The Multilingual Programmer

  • Various Basics, VBA, VBScript
    Various Forth
    Fortran
    FoxPro
    ColdFusion
    MUMPS
    Numerous Assembly
    Different sorts of OS CLI, JCL, DCL, Batch, BASH, TCL, AWK, etc..
    Insane of application scripting languages and macros, ASPECT, AutoLisp, etc...
    Various Pascal, Oberon, etc...
    Various C variants
    SmallTalk, Ruby, Icon, Python
    Lisp, Scheme, Racket, etc
    Java, JS, JScript,
    Various SQL and related database languages.
    C#
    F# and other functional languages.
    too many other languages including some still under NDA or clearance...

    Do you have a few days for the complete list of Operating Systems?? 😀

  • Oh egads, I've forgotten all the languages (and dialects of languages) I've had over my development career.

    Let's see, in high school it was:
    IBM O26 and O29 Keypunch programming (hey, it counts! :))
    Fortran (on a 1960 vintage computer no less!)
    RPG II
    Basic-Plus (self-taught) as a HS guest at a local college

    In college (consulting and co-op)
    S-Basic (my own computer! yay!)
    all manor of basic-dialects (various short-lived CP/M based microcomputers)
    MOBOL (part assembler/part cobol, no floating point or decimals math--for *accounting* application!)
    COBOL
    C
    LISP
    Advsys (lisp-like)
    Pilot

    After college
    Alpha Basic (in which the computer's OS was also written!)
    GWBasic
    Access VBA
    Visual Basic
    VB.Net
    Python
    PL/SQL
    Powerbuilder
    T/SQL

    and probably several more I've forgotten.

  • My first experience with a computer was using the Engineering department's DEC PDP-8 in at USC. The first language was FOCAL, then DEC PDP-8 assembler.  When I switched to Computer Science, I started in the final semester where FORTRAN was the primary language; the next semester, they switched to PL/1. I got a student job developing an online data entry system that included field validation using APL.
    From there in college, not necessarily in order: SNOBOL, BASIC, PDP-11 assembler, COBOL, IBM 360/370 assembler.
    After graduation, in the work force: Intel 8080/8085 and Zilog Z-80 assembler, Motorola 68000 assembler, C, awk, C++, Java, Visual Basic (ugh!), and finally working with C#.

  • It started while Phil Collins was singing Sussudio and the Human League was saying, "Don't Forget About Me".  
    BASIC
    PASCAL
    FORTRAN  (so far, all my programming languages are capitalized)
    Assembly
    [Insert break of 10 years.  Grunge rock, a war and this whole .com thing starts to manifest.]
    VB
    Java
    C++
    VB.Net
    ASP
    XAML
    T-SQL
    ASP.Net
    C#
    I've traded development languages for databases:
    MS SQL
    Postgresql
    MySQL
    Starting to dabble in Oracle.
    Now a DBA and database developer and still listening to Phil Collins and Human League.

  • While I've most likely forgotten a number of them, these are the ones that stick out in my mind most readily:

    BASIC (DEC System 20)
    FORTRAN-4 (PDP-11)
    FORTRAN-77 (DEC System 20)
    Assembler (IBM/360 - using punch cards!)
    COBOL (IBM/360)
    JCL (IBM/360)
    PL/1 (VAX/VMS)
    DCL (VAX/VMS)
    Pascal (VAX/VMS)
    APL
    LISP
    C (VAX/VMS & CPM)
    SQL (for Rdb on VAX/VMS)
    PostScript (used to create graphical reports on VAX/VMS)
    PL/SQL (for Oracle on VAX/VMS)
    Visual Basic (4-6)
    T-SQL


    If we were to select the ones most used, I'd have to say C (mostly during my first 15-20 years) and T-SQL (mostly in the last 15 years or so).

  • Basic
    Pascal
    BASICA/GW-Basic/QBasic
    COBOL
    Job Control Language
    CICS
    IBM 370 Assembler
    Visual Basic/VBA
    Delphi
    T-SQL
    PL/SQL
    JavaScript
    ASP
    FoxPro
    ColdFusion
    C#
    VB.NET
    ASP.NET
    PowerShell

    No scientific languages, all of my work has been in business. I think programming in VB6, I think it was a great language for business apps. I advise against VB.NET, Microsoft doesn't support it very well and c# is the native language for the dot net framework.

  • LISP (Autolisp for Autocad)
    VBA/VB6
    SQL
    VB.Net
    Javascript
    C#
    Java
    Powershell
    Ruby

  • This is my list in basically chronological order.

    • QBasic
    • C
    • C++
    • LISP
    • Visual Basic
    • T-SQL
    • VB.NET
    • C#
    • JavaScript

    I've also dabbled in Java, Lua, Python, and most of your Windows scripting languages.

  • BASIC on my TI99/4(a) in the 80's
    More basic in High School
    moved away from computer stuff in college, except RBase for Dos
    Access (I know, not a language, but SQL is!)
    VBA
    OLQ (mainframe querying)
    VB6 (n00b)
    HTML
    T-SQL
    Python, online class
    Powershell, just started
    U-SQL - exactly one job from the SSC Stairway 1 or 2....not sure if we will win the Datalake project current being bid 🙂

    ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Standing in the gap between Consultant and ContractorKevin3NFDallasDBAs.com/BlogWhy is my SQL Log File HUGE?!?![/url]The future of the DBA role...[/url]SQL Security Model in Plain English[/url]

  • If there is anything I have learned over a 45+ year career in Electrical and Computer System Engineering it is that you cannot afford to stand still with what you know today.

    Fortran was my first language as it was a pre-requisite in my Electrical Engineering curriculum at UF. Then on to IBM Assembler 360 (necessary for some mainframe access of the day). Then onwards to:

        - APL (Digital circuits modeling requirement)
        - Basic (PDP-8 access initially, many variants over the years)
        - Hitachi Analogue Computer 505E Plugboard (Differential Equation Solver for Complex Modeling class - I taught the class for several years)
        - Intel 8080 Assembler (I built very early Altair 8800, still runs)
        - Z80 Assembler
        - Motorola 6800 Assembler
        - Intel 8008 Assembler (to update Medical Lab Diff Counter software)
        - RCA 1800 Assembler (built early battery powered portable computer)
        - Signetics 2650 Assembler (to build general purpose Medical Lab instrument interfaces to Hospital Lab Computer Sytem)
        - about 15 other obscure microprocessor Assembler languages for various projects and instrument interfaces
        - SAS statistical analysis and database management system for many Medical Lab Systems
        - Peerless Basic machine specific Basic variant used to create first fully free text document management system for hospital medical records. Ran hospital document management system for 17 years.
        - PL/1 for first large scale free text Medical Records search databases
        - PANVALET my first version management system for programming projects
        - INQUIRE an early mainframe relational database system for NASA work
        - Turbo Pascal for 6 year grant building system for NASA Manned Mars mission in the 80's
        - dBase II and III to build early financial management system
        - DataEase early DOS-based relational database system to move Diabetes Research data from Mainframe to PC workstations
        - MS-Access replacement for DataEase when they went out of business and to migrate to MS-Windows
        - VBA (and many subsequent updates)
        - MS-SQL migrate most MS-Access Db to SQL servers. Still my primary language today.
        - C (and several object variants)
        - Javascript
        - PHP
        - Java
        - AWK
        - PowerShell
        - SAP Business Objects (latest addition to toolbox)

  • For me:
    College courses:
    ALGOL first
    Fortran next
    Univac 1108 assembler
    Machine language (coded compiler)

    Jobs:
    Fortran using time-sharing system first
    Fortran using "beta test" version of Unix (early 1973)
    COBOL and IMS (database)
    C and Korn Shell (while at Bell Labs)
    Informix (database), when I became DBA
    C using Linux and AIX
    DB2 LUW (database)
    SQL Server (database)

  • gawd I forgot about SAS, boy would I like to forget it

  • COBOL
    Pascal
    VB classic and .Net, VBA
    ASP classic and .Net
    RPG II - IV
    C#
    Progress
    Java
    Cold Fusion
    R
    Python

  • I started playing with BASIC when my son got a TI99/4 in the early 80s

    Wandered through 9900 and 8080 assembler.

    Tried Lisp and Smalltalk, fun but didn't do much useful with them.

    Prolog worked against my thinking strategy at the time, I couldn't get used to telling the machine what I wanted, rather than what to do.

    Settled into C, and later C++ (my favorite procedural language, because at the same time you can program very close to machine level, you can also build wonderful abstractions through inheritance --C# seems to have taken some object level purity out of it and the compiler now largely isolates you from the machine stuff.)

    Then there's Forth, the programming equivalent of a fast, dangerous motorcycle.

    And of course SQL which gets me back to the interpreter centered world.. executing snippets of code without rebuild

    ...

    -- FORTRAN manual for Xerox Computers --

  • ... For me, I started with BASIC, and a little assembler with early systems. I moved to Pascal in high school, trying to develop fun games and computer assisted homework help for myself. In University, I began with LISP, which caused plenty of people to drop out of computing. I'm not sure if that was a good idea or not, but I enjoyed that. From there, I went to APL, Assembler, Fortran and C before switching away from computers for a bit. When I returned, C++ was all the rage, and I soon found jobs that paid me to write FoxPro/Clipper code, then VB, then a touch of Java before the web became popular and I worked in ASP and ASP.NET. Along the way SQL became more and more of my career, and I'm glad it did.

    These days I'm trying to improve my C#, PowerShell, and Python skills, more for fun than anything else, but those are sueful as both languages are useful in data work ...

    These days I'm trying to improve my C#, PowerShell, and Python skills, more for fun than anything else, but those are sueful as both languages are useful in data work ...

    Steve, the trajectory of your programming experience correlates closely with my own, probably because it has a lot to do with what's in currently in demand commercially. My first programming language was BASIC on the Commodore 64. In the early 90's, when I got my first IBM PC, it was Turbo Pascal, because it came bundled and supported a lot of libraries for graphics programming and such. In college, my coursework was based on COBOL and RPG, because it was more of a business information systems track, but I never used these languages professionally on the job. Instead, my first few IT jobs were programming FoxPro/Clipper, and then as the 90's progressed that steadily became less common and instead it was Visual Basic along with MS Access or SQL Server. By 2000 it was VB / SQL Server, and ever since 2004 it's been almost exclusively SQL Server. For the past couple of years I've been dabbled in PowerShell for automation stuff.

    "Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise. Instead, seek what they sought." - Matsuo Basho

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