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Nagy posted a thread about software he wrote from twenty years ago that still ran years later and it got me thinking.
I wrote some code for a British Aircraft Company (that shall remain nameless) in 1982, supported and enhanced it until 1984 and then stupidly got a job at a (mind-numbing) insurance company just because they paid 50% more than I was on at the most exciting job I ever had. It was an expert system for automatic test-flight (jet fighters whizzing past outside my office all the time) analysis that they estimated saved them over £10,000,000 per year and converted six weeks of analysis into a 4-hour computer job allowing eventually more than one test flight per day. I had created it from my own ideas, staying late on my own time to initially develop the prototype and proof of concept. When I resigned to take the much higher paid job they offered me a double promotion (meaningless because union rules had created about 27 layers - even though I wasn't in the union I was still stuck with their stupid rules) and £250 per annum pay raise to stay on! I didn't.
...but I digressed into bitterness and regret. The real point is that they still used that software, unchanged, for nearly 11 years after I left the company.
Another company I worked for is still selling some automation software I developed almost single-handedly, practically unchanged. I left that company in early 2003 so it is another 11 year run - and still running!
How many times, and for how long has software you have written continued to run after you personally stopped supporting it and/or left the company that you developed it at. I am not looking for company software you worked on in a team, but software that you designed and wrote the vast majority of that was commercially used by your company or sold?
- I would love to change the world, but they won’t give me the source code.
modified 15-May-14 11:50am.
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Does it count if it's used non-commercially?
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That's fine. What I wanted to exclude is code people just wrote for their own use.
- I would love to change the world, but they won’t give me the source code.
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Some TI-83+ programs that I wrote in 2006 are still being downloaded.
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While I don't know how long it was ultimately in use, I ran into a former boss about 4 years after leaving a job where I had single-handedly written the system that allowed them to move their software product to a (totally different) stable hardware platform without giving up the original development environment. This involved writing a terminal emulator that allowed decompilations to be saved, a cross-decompiler for the virtual machine object files, and a new runtime on the other hardware platform - plus optimization during the cross-decompilation.
He mentioned that there was only 1 known bug which had an easy workaround and that they still depended on it for their main product.
According to my calculations, I should be able to retire about 5 years after I die.
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I wrote a sales lead tracking (early CRM) system for internal use back in the mid-80's. FoxPro for DOS based, multi-user, standard reports as well as user created custom reports. Stopped maintaining it approximately 1987-88. They ran it until 2003 - despite the Y2K issues. 
I wrote a machine control application (HMI / machine logic / geometry input / axis motion & interpolation) for a multi-spindle drilling machine. Last updated in 2004. Over 150 of these machines currently running in the field. Only problem is that it is Windows XP only! Cannot easily be ported to Windows 7 or higher. 
Government is not reason; it is not eloquent; it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master. ~ George Washington
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Well I had written code related to mainframes federation in 2007. Initially it was suppose to be a temporary fix but they are still using it about 7 years after. Considering they had planned it as a temporary thing I'll say it a long time.
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When I started to work with at my current company (in 1997) my first job was to develop a state-of-the art (then at least) report creator, that enables to every user to dynamically create reports on the fly...I used C++, Pervasive SQL (over BTRIEVE) and a lot of DOS...It's still in use with a few of our customers, that decided not to upgrade to the Windows based version (it's cost money). It makes it 17 years...
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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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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