Reason for kids toys

[DrEntropy]

Funny how it works. I had no problem with learning mathematics, from "New Math" in grade school through to Trig and starting to come to grips with differential equations. But sitting down to create a set of routines in machine language just didn't ring my bell. Hardware and operating systems were what held my attention. I guess those would be considered "final product" areas. Now, with hand-helds and cloud storage, small businesses are abandoning those in-house solutions. I've still a few clients but not seeing newer businesses come along.

I've great respect for those who program, there will be a need for them for quite a while yet. A.I. progresses but it's still going to be a while before the machines learn to program themselves as well.

And if we're not careful,"Skynet" is a possibility. It may even wear the Tesla trade-dress. :wink:

 

[Boink]

Never liked Fortran... and the arrays and do-loops. Worst of all was/were all those punch-cards. A simple syntax error messed up your day. [this was in a university class]

 

[DavidApp]

It was an introduction to computing class. Seem to remember I scraped through to move on and never touched a computer again for about 20 years.
Then in 1982 I got an Amstrad PC because I realized that the electronics guy could change my machine by plugging in a reprogramed EPROM. I felt I needed a better understanding of what was going on with computers.

As I understand code writing it is a bit like writing a story. Some people can get the story across to you very clearly and in a few sentences and others ramble on for ever and eventually get to the point.
The company I retired from employed some ramblers.

David

 

[mikephillips]

First job I had out of college so many years ago I was given a piece of code to update written by a rambler. He used two pages of assembler to figure out the number 1024, which is one of those that some computers use, rather than just code it. Had to take it to my then boss to ask if I was really reading it right as I couldn’t believe it. Seems he did all his stuff that way because he liked to show that he could…

 

[John Turney]

My first and only computer class featured ALGOL. At the end of the class, they told us they would no longer be using it. Had to learn FORTRAN on my own.

 

[mikephillips]

That's I-gor

Guess they told you wrong then...