On Saturday, March 03, 2012 12:14:14 PM, Jack Chastain wrote: > On Fri, Mar 2, 2012 at 5:13 PM, Joseph Apuzzo <[email protected]> wrote: > > So it all boils down to thinking in the correct Programming > > paradigm<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Programming_paradigm> > > > > ! > > Yes - Precisely. Which of course is the exact problem for a mind that no > longer is as flexible as it once was.
At least some studies have shown that the mind can be flexible even up past age 70 and that some people can learn at that age just as fast as someone in their 20's. Un-learning is more difficult than learning, though. ;-) > I used to keep count of the number of word processors (remember when we > called them that?) I could use - fluently - without having to resort to a > book too terribly often. I stopped keeping track around 20. As far as I > know, I could manipulate a daisywheel printer (oh man, am I dating myself > here) with Scripsit (Gaaaa!) and draw things like boxes around stuff. I > even have (still) the HP PCL manual. Why in the name of all that's > ridiculous am I keeping THAT thing? Maybe in the back of your mind you still think it has a use, otherwise you wouldn't keep it. On occasion I keep something old and outdated like that because I think it might have a purpose. For instance I still have a 5-CD set from InfoMagic of "Linux" from Nov 1995. I also have a 6-CD set of the same from June 1998. I recently tried to install both to find out what window managers Slackware came with at the time. I wasn't able to get the Nov 1995 Slackware 3.0 working [trouble switching boot floppy images], but I was able to install the June 1998 version of Slackware 3.5 and get it working. In mid-1998 Slackware 3.5 came with 4 choices: mwm, twm, fvwm2, and fvwm95. [Getting XFree86 working to be ablet to see them... that's a whole other matter.] > I either worked or dabbled in BASIC, forth, APL, pascal, C, fortran, COBOL, > perl, shell and a few other silly things. It used to be easy (OK - not > APL). The first programming language I remember was HPL, which was mainly a combination of Lisp and Forth. A portion of it lives on today on HP calculators. Then several different styles of BASIC (Z80, TI 99 4/A, C64, GWBasic, QBasic, etc), Pascal, C, 8086 Assembly, C++, and on from there... > And now - if I think of getting out of ksh, I shudder and stare at my > screen for 15 minutes before thinking I can even start. Don't get old. > > :-) Or get used to being an early adopter anyway? ;-) -- Chris -- Chris Knadle [email protected] _______________________________________________ Mid-Hudson Valley Linux Users Group http://mhvlug.org http://mhvlug.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mhvlug Upcoming Meetings (6pm - 8pm) Vassar College Mar 7 - Desktop Shootout - 9th Anniversary of MHVLUG Apr 4 - An Intro to Chef May 2 - May 2012 Meeting
