Software developers - tell us about your skills

[SRR33]

First full time job wams a DB developer, was sub-contracted in 99 by a telco for the LNP program. Coded stuff in VB, Java and PLSQL. The most borring job in my life, I'll never be a code monkey again

oh god i hate plsql.. tho at times its ok. But frustrating!!

[gcflora]

oh god i hate plsql.. tho at times its ok. But frustrating!!

Well, it's better than COBOL at least!

[mudman]

Well, it's better than COBOL at least!

what's wrong with COBOL? i found it an easy language to work with.
better than REXX or SAS, IMOA

[gcflora]

There's nothing hugely wrong with it (for the tasks it's good for) except for the huge amount of typing.

[mudman]

There's nothing hugely wrong with it (for the tasks it's good for) except for the huge amount of typing.

the main reason people use a lotv of typing is that they don't use the language efficiently.
they use nested IF statements instead of EVALUATE for example.

[pgbphotographytas]

My skills are more in the technical / client support side after 9 years experience in desktop / server support.
My new role is in networking and communications so I am learning all about Cisco and 3com layer 3 switches, vlan's, ISA server, fibre optic networking and so on....

[Kym]

COBOL can be concise - or not.

COMPUTE X = (-B + SQRT(B ** 2 - (4 * A * C))) / (2 * A)

The same formula could also be written less concisely as:

MULTIPLY B BY B GIVING B-SQUARED.
MULTIPLY 4 BY A GIVING FOUR-A.
MULTIPLY FOUR-A BY C GIVING FOUR-A-C.
SUBTRACT FOUR-A-C FROM B-SQUARED GIVING RESULT-1.
COMPUTE RESULT-2 = RESULT-1 ** .5.
SUBTRACT B FROM RESULT-2 GIVING NUMERATOR.
MULTIPLY 2 BY A GIVING DENOMINATOR.
DIVIDE NUMERATOR BY DENOMINATOR GIVING X.

[gcflora]

Yep, good points Kym and mudman. But a lot of old COBOL uses the second form of Kym's example

[abeluka]

I'm a professional Java/.Net developer working as a senior level programmer/architect on a commercial software product.

Sort of wish I wasn't though! many days I wish I'd never learned how to turn a PC on!

Hopefully I will soon find a foresighted employer that will let me work outside, far away from a stuffy office

[GlennSan]

Way back when I first became interested in computers, I just loved coding in x86 assembler, although it was just simple little fun programs to leanr and amuse myself. The purity of assembler fascinated me. Long winded though to build anything useful from the ground up. Then I dabbled in C for a while and again wrote myself a few little fun programs to learn as I went along.

Long since moved on into different IT work and made a good living out of it but do remember those early days fondly.

Now, about the closest I come to coding is excel macros.

I wish I was as smart and dedicated as Linus but maybe it's because he lives in a climate-challenged country that he spent all that time inside as a youngster I agree with Abeluka - it's nice to be in fresh air with the sun on your back sometimes.

[DAdeGroot]

Well I know C (and C++ v1), Ruby and some perl, also did Pascal, Modula-2 and COBOL at Uni.

However, I've not seriously coded in 5 years or more.

[JazzXP]

Full software developer, been working in Java, ASP, C++, C#, Objective-C, PHP, MSSQL, MySQL and many others for the past 9 years (plus my CS degree and hobby programming before that).

Slowly working on an iPhone photography app as I get inspiration (so may never actually get released!).

[gcflora]

Well I know C (and C++ v1), Ruby and some perl, also did Pascal, Modula-2 and COBOL at Uni.

However, I've not seriously coded in 5 years or more.

I did Modula-2 at uni as well. A quite enjoyable language.

[edgewing]

COBOL can be concise - or not.

COMPUTE X = (-B + SQRT(B ** 2 - (4 * A * C))) / (2 * A)

The same formula could also be written less concisely as:

MULTIPLY B BY B GIVING B-SQUARED.
MULTIPLY 4 BY A GIVING FOUR-A.
MULTIPLY FOUR-A BY C GIVING FOUR-A-C.
SUBTRACT FOUR-A-C FROM B-SQUARED GIVING RESULT-1.
COMPUTE RESULT-2 = RESULT-1 ** .5.
SUBTRACT B FROM RESULT-2 GIVING NUMERATOR.
MULTIPLY 2 BY A GIVING DENOMINATOR.
DIVIDE NUMERATOR BY DENOMINATOR GIVING X.

This can also be programmed on my HP calculator quite easily These days however I have something a bit more grunty to do that with, I work with the research community in the High Performance Computing area. Can be very interesting at times, quite boring at others.

I started 30 years ago with assembler on PDP4 and PDP11/23's. Not too many of them around these days.

Ciao for now

[DAdeGroot]

I did Modula-2 at uni as well. A quite enjoyable language.

Sicko


I hated Modula-2. Waaaay too pascal like, and not in a good way.

[gcflora]

Sicko


I hated Modula-2. Waaaay too pascal like, and not in a good way.

ROFLOL.

Well, it's like pascal because they're both by Wirth (as you know). Perhaps my soft spot for it stems from working on the gpm (Gardens Point Modular) compiler.

[Kym]

APL or J anyone?
Which are uber kewl!

Or the worst BF (You need to edit the link)

[jev]

Real programmers program in assembly. Or perhaps in K&R C

[farmer_rob]

Real programmers program in assembly. Or perhaps in K&R C

There are other languages?

(I used to write data acquisition code - hand-crafted assembler loops where you'd use different addressing modes to save a cycle or two - which were called from C.)