80 Model 1. I wrote my first BASIC program on that box.

CogoSWSDS

[Leo2]

Yes, it's big part of my business. Years ago it was Rockwell 6502 assembler, now mostly Atmel AVR and 8051 assemblers. The pictures posted by edDV touched my memory. I remember how impressed I was when someone wrote a program that would print a picture of "naked woman" using only letters of alphabet - computer graphics were going to be invented many years later. I spend some time in computer memory manufacturing factory. The memory boards (4kb) were assembled by women under microscope using fine wire and small ferrite rings. After a year or two the ladies had permanent damage to their vision. Computer looked like 3 - 4 fridges and was not as powerful as calculator that can be purchased for $1 - $2 today.

[jimmalenko]

Yes. Done a bit both for work and for personal use. Mainly GUIs for commandline programs but a few of my own creations as well.

[EddyH]

Closest: Yes, it's a hobby.
More accurate: Yes, back in't day... as a youngling who had time to blow on such capers. My programming now is more visual, chucking documents (or recently DVDs) together. Hey, it counts! In a way... particularly if it's Powerpoint, which is like Shoot Em Up Construction Kit for boring corporate presentations.

I've had a bit of sinclair spectrum experience (20 BORDER 5: PAPER 7: INK 1, etc) when very small (a 4-year-old word processing slave! hehe) and more recently with one a schoolfriend lent me and never wanted back... didn't do anything quite so complex at 18 as i did at 4.
More realistically, odd bits of FaSTBasic and STOS basic on the atari st, more to keep my hand in than anything, messing about with QBasic on the DOS PC (editing the built in programs, but also coding what probably amounted to my own rather rubbish semi-interactive "mega-demos"), and even a pitiful attempt at Space Invaders on a Hercules / MDA based 286 I was given, using Microsoft GWBasic. I only got so far as putting one alien in - along with your own craft and the ability to shoot and hit the alien - but I had the rest of it planned out for putting the rest of them in using an array, the shields, scoring, the mothership etc, all in glorious 80x25 ambervision.
Then I accidentally deleted GWBasic and my mother 'accidentally' threw away the amberscreen monitor, so that was the end of that.

And not really anything since, though i'm tempted to learn C++ and Java... apparently at least one of them is superficially similar to HTML/XML, and I can at least partially manage those.

[TBoneit]

Well I had a VHS Data base program written and compiled using a dbase compiler. It had Window 3.x and Dos versions. Mouse or keyboard, various output formats, sorts, searches and so on. And some utilites for RPG games written for a basic compiler. At the Time I had the microsoft one that had Basic compiler, Quickbasic Compiler and OS2compiler output formats if that shows it's age. I seem to remember that I may still have it on a shelf in the basement if the floppies haven't deteriorated from age.

Then the Dbase compiler got bought out several times and finally languished til it disappeared and Windows 95 came along and time got short so.......