Poll: are you a programmer?

xphelper suggested this poll.

If you are a programmer, we'd love to hear what language(s) you code in.

 

I personally program in C++. I also know a few fragments of assorted other languages, but not enough to do anything.

 

The reason I suggested this poll was not a random thought. I can't help wondering whether one needs to be a programmer to understand the rationale behind all this security thing.

When it comes to computing, garbage in garbage out. Programming is about logic. For example, how could XP possibly be running Remote Desktop if its service is not even on. People are horrified that I'm still using XP and lecture me blah blah blah quoting from the experts how XP is not supported. These days I just keep a low profile, when they start to have a go.

I love this forum. Though maybe there are ever own 2 people in this survey ...

 

I am not a programmer, but I still use xp 24/7 and have been lucky so far not to get infected, , I like to reinstall about once a year, because every now and then I play around with my pc and change some things and If I mess it up, I can start all over,

 

I tried learning about Python a while back. I had some terrible headaches. I get headaches all the time because of the Bell's palsy anyway. Stupid me thought if I took my time maybe I would get so many headaches.

I heard Python was the easiest to learn.

 

It all depends on you, really. The person who said that Python was the easiest to learn probably started out with Python and became an advocate for it, kind of like me and C++.

 

Headaches are caused by excessive stress on the nerves. Perhaps instead of attempting a language that someone else finds it the easiest, learn one that you actually love and feel passionate about. It can be any language as it's more important to learn how to program. Learn at your own pace, one small program at a time. Besides, what someone else finds difficult you might find easy, or vice versa. We are not all talented in the same ways. For example, my car mechanic told me a bunch of things about my car, I'm still none the wiser. For me, a car is just a tool to get me from A to B, out of necessity. I have just realised that not everyone here loves XP, they just use it because they think they have too.

The ones who do love it have much better understanding of how it can work better for them, be it security or how to make the most of it.

 

Way back in 1970's/1980's, I used to enjoy producing hand assembled machine code for Intel 8080 / Zilog Z80 MPUs. When these 8 bit processors first became available to constructors, there was not software available, so write it was the sole option.

You wrote very small tight modules: keep it simple, and do one thing only. Minimise opportunity for error, and do not allow the task of debugging to become complex. They ran extremely fast and efficiently. When you had amassed a library of these, you could begin to weave then into something more capable.

The advent of 16 bit microprocessors, with different code and register models left this knowledge obsolete, and by then, programmers had cross-assemblers running on other machines, leaving hand assembly unnecessary. Also Micro controller chips began to take on the sort of tasks which constructors had used microprocessors for.

Now, before I know it forty years or so has passed, and I have done no further coding.

Now and again, I do think of learning Python, grabbing a Raspberry Pi or similar, and getting back into constructing devices, but though now long time retired, I nevertheless still do not find the time for it.

 

Hi priscus, I think you should have voted yes. Once a programmer, always a programmer.

As for the raspberry Pi I have a few, but after getting it to work and surf never managed to find a project worth working on, so you haven't missed anything. I thought it might be worth turning it into a solar powered self lawn cutter but I'm not very good with building machines. Oh well.

 

OK have done as you suggest.

 

I drove bulldozers for 40 years, not much need for programmers there@

 

Nope, not a progammer. But I have some kind of knowledge in internet and marketing sector.

 

Not a programmer

 

Yes! i am using scratch As for now. and After i Learn programming I will use The most Advanced Programming launguage!

 

xphelper, I am interested in the reason you give for posing the question.

It is many years since I studied Psychology, but I recall that in 1960's, a flurry of research activities reported the seemingly counter-intuitive finding that instruction in formal logic per se did NOT lead to higher scores being obtained in tests of logical thinking applying to real world phenomena.

Of course, in today's 'Post-Truth' era, that may no longer apply. There is probably money to be made by believing the opposite.

I was always interested in the 'failure to eliminate hypotheses in a conceptual task' studies: what we have come to describe as 'Confirmation Bias'. It seems that trained scientists whose occupational tasks are based upon eliminating hypotheses, also fail to escape from confirmation bias in tasks away from their working lives.

People are Strange!

 

That might not be programming, but it still is necessary (and probably a whole lot of fun!).

 

Just curious: What language is that? Assembly?

 

The reason is probably that people are taught that "newer is always better". I'd like to meet the idiot that came up with that idea. Newer is not always better, it's sometime worse, especially when it comes to software. I like the features in older software. Dumbing down software takes away the power. The best software often comes from small companies or individual developers and was often created years ago.

I can't believe how bad the latest Adobe and Microsoft products are... anything post CS3 I find unusable. Microsoft was at their peak in the early-mid 2000s. Sony is curious... a large corporation yet their products improve each year. For NLE video I gave up on Abobe Premiere and switched to Sony Vegas. Far more productive and easier to use. Being a prior CoolEdit user, I live Adobe Audition 3 (CS3 suite). And I still use all the great free or low cost tools- VideoRedo, MKVMerge, AVISynth, VirtualDub2, EAC3to, etc.

All versions of Windows are insecure. By web browsing or reading html email, you can easily get hit with a zero day ransomware virus that encrypts all the files on your shiny new Windows 10 PC.

XP is becoming more and more secure by the day as its userbase declines. Linux is secure only because almost no one uses it (on the desktop anyway). It may actually be one of the most insecure OSes in use. The lack of precise NTFS style security horrified me when I first used Linux. I'm a bit surprised a malicious hacker has yet to create a virus that wipes out most of the internet (servers typically run on Linux).

Windows 10 and 7 with the later spyware patches are a huge data collection dragnet for the the US govt. They have massive datacenters recording every keystroke and data packet you send or receive. They have have so much data that there's no manual human way possible to make sense of it all so they spend billions on developing AI to analyze the data...

I first programmed on a Radio Shack TRS-80, then Atari 400, and learned all about the Commodore 64. The first time I got an "A" on the screen via machine language was a great joy (I was about 15 years old). That progressed into raster interrupts, graphics and SID sound programming and in the 90s programming PIC microcontrollers.

I created and sold the first automatic fast charge termination device for Nicad/NiMH batteries (google MicroPeaker). I still use the first prototype Micropeaker to this day still on the same AstroFlight 112 fast charger. I developed possibly the first all bit-banged microcontroller based 3 phase brushless DC motor controller in 1992 which may have got me a job with Aveox (I was their first employee). If you ever wonder how drones and vertically climbing radio control electric model airplanes came to be, I have in my collection and still occasionally fly the first prototype wye wind brushless DC motor that started it all (70A at 20V DC). It even has Dremeled slots for variable timing (IIRC my idea).

In 1994, I witnessed the first flights of a vertically climbing (at 100MPH) model airplane using Aveox's 1817-4Y motor on 27 Sanyo 1/2C NiCads. Steve Neu was the designer, builder, and pilot (https://neumotors.com). I believe it was pulling around 150A at 0.7V per cell (max power point). The flight envelope was insane- for the electric contest you needed extreme power, a strong airframe, and very low drag. Steve would pilot his model vertically to about 1500 feet , cut the power, the blades would fold back and he'd dive it through a gate at close to 200MPH (non-powered) and then power up for a few seconds to get back to 1500 feet, and rinse, repeat. I'll never forget that day. Steve was on the US team and they easily won the worldwide event (held in Australia that year).

Anyway... other languages:
Delphi in 1997 to present. I use the open source Lazarus development environment for most of my Windows programs.

For automation of apps, I often use AutoIT. It does most of the post recording work for my HDTV video recordings, including a functioning commercial remover (using an AI I developed) and season, episode, program and title finder. The system uses several AutoIt apps, several Lazarus apps, 3 versions of VideoRedo, some VBS scripts and various batch files. A modified NextPVR (ASP.Net C#) handles the recording scheduling and actual recording (on 2 XP boxes and 14 Hauppauge HDTV tuners total). One one my Lazarus apps fixes the database bug NextPVR 2.3 has with 3 or more tuners. The dev for NextPVR first denied the bug existed, and when others confirmed it, he said it was "too complex" to fix. I had it fixed in a week (without his source code) by reordering the recording schedule with an AI I developed (by pre-allocating the tuners a specific way, the bug could be avoided).

So yeah, I code... I also do power electronics, CAD, 3D printing- Autocad and Solidworks (at my job) current home projects- generator controller that automates the propane valve, start sequence, and power switchover for my computers during an extended power fail. I built a 6000 watt double conversion UPS that handles outages up to 2 hours.

The 750,000 watt Series DC motor controller never made it past the prototype stage as another company beat me to market with the Soliton 1, plus I couldn't find a solution to the liability issues... in 2006, I met the designer at an electric car show and we discussed motors controllers. Then Elon Musk came along and obsoleted the whole DIY EV market with Tesla Motors. He's the Edison of our era.

Coding... I'm working on a classic XP style Windows Explorer that has a verify with copy/moves function, and an XP style search. It'll work on Windows 7 and 10 too. I never knew Windows junctions could be so complex... and my program will have to handle them properly.

 

I can't find it (at least on Bing).

Actually, I read somewhere that many servers run Linux for the storage and such but use Windows Server as a front-end so that the only thing visible to hackers is Windows Server.

 

Currently learning C++, i would also love to learn some other languages including commadore basic