Kayte R. wrote:Motorola 68HC12.

I have to admit, I too liked the class I took where we wrote assembly for MIPS RS6000(?).

If you really want to understand different paradigms of programming languages, see if your school program offers something like Theory and Design of Programming languages. We had a chance to write the same simple program in ML, LISP, C, and Java. Fun, dorky stuff.

it makes me smile to see people saying fuck VB, fuck BASIC... it's almost certainly true. and still, programming in VB is exactly what I've been doing for my job, for the past 6 years or so. and the fact that MS kept it around (VB.NET) means I'll be using it for years to come.

when it comes to data-centric programming, database/SQL stuff, I can't think of what's wrong with VB. although I have to admit, I've just started messing around with SQL Server. everything up to this point is still using VB6 and dBase. and VB macros inside Excel.

most of the other organizations on this project are using C#.NET, so I'm assuming that's a great language. these are some really smart folks.

VB rocks. easy as pie, does everything I need it to do. probably nobody learns it anymore, and nobody hires people to use it anymore. but it's still my job, and will be for the forseeable future.

oh, and I took exactly one computer-related class in college (a semester of C++, at an art school). professional programmer for years now. go figure. things don't always make too much sense. in my case, they recognized that the way I solve problems, and the way I ask questions as appropriate, these make for a good programmer guy. they can say "here's the question we need an answer for... how can we address this question?" and I come up with the best, most defensible way to answer it, and then make it happen. that's not something that they teach you in a chapter of a book. but if you can do that, it'll help you out a lot if you're looking to do programming as part of a research/analysis type environment.

I just remembered a fun thing we did back about 2003/2004... figured out how to write a .dll in FORTRAN that we could call from a VB application. that was funny. it was like, hey look, we're dinosaurs! but FORTRAN is still the best language for mathy numbery kinda stuff, as I understand it. it worked great for what we were using it for.

salut, old languages!

On the subject of old languages, I'd like to give a shout out to Pascal - the language I learned to program in. It's deader than Latin now.

scott wrote:I just remembered a fun thing we did back about 2003/2004... figured out how to write a .dll in FORTRAN that we could call from a VB application. that was funny. it was like, hey look, we're dinosaurs! but FORTRAN is still the best language for mathy numbery kinda stuff, as I understand it. it worked great for what we were using it for.

salut, old languages!

Pretty cool. Did you wrap the Fortran code somehow in an Active X dll? Shell out to call the Fortran from VB? Or am I so clueless at what's available for Fortran nowadays?

Good point on the natural problem solving capability that's usually needed to be proficient at solving computing problems.

busbus wrote:

scott wrote:I just remembered a fun thing we did back about 2003/2004... figured out how to write a .dll in FORTRAN that we could call from a VB application. that was funny. it was like, hey look, we're dinosaurs! but FORTRAN is still the best language for mathy numbery kinda stuff, as I understand it. it worked great for what we were using it for.

salut, old languages!

Pretty cool. Did you wrap the Fortran code somehow in an Active X dll? Shell out to call the Fortran from VB? Or am I so clueless at what's available for Fortran nowadays?

I'm guessing he followed the MSDN article titled, "How to create a FORTRAN DLL and call it from Visual Basic"

I would suggest that you start out with C#.

Get Visual Studio. I think there's a free version put out by Microsoft, but there are also torrents sites where the nicest version can be had for free.

The reason I'm suggestion C# and Visual Studio is because:

1) If you are comfortable with Windows, you will be much more comfortable than, say, running Eclipse to develop Java apps.

2) The "intelli-sense" of Visual Studio (automatic code suggestion/completion) will save you an enormous amount of time digging through reference manuals.

3) C# is a really nice language. It has a very similar syntax to Java (and Javascript), so when you learn it, you basically know Java.

4) Unlike scripted languages like PHP, Javascript or VBScript, it is a compiled language so the compiler will tell you when and where you've fucked up and catch some errors before your application is running. And it is strongly typed, which will give you a better understanding of programming than loosely typed languages like Javascript.

5) It is an object-oriented language. The object-oriented concepts will seem daunting at first but are essential to writing managable code once you're starting to do more advanced stuff.

6) There are tons of C# resources on the net.

7) If you ever want to work as a software or web developer, C#/.NET developers are in high demand and can earn a shitload.

Whatever you do, don't bother with C, C++, or Pascal. VBScript or Javascript can be nice if you want to start off easy to learn the basic concepts. Ruby enforces the MVC programming pattern to the bitter end, so if you're unfamiliar or uninterested in internalizing that concept, it will probably cause you some headaches.

Ask questions on the Microsoft developer forums. There are tons of suckers yearning for the "Microsoft MVP" status, and they earn that status by helping others on these forums.

If you have a friend to ask quick questions or help you out, that's even better.

stewie wrote:I'm guessing he followed the MSDN article titled, "How to create a FORTRAN DLL and call it from Visual Basic"

Hah. I'm lazy as fuck. The screen that I stare at all day wasn't offering any answers. I did at least Wikipedia some of my rants.

If you like Javascript, my guess is you might like Visual Basic. I'm not a fan of either, but I think they're syntactically similar.

I started in Pascal, took courses in C and Java, and now program in PHP. C# wouldn't be a far stretch from where I am.

I'd say choose what is most comfortable, because that's how you'll get the most work done.

Kayte R. wrote:user interface design

the UX people I know are RICH MOTHERFUCKERS- this seems like a highly lucrative field to get into.

I'm talking 35 year olds that are raking in like 200k a year. It's even more lucrative to consult/freelance!

I think it is because many websites and applications suck and are hard to use/navigate. Good UX design build heuristics into application and web design, and that sells a company website as much as the content or design.