Any programmers here?

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Sorry if this is a redundant topic; I'm still navigating my way around here!

Mine's still hobby level; I started creative coding a little over a year ago (with the Processing language), did a bunch of boring bootcamps online in the meantime (which turned out to be a pretty bad decision over all, but you live and learn!), and then somehow ended up doing a crap-ton of gamedev in my recent spare time and learning much more than I had before. I still mostly suck, but progress is progress, and I still find it to be a lot of fun.

What's everyone else up to?

I studied computer science, but I was always better with ideas than programming, despite having forgotten more comp languages than most people learn... ended up going into networking then management then got physically disabled

congrats on doing new things though.

Most I do these days is basic stuff for websites, and not much of that, but got a Pi recently, and playing with python a little.

:S

What's the end goal for you? making games?

I am fluent in Java and Python.

i used to make games, but it was biting off more than i could chew. Sometimes i get ideas for games and get tempted to go back into it, but due to experience i know most stuff is too much for me.

I liek those games that have a lot of depth, which are the hardest to make.

.Net Core (C#) and Typescript/Angular, also a lot of SQL since it's full-stack.

I just do whatever is needed.

At my current job I found myself doing anything and everything. Shell scripting, ruby on rails, SQL, JavaScript, patching bugs in VNC in C++, writing data transfer client in C#, a native Mac version in Objective-C++ (that's right), a server back-end in PHP.

I really want to get into Rust.

Yeah I was a bit like that. SQL, totally forgot about that when thinking...

Has anyone played around with, or better still, programmed one of these?



a competition using these could be a lotta fun maybe


A playlist of these programmable /educational ground drones with IR and gel bead guns

My partner and I are a self-employed team of programmers. Our main client is a small medical lab, for which we have made, and continue to maintain, a HIPAA-compliant custom electronic medical records system.

We use mainly Java (servlets), JSP, and Javascript.

I use PHP for simple non-paid work, e.g. on my own Autistic in NYC website, which uses a template that I made myself.

The summer of 2011 while I was stuck at home with a broken ankle I did a CMS from scratch in PHP+SQL for an odd client. Themselves they refused to use anything other than Internet Explorer with a very broken JavaScript configuration. It was a very special and specific contract, they wanted an interactive website for their business without any JavaScript at all. So that's what I made. It's still up today. Seems they missed their domain registration renewal, even though they are still in business. *sigh* Those people.

It's interesting how years later I saw so many scriptless sites on darknet (for anonymity). It's a good reminder that all of the necessary functionality can be provided without making the page heavy on the client.

I spent a half century writing everything from microcode to big database to phone apps. Then I retired.

Everything I ever wrote is obsolete, sometimes before I finished writing it, sometimes a few years later.

I'm retired now, but my CV reads like the history of programming. Countless varieties of Basic, Lotus 123, Excel, Access, Fortran, Cobol, 6502 and 8086 Assembly, Clipper, DEC control language, Visual Basic, .Net, SQL/SQL Server + Stored procedures, JavaScript, Python, C++. I spent my entire working life as a software developer either working as an employee for various companies or self employed as a contractor.

Curiously one of my longest lasting pieces of software was that one which was intended to be a short term solution by my then employer until a larger more encompassing solution was devised, but ended up in use for over twenty years more or less unchanged.

I was first officially a programmer at the beginning of 1980 when, at the age of 27, I first reported in to a job as a "software engineer". I spent more or less the duration of the 80s developing in assembler language and debugging in machine language. Higher-level programming sometimes took place as needed or desired to support the main assignment which as I said was all assembler programming. That was done in FORTRAN.

Toward the end of the 80s I began a Master's program in Computer Science (I already had a couple of Bachelor's degrees including one in Engineering). Around 1990-91 I was fortunate enough to get a job in which I would be developing in a high-level language on a VAX (I had briefly held a job in which I had done some development in Pascal). This was supposed to be done in FORTRAN but I and a coworker convinced the lead we could develop in C (it actually didn't much matter as the result would be the same, although ironically the VAX actually had better built-in support for FORTRAN). This also involved some development on a Unix system so of course it made sense to use C one way or the other. I was very lucky to get this job. Later on, working for that same company, I first taught myself C++ and later took a university-level course in the subject. I used C++ on my day job and also on a side hustle I took on (without which we probably wouldn't have been able to afford to stay in our house). BTW C++ was by far the most challenging language I've ever programmed in.

When Java applets first appeared, I took an interest and so taught myself Java. I later got training in Java through work (that job actually had a lot of training opportunities) and found myself developing stuff in Java for my day job although it was mostly Proof of Concept stuff. The next couple of jobs primarily involved Java programming.

BTW beginning with my Master's degree I also learned about and subsequently used Relational Databases which meant SQL and along with C, C++, and Java did some serious PL/SQL development on Oracle.

I spent most of the noughties in a job in private industry in which most work I did was JEE plus continuing to use SQL. At the start there was some Embedded SQL (C/C++). When I very first began that job, I had an assignment in which I developed a small but very successful Java applet plus did maintenance on some desktop applications in Visual Basic, Visual C++, and Delphi (yes all 3!). I can recall the last time I maintained some C++ code then never touched that again. Things were becoming more standardized as digital technology matured and found its way into more aspects of our lives.

With the advent of the Great Recession, I went back into Govt. contracting where I remain. Going forward it was more or less all JEE/SQL along with some JavaScript as needed for the browser. I participated in a proof of concept that included developing a mobile app in javascript (AngularJS at the time) using a cross-platform development tool (Ionic?). I developed an interest in ReactJS and even taught a quick course in it at work. Over 4 years ago, I was assigned to a project on which development takes place in Spring Boot and Angular (Java and JavaScript/TypeScript platforms respectively) as well as lots of RDBMS but no PL/SQL or the like (that sort of thing seems to have gone out of favor).

I turned 70 in September and had my hours reduced from 40 to 32 per week (this has been formalized with our Government customer but when I tried to submit my timesheet I learned there are still some administrative loose ends with my employer so I am charging PTO today). I'll see how this semi-retirement goes.

Not only am I now doing work that is usually associated with people much younger than myself but can claim to be good at it. I have no way to corroborate that claim but I work with some people who believe I am THE person to reach out to when they need help, so there's that. Even cutting back one day a week feels weird at this time, I don't understand how most people my age can have been retired for years and be perfectly content. Full time Work From Home for 2½ years probably has something to do with it though.

EDIT in the early noughties I also had a side hustle which involved web development in first Perl and then VBScript. Looking back, it was awful stuff but people used it and were satisfied. The only real problems I encountered were with people who had problems using it in Netscape on a Macintosh. For some reason those people refused to use anything other than a Macintosh.

Two languages I've NEVER used:
1.) COBOL
2.) Python

interesting read
"BTW C++ was by far the most challenging language I've ever programmed in."
because of no garbage collection ?

I did take the Udemy course for building an HTTP server in Rust a year or two ago. Kept hearing how fast and efficient it is and I was hoping for a while that I could apply that with WASM for my repositories. If I remember correctly I couldn't add it globally (the webpack import was limited) and I really wanted all my static functions and reference tables to live in it.

I taught myself a little bit of Python, and was able to set up a very basic Space Invaders type of game. This was only by following instructions though, and my understanding of it isn't deep enough to create new programs from scratch.

I also do a bit of programming when it comes to game mods. This is a bit easier for me, since a lot of stuff is already laid out, so I can look to existing scripts for guidance (or ask for help in the community).

My tendency to miss or forget obvious things does make programming kind of tough for me, however.

I code. About 20 languages.