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Back in 1989 I wrote some stuff in 'C' that was supposed to be used across the patch - utility functions, modules etc... "common code" as it used to be known. (Finally) Left that company in 2000 ... mate still works there emailed me last month to say it was still there, still working, untouched. Scary!
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I worked for a company in the '80s that made the Sharp PC3000 handheld computer. After resisting for a while (because the company thought it would be too expensive) they gave (lent) the dev team a PC3000 each. I thought it ran far too slowly, so I rewrote the ROM interface one evening in my own time. This made all the apps run a lot faster. The marketing department estimated that this had made the company £100k in direct sales, and £100k in indirect sales. I got a "programmer of the year" award but no hard cash. I don't mind though, I am sure that most of us didn't become software engineers to become rich!
Later on I joined an insurance company (yes, yawn) that were going to rewrite the cobbled-together COM/VB/ASP/etc. website. I managed to keep it going and refactor it (by myself for a while); all the permanent members of staff left after one of the offices was closed. The team that took it over also wanted to rewrite it, but they never got round to it. I think most of them have now left. The cobbled-together classic ASP website is still in use (I reckon it is over 15 years old now). I would imagine it still makes them £millions/week. Even I think it should be rewritten now though!
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I wrote, back in year 2000, a program controlling automated machines for allergy tests. I suspect some of them are still operating for (unaware  ) patients.
Veni, vidi, vici.
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Does it count if I'd be the person grabbed to support it if it ever needs updated again?
If so, software I wrote to interface with an embedded PC in 06 is still in use at my current employer. There've been 0 change requests against it since it was deployed 8 years ago. 
When the (air gapped) computer it's running on is finally upgraded from XP to Win7 later this year I might have to rebuild it to target a newer version of .net than 1.1 if they don't want to install an 11 year old legacy version on the new controller box.
Did you ever see history portrayed as an old man with a wise brow and pulseless heart, waging all things in the balance of reason?
Is not rather the genius of history like an eternal, imploring maiden, full of fire, with a burning heart and flaming soul, humanly warm and humanly beautiful?
--Zachris Topelius
Training a telescope on one’s own belly button will only reveal lint. You like that? You go right on staring at it. I prefer looking at galaxies.
-- Sarah Hoyt
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Voyager's Neptune [^]
Ignoring that it is a composite image it is still a stunning view.
"If you think it's expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur." Red Adair.
Those who seek perfection will only find imperfection
nils illegitimus carborundum
me, me, me
me, in pictures
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Incredibly beautiful 
Along with Antimatter and Dark Matter they've discovered the existence of Doesn't Matter which appears to have no effect on the universe whatsoever!
Rich Tennant 5th Wave
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Quiet beauty...
I'm not questioning your powers of observation; I'm merely remarking upon the paradox of asking a masked man who he is. (V)
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I was reading and answering comments from a fellow author when he told me that he had fallen in love with technology. And, by "technology", I assumed he really meant "programming", as that is his forte.
So that got me thinking about my "first love" in relation to programming.
I was a BASIC programmer, and had some significant experience with Z-80 assembly programming, when that sultry vixen, Pascal, blew me a kiss. Holy moley! I was smitten, but good. Everything (and I really mean *everything*) took a back seat to Pascal for a while after that.
Now, 20+ years later, I survive in this world by coding tsql or C# bits to keep my employer afloat. Pascal and I have maintained a furtive relationship over the years. I have all the Borland releases on floppy, one Inprise version of Pascal, and now Embarcadero's XE4. Only the Embarcadero version is in use.
Yes, I use Pascal for my fun-time programming adventures...still!
What a babe.
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Wasn't my first language. But my first programming love was absolutely Turbo Pascal 3, as that (I think) was when they introduced OO stuff to the language. I thought I loved 1.0. But when I could integrate Code + Data? It was all over.
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mikepwilson wrote: Turbo Pascal 3, as that (I think) was when they introduced OO stuf
Nope, 5.5 . I never used 3, started with 4 -- but only after learning Pascal on a PDP-11. I don't use any Pascal now and can't read my old programs, but I have Pascal compilers for my OpenVMS systems if I want to try.
You'll never get very far if all you do is follow instructions.
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That was really that long? Wow. My brain is going fuzzy.
I wonder if you can still get those old versions. Borland used to have them available.
well that was easy[^]
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mikepwilson wrote: Borland used to have them available.
Yep. I threw out all my Turbo and Borland Pascal, C, and C++ discs and books except for Turbo BASIC (V1.0) , but I have the Turbo Pascal 5.5 from that site and ye olde Borland C/C++ 5.5 ("Free Command Line Tools").
Back in college, I was the first to jump on Turbo C++ V1.0 .
You'll never get very far if all you do is follow instructions.
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Yep. Borland got me to C++ with TC++ 1.0. It's been my favorite language since, though I'm mostly a perl/sql guy in practice nowadays.
I wonder what it takes to actually install (assuming it can be) the Turbo Pascal 5.5 I downloaded yesterday on a modern machine.
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Just try running the exe. That works for Turbo BASIC. Ah, life was simpler in those days.
You'll never get very far if all you do is follow instructions.
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Mine was Pascal through Turbo Pascal. It was my senior year of high school. We had long walks on the elevated floors next to the rows of PS/2 Model 25s. It was a pretty happy time. Other people weren't as happy as they were constantly fighting with simplistic DR. PASCAL. They still asked us for help, though the cute names we used weren't compatible with their rigid stiff-collared DR. PASCAL interpreter. I remember us being asked to do simple tasks, but because we shared such a deep bond, that we went to the back of the TP 3.0 manual and used all of the extensions such as named constants so that we could spend more time together instead of just focusing on the mundane things we were asked to do.
During that time I felt just about everything could be solved with programming, and that Pascal was such a beautiful language that I could do it all. And this same expertise did get me my first real job while I was going to community college so I could afford to go to a real university to become an aerospace engineer.
I never get to use it or Delphi anymore. Fortran is the language du jour, where time approaches infinity.
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James Jensen wrote: What a babe.
Ha. My first real love was QBasic. I met some guy that wrote a cheesy game called "Invasion of the Pac-Man Planet" that was a Gradius knock-off. BAM, I was learning from then on. Although my relationship with programming is more dysfunctional. It's a love hate thing where we fight and bicker but sometimes get along, but damn the um, late night coding, is great.
Jeremy Falcon
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The ones that scratch are the most fun, eh? 
(Welcome back to the world, btw!)
Software Zen: delete this;
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Definitely.
Jeremy Falcon
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I really liked ObjectiveC and NeXT computer!
But Apple pissed me off when they bought NeXT, waited, waited, and then released... MacOS9! Yuk!
Then .NET come, I was sold!
Then MacOSX came, as a worthy successor of NeXT computer, but I was no longer interested! ^^
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James Jensen wrote: What a babe.
Agreed! I was introduced to programming in 1980 by a CS101 course that used Pascal. Used it for almost half a dozen years before moving to C.
/ravi
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There is only one language which sums up everything that is right about this profession: [clickity][^]
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Nagy Vilmos wrote: There is only one language which sums up everything that is right about this profession: [clickity][^]
I'd vote this a 5 if I could... twice.
Jeremy Falcon
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My first love is still Graphs. That theory is till my favorite to read.
In programming languages I have a huge crush in c++.
I like F# but I don't know if it loves me 
We are not in good terms with c#, but everybody has to do sacrifices.
Microsoft ... the only place where VARIANT_TRUE != true
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Way back in the dark ages I first learned some assembly language (IBM 1620, if you're interested), then FORTRAN and worked as a FORTRAN programmer and tutor to get through engineering school. One day I needed some fairly sophisticated algorithms and found them published in the ACM in Algol. Yes, I learned that there were other computer languages and the logical constructs and block structure in Algol just seemed logical. So I learned Algol and figured out how to run Algol subroutines in my FORTRAN software.
That was my "First Love", but Pascal is pretty close to how Algol was, so jumping to Pascal after was easy. I did a lot of programming in the various flavors of Turbo/Borland Pascal.
CQ de W5ALT
Walt Fair, Jr., P. E.
Comport Computing
Specializing in Technical Engineering Software
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