Programming?

[immortality]

Hi Guys,

Just reading another thread and it got me thinking, I did programming years ago at school but nothing since. Anyway I was thinking about getting back into it but the question is really where to start. Back in the day I was playing with basic but what are people using today and where to start? I'm not much of a fan of Microsoft so maybe Linux might be the way to go?

[MAGP]

I don't know how to program but I can script and change various scripts to suit my purpose if I can read the original and figure out how it is sorted out. In Linux common programming languages are Perl, Python, C, C++, Java, Javascript, PHP. I'm not smart enough to do anything more than modify something that is already written. Programming is the reason I'm not doing a uni level course in IT, tried it a few years ago and was going great until I started the 1st programming unit. I realised it was way to much for my small brain.

[The1]

Yeh I only did basic or visual basic back in the day, nowdays I only do the machine code for enhanced but if I was to start doing it again now I think JavaScript or python would be my goto, JavaScript you can run in any web browser so easy to run. Plenty of guis and tutorials for it. But then again it depends what you want to program and what language can do it.

[vlad01]

I only ever learned PIC controllers at machine level code.

Couldn't get my head around any of the ones like c+ or java, not even the basics no matter how I tried lol. I only seem to understand machine code coz I have an understanding of the instruction sets and the physical architecture of a processor.

[immortality]

Back at school I was the top in class for PC/programming. I just got distracted when I was at tech and ended up heading in a different direction.

Currently I work in the manufacturing sector but the old body is starting to suffer. I'm about 6'5" but working with equipment that is designed for people much shorter than myself and I wish to reach old age without been a cripple.

I'm currently exploring other work opportunities but really haven't got much of a clue what I want to do other than get the fuck out of what I do now.

[MAGP]

I have found it is important to do something you enjoy doing but not something that you want to keep on enjoying.

[psyolent]

xNix wise. Python. Alot of guys at work are using this at present. Next step would be Perl. Everything else, a variant of C
Note that it also really depends on what you want to do dude.
The thing I have found only in the last lets say 4 weeks, is (relating my experience with Powershell) is make sure you have a goal you want to reach with your programming.
With PS i had multiple goals, enough googling and experimenting of things got me to where I needed to be. Now I can write stuff pretty simply - it makes good sense now.

[Charlescrown]

Boy and my only experience is with DOS. Shows how old I am. Had a funny occurrence with a Roller Brake Tester. This stupid machine started speaking Spanish not English and all the IT at work couldn't
solve it so we decided to have a look in the program. Yes it was DOS and yes we fixed it.

[immortality]

LOL DOS, those were the days.

DOS and basic is what I learnt back in the 90's

[MAGP]

Don't knock DOS. It's good and I have never seen the BSOD on DOS. I have a FreeDOS partition on my toughbook.