Re: Computer Languages [was: Your Favorite SciFi/FantasyMovieSoundtrack?]
- Original Message - From: Julia Thompson [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: Killer Bs Discussion [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, March 05, 2003 10:16 AM Subject: Re: Computer Languages [was: Your Favorite SciFi/Fantasy Movie Soundtrack?] Reggie Bautista wrote: George wrote: In my first programming course, in BASIC, we had to simulate control structures with the controlled use of IF ... GOTO. Ahh, GOTO. I remember what a big deal it was when they installed a new version of BASIC at the high school I was attending at the time, and it had two brand new commands (new for us, anyway); GOSUB and RETURN. The programming teachers immediately banned use of GOTO altogether. In retrospect, the days of GOTO seem like the dark ages of programming ;-) GOTO was the reason my father would not let me take programming in high school; all the programming classes were BASIC, except that if you'd had 2 courses of BASIC, you could then take Pascal. I didn't get to take a programming class until I could have one that started out with Pascal. (My father was familiar with a number of programming languages; he taught FORTRAN when he was in Belfast as a student, because he knew it better than any of the faculty.) Unfortunately, you pretty had to use GOTO in FORTRAN as well, at least until FORTRAN 77. Even Pascal had a GOTO, but you were forced to use a compiler switch to use it. The default was NOGOTO. George A ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Computer Languages [was: Your Favorite SciFi/FantasyMovieSoundtrack?]
On Thu, 27 Feb 2003 20:44:39 -0800, Doug Pensinger wrote: I've used VBA quite a bit, almost exclusively in Excel manipulating test data. I now program quite a bit in LabView... I'm sure there are a few opinions about that particular language if you are familiar with it. Any volunteers? 8^) I use Labview quite alot now. I do alot of data acquisition work. I have tried to learn other languages over the years but found them difficult to learn when I only needed it for an occasional project. Labview is much easier to learn and so far has done everything I have needed it to do. I haven't heard much praise amongst hardcore programmers though. My first programming experiences was with APL. I believe this is the root of my programming learning disability. :) Dean ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Computer Languages [was: Your Favorite SciFi/FantasyMovieSoundtrack?]
I learned BASIC, COBOL, then Pascal and FORTRAN simultaneously, then PL/I and IBM 360 (yep, that long ago) Assembly Language. My favorite language is still Pascal though I have never seen it used outside the educational community. I have progammed over half a million lines of FORTRAN on a VAX 11/780 using DEC's Fortran-77 and a few thousand lines of VAX assembly. I've taught college-level courses in BASIC, PASCAL, COBOL, FORTRAN, and PL/I. More recently, I fiddle with Visual Basic and find that I like it quite a bit, especially VBA with Access. George A - Original Message - From: Alberto Monteiro [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: Killer Bs Discussion [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, February 26, 2003 8:14 PM Subject: Computer Languages [was: Your Favorite SciFi/Fantasy MovieSoundtrack?] Jose J. Ortiz-Carlo wrote: If I have to choose between coding COBOL and coding RPG, I would much rather go for COBOL. What is RPG? I know two things that use this AFT, but none of them are computer languages. I feel I can exercise a lot more control with a computer programming language that uses instructions that resemble natural language. This is your feeling, but not mine. I think a computer language that adds unnecessary symbols make it harder to understand what the code is doing. Properly formatted, languages with _less_ symbols are more clear. I like, for example, to compare C with Pascal. Alberto Monteiro ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Computer Languages [was: Your Favorite SciFi/FantasyMovieSoundtrack?]
G. D. Akin wrote: I learned BASIC, COBOL, then Pascal and FORTRAN simultaneously, then PL/I and IBM 360 (yep, that long ago) Assembly Language. My favorite language is still Pascal though I have never seen it used outside the educational community. I have progammed over half a million lines of FORTRAN on a VAX 11/780 using DEC's Fortran-77 and a few thousand lines of VAX assembly. I've taught college-level courses in BASIC, PASCAL, COBOL, FORTRAN, and PL/I. More recently, I fiddle with Visual Basic and find that I like it quite a bit, especially VBA with Access. I've used VBA quite a bit, almost exclusively in Excel manipulating test data. I now program quite a bit in LabView... I'm sure there are a few opinions about that particular language if you are familiar with it. Any volunteers? 8^) Doug VFP Programming with Pictures ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Computer Languages [was: Your Favorite SciFi/FantasyMovieSoundtrack?]
From: Alberto Monteiro [EMAIL PROTECTED] What is RPG? I know two things that use this AFT, but none of them are computer languages. RPG stands for Report Program Generator. When I began my Computer Sciences courses in the mid-late 80's, the order in which languages were taught was: BASIC, COBOL, FORTRAN, RPG and Assembly language. I don't know if our readers would agree this would be the appropriate order to teach or learn them, but it worked for me. It was an interesting change of pace in comparison to the computer languages used to develop commercial applications available at the time of its' release. According to WHATIS.COM, RPG IV, is supported by IBM's leading minicomputer system, the AS/400. Historically, RPG has probably been the second most used programming language, after COBOL, for commercial applications on mid-range computers for the popular mini-computer systems of the time. JJ _ Add photos to your messages with MSN 8. Get 2 months FREE*. http://join.msn.com/?page=features/featuredemail ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Computer Languages [was: Your Favorite SciFi/FantasyMovieSoundtrack?]
From: Alberto Monteiro [EMAIL PROTECTED] I feel I can exercise a lot more control with a computer programming language that uses instructions that resemble natural language. This is your feeling, but not mine. I think a computer language that adds unnecessary symbols make it harder to understand what the code is doing. Properly formatted, languages with _less_ symbols are more clear. I like, for example, to compare C with Pascal. Alberto Monteiro Alberto: I agree with your take on programming languages. However, COBOL and RPG are programming languages used almost exclusively to develop purely commercial applications (by commercial I am refering to accounting ledgers, bank reports, payroll applications, etc). These have the built-in tools built-in that make the task of developing these applications easier. I don't mean to sound like I take anything away from the strengths and weakenesses of any computer language, but traditionally languages like C and PASCAL are powerful and considered the languages of choice to develop other types of software in perhaps more scientific endeavors. I am not saying that you can't do a payroll on PASCAL (for example), but if you do it in COBOL it's a more familiar environment for the market you're writing for. JJ _ Protect your PC - get McAfee.com VirusScan Online http://clinic.mcafee.com/clinic/ibuy/campaign.asp?cid=3963 ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Computer Languages [was: Your Favorite SciFi/FantasyMovieSoundtrack?]
David wrote (that's David H., I think): My impression is that C was designed for people who could not type rapidly. I agree, once you really know the syntax and all the commands, shorter is better. But one has to get to that point somehow! For instance, we could type English more rapidly if long words like 'impression' were replaced with shorter strings like '#2367'. But one does have to give some weight to the fact that the former is easier to remember than the latter. COBOL is crazy, since it uses English instead of the common math symbols. But Pascal is about right. Having easily deciphered command names soon pays for itself in less debugging--that is for everyone who does not place a high cost on typing a few extra characters. Kevin replied: What the heck is wrong with that? Add current-amount to balance-amount. Yeah that's just crazy! Kevin T. - VRWC just having fun Programming languages that use English-like commands make programs much easier to follow -- if you know English. Programming languages that are much more symbolic and less natural language oriented make programs that can more easily be interpreted by people who speak a variety of (non-programming) languages. Reggie Bautista Diversity Rocks Maru _ The new MSN 8: smart spam protection and 2 months FREE* http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
