Stuff

I’ve been interested in computing since my first experience with a ZX Spectrum, then moving onto BBC Micro whilst at school.  Whilst I no longer know how to use a BBC Micro apart from simple commands like “CAT *” for a directory listing, I do retain some of that early BBC Basic knowledge that has given me the grass roots of programming.

10 PRINT “HELLO WORLD”

20 GOTO 10

RUN

It’s amazing to think that those 3 lines of code would display 2 words scrolling down the screen to the end of time or until the Break button was pressed.  I love Basic as a language, it teaches simple coding structure, introduces logic and how to make the computer interactive to perform a task.

All though my college education we used Basic to learn and demonstrate how we could use integers, strings and arrays to do some amazing stuff.  My lecturers also took the time to teach us a little about LISP, C++, Pascal and we also had a big section of COBAL – Only Java(script) is as awkward and unforgiving as COBAL LOL 🙂

From my college days, I learnt to program in Pascal and Delphi, writing some simple applications such as a mail client and a batch file creator that created a logon script for the network that I was managing at the time.  I then started to learn Visual Basic along with ASP.  I love functions and procedures, they are just so logical, starting from the top and working down to a result, this top down approach really suited the Web apps of their day and suited my style of programming.

Programming allows for all sorts of experiments and it has made quite a few people very rich.  Anyone can become an application or app designer these days, all it takes is to know how too display something, work with data and how to interact with the user.  My only wish is that all those companies out there would stop inventing new languages that seem to do exactly the same thing as a different well established language already does.

I would love to find the time to develop the next “million” pound app, but to be honest I no longer have the skills or brain space to learn to make a graphics intense iphone or andriod app.  But if I did, I would, however to paraphrase Homer – my brain is like a sponge, the more you pour on, the more that drips out the bottom.