and the original too: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-eDaSvRO9xA
On 2 October 2010 23:48, Kevin Wright <[email protected]> wrote: > For those not already aware of it, Four Yorkshiremen: > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xe1a1wHxTyo > <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xe1a1wHxTyo>It's a classic :) > > On 2 October 2010 20:12, Russel Winder <[email protected]> wrote: > >> On Sat, 2010-10-02 at 18:41 +0100, Kevin Wright wrote: >> > C64? Wow, advanced! >> > I remember working with the Vic-20 and even the Commodore PET, back at >> > school. >> >> I think we had better stop this variant on the Monty Python Yorkshireman >> sketch somewhere around here. >> >> I remember at school that our computer was an IBM 704 located some 25 >> miles away and that we sent in punch card decks which were returned 2 >> days later -- if we were lucky. The programming language was, of >> course, Fortran. Oh and assembly language which at least was a step up >> from machine code. >> >> Fortran 2008 is a surprisingly interesting language. The standards >> cycle for Fortran is about 5 years (which puts Java to shame ;-) and >> there are guarantees of being able to compile correctly nigh on all >> previous versions of Fortran. This is a non-trivial problem but also >> essential to the running of the world. A large number of significant >> codes still have Fortran 4 code from many, many moons ago. >> >> > Basic was largely unavoidable at the time, but by the time I'd worked >> > my way up to the C46 (and even the C128) I'd also gotten around to >> > typing in my own C-compiler (from the back of a magazine, I kid you >> > not! Parental help was required and I'll spare you stories of >> > typing-error problems...) which had to be painstakingly loaded from >> > tape every time I started the computer. >> >> Ahh, the days of editing programs by sending in a sequence stream >> editing commands on a paper tape to the operators. The joys, the pain. >> >> (I told you we should stop this variant on the Yorkshireman sketch, else >> we will descend to reminiscences of entering programs by toggling >> switches -- which I had to do regularly even on a PDP11 and various Data >> General, Prime and Interdata machines :-( >> >> > Even then, boilerplate was annoying, perhaps the lack of *any* >> > sensible text-editing features was a driving force here. I'd started >> > working with LOGO (still at primary school here) >> > >> > Later, around age 11-12 I was upgrading schools - and also upgrading >> > languages. Scheme had already been established for a few years, C++ >> > was fairly well known and Common Lisp was no longer wet behind the >> > ears. I played with them all. >> >> Forgive me, but so what? >> >> > Java came later, I was studying Elec.Eng, but friends studying >> > Comp.Sci. still came to me for help. As this often involved offers of >> > free beer I rarely turned down such a request, so found myself >> > learning the language that was then being popularly taught. >> >> Aha, the bragging ;-) >> >> > After Uni, I was working as a programmer, using Pascal. Horrible >> > language, I try my hardest to forget about it. Then a career in Java, >> > working my way up the seniority ladder and doing some architecture >> > work. >> > >> > >> > Then most recently, the next big thing was Scala. I finally got back >> > the beloved functions that had been missing from my professional life >> > and are fondly remembered from as far back as primary school. Having >> > already been won over to the benefits of the JVM, garbage collection, >> > etc. this seemed like a perfect match. >> > >> > >> > Clojure arrived after that. But, hey, I like static typing :) >> > I also study Haskell, but purely for my own amusement. >> >> Every programmer should study all the languages mentioned, and many >> others including Go, D, Erlang, Prolog. No matter which language you >> use day-to-day your programming is improved by knowing at a "can work in >> this language" level many different language with different >> computational models. >> >> -- >> Russel. >> >> ============================================================================= >> Dr Russel Winder t: +44 20 7585 2200 voip: >> sip:[email protected] <sip%[email protected]> >> 41 Buckmaster Road m: +44 7770 465 077 xmpp: [email protected] >> London SW11 1EN, UK w: www.russel.org.uk skype: russel_winder >> > > > > -- > Kevin Wright > > mail / gtalk / msn : [email protected] > pulse / skype: kev.lee.wright > twitter: @thecoda > > -- Kevin Wright mail / gtalk / msn : [email protected] pulse / skype: kev.lee.wright twitter: @thecoda -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "The Java Posse" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/javaposse?hl=en.
