Let's start at the beginning

[fas42]

The hacker's water cooler hangout is building ...

My favourite was Perl, no mention of that here yet; the cut down, no nonsense, purpose built roadster that just gets the job done with minimum fuss -- should tell where I'm coming from.

Frank

 

[vinylphilemag]

The hacker's water cooler hangout is building ...

My favourite was Perl, no mention of that here yet; the cut down, no nonsense, purpose built roadster that just gets the job done with minimum fuss -- should tell where I'm coming from.

Frank

You missed out "write only" from your list of Perl's accolades!

 

[fas42]

You missed out "write only" from your list of Perl's accolades!

This is a hoary old chestnut, you can do "write only" in every language devised if you really try! Trouble is, a hell of a lot of people do try, and keep trying!

No, I just found Perl to be like a comfortable old slipper, it just fits, with no nasty surprises, it always tries to do the right thing. I hate languages you have to wrestle with, grab by the throat and almost choke them to get an upper hand -- Java comes to mind here ...

Frank

 

[Mark (Basspig) Weiss]

Remington-Rand R-2 computer. I still have a panel with about 120 rotary switches number 0-9, and a humidor full of 12AT7s marked "Remington-Rand Computer Tube" in silver with black letters. The R-2 had about 10,000 12AT7s in it and took up an entire floor of an office building.

 

[amirm]

Currently our students learn Python, an object oriented language, as their first programming language.

They are doing the same at Washington State University. In my opinion, it is a mistake. My son who is going for a computer science degree took that class and almost lost interest in being a programmer. If you are going to teach the language to students, why not pick something that is common? Why not Java, Javascript, VB/VBscript? That way, people can feel that they are understanding how the world around them ticks rather than learning a language for the sake of it.

I wonder where this idea got planted in educational establishment to teach Python.

 

[Ronm1]

Nice post Scott, wasn't she credited with the first use of the term BUG
Course my favorite pioneer was the english gent that came up, during WW2 with the idea that puters could manipulate and format data, as alphanumeric characters in a code, not unlike EBCDIC/ASCII, not just crush #'s. Do you remember his name??? He should not be lost to history like I've done. He tried after the war to sell the idea, but it wasn't to be, till IBM saw the potential threat to there adding machine/business empire and well here we are!!!

 

[vinylphilemag]

Nice post Scott, wasn't she credited with the first use of the term BUG

I don't think she coined it, but she probably popularised the term.

Course my favorite pioneer was the english gent that came up, during WW2 with the idea that puters could manipulate and format data, as alphanumeric characters in a code, not unlike EBCDIC/ASCII, not just crush #'s. Do you remember his name???

Would that be Alan Turing?

 

[Steve Williams]

Man

I feel like the only person reading this thread who has had no experience whatsoever with programming so I am anxious to learn from Scott and the rest of you

 

[Ron Party]

Ahem, not the only one.

 

[amirm]

One of these days, we will put the two of to use to teach us about medicine and the law!

 

[Steve Williams]

One of these days, we will put the two of to use to teach us about medicine and the law!

That has been on my mind for quite a long time

 

[NorthStar]

Man

I feel like the only person reading this thread who has had no experience whatsoever with programming so I am anxious to learn from Scott and the rest of you

Lol Steve, you ain't the only one! I'm probably the most unknowledgeable member, person of the entire cyber space about computers, and even much less so about programmation!

If you look for the one with the less knowledge about this thread, don't look any further, just look at Bob!

* Though Steve what you excel at is Referrals!

 

[The Smokester]

They are doing the same at Washington State University. In my opinion, it is a mistake. My son who is going for a computer science degree took that class and almost lost interest in being a programmer. If you are going to teach the language to students, why not pick something that is common? Why not Java, Javascript, VB/VBscript? That way, people can feel that they are understanding how the world around them ticks rather than learning a language for the sake of it.

I wonder where this idea got planted in educational establishment to teach Python.

I don't know Python but your comments make me think back to the "new math". Not sure what the basic motivation (not an expert) was but it seemed that abstract concepts like set theory and number theory were taught at the expense of linear algebra, calculus and geometry. The relationship between the new math and anything practical was lost on most of a generation of high school students many of whom graduated never having been taught simple arithmetic.

 

[The Smokester]

I'm curious. This thread is entitled "Let's start a the beginning". Can I ask: The beginning of what?

 

[NorthStar]

I think it's about the Computer world, and Programmation, and everything else that is attached to it. ...From the prehistoric age of the dino to what it is now. ...You know, Computerisation with Technology. Am I at least half right? Scott?
Yeah, Computer programming, that's what it's all about.

 

[Gregadd]

Forgot it now. Fortran iv and basic. The large pie plate disc. You could actually hear the computer locate data on the disc. The IBM machine actually punched holes in your computer card. You literally had to track your program line by line. My first real program was to alphabetize the students names then have the computer find each name without going down the list. It was based on a binomial search.

 

[Ron Party]

Does anyone remember their first word processor? I remember having to write out all of my pleadings and briefs. Seems like the dark ages now. I can't imagine doing what I now do without a computer. Now, I write so infrequently that my hand literally gets sore after writing a paragraph.

 

[Gregadd]

My sisters best friend typed my law school brief on a first genration WP. She worked in the Secreatary of Transportations office. They were the only one in the building to have one. I turned in a brief with no white out!
My first computer was a Leading Edge with dual floppy drives and an epson dot matrix printer. I purchased it to do billing. I later discovered it could do word processing. For the first time I could turn in a written brief overnight.







p

 

[Ron Party]

Does anyone remember Amiga computers? I think I still have one somewhere in the mess that I call my garage.

 

[garylkoh]

I don't know Python but your comments make me think back to the "new math". Not sure what the basic motivation (not an expert) was but it seemed that abstract concepts like set theory and number theory were taught at the expense of linear algebra, calculus and geometry. The relationship between the new math and anything practical was lost on most of a generation of high school students many of whom graduated never having been taught simple arithmetic.

I don't know about Python or New Math, but it is unwise to dismiss anything to do with computers out of hand.

When I was in college in London in 1982, I had the honor of working on Modula-2 - one of the first object oriented languages. It was developed by Nicklaus Wirth of ETH Zurich who also developed Pascal. I wrote the library to perform manufacturing object-oriented simulation as my final year project. When I told my sponsor in Singapore that I wanted to continue my studies in object-oriented programming instead of coming home to work for the Government, I was told that in their view, object oriented programming had no future and no use.

I returned and spent the next few years writing statistical tabulation programs in Cobol. Then, I designed a couple of statistical/economic models using IP-Sharp APL - and they told me that APL had no future either. Five years after that, they were still using the statistical models I created..... the only problem was that no one could understand or maintain my programs, but all they knew was that it was accurate and it worked.

In 1993, when a bunch of us proposed that the Internet would be the information infrastructure of the future and that we should build the entire Government system (electronic Town Hall) on the Internet, we were told that the Internet was uncontrollable and that it would never amount to anything useful. Look where we are now.

I think that this is a fascinating thread, because the concentration of members of this forum who started in the deep, dark beginnings of computers must say something. I don't know what, but it says something about high end audio and computers.