Computer programming
Computer programming is the act of creating a list of instructions for a computer to follow. I saw my very first computer program on a TRS-80 Color Computer, written in Color BASIC, when I was around six-years-old, and helped write my first program on an Atari XE, in Atari BASIC, when I was around eight. I began writing my own programs in GW-BASIC shortly thereafter with the help of my uncle using his Tandy 1000, and, when my family got a computer in 1991, I started using QuickBASIC. I occasionally tried to do some extremely simple stuff in C, but as Windows became more popular, I started learning Visual BASIC. Most of my teen years were spent on QuickBASIC and Visual BASIC, though I occasionally worked with C in high school. I got a job when I was 19-years-old writing primarily in Visual FoxPro. In order to work on this web site, I started learning about various Internet programming languages including JavaScript, PHP, and SQL. For Windows scripting, I use JScript, and I'm trying to teach myself more C#. I also know a little Python, Java, C, C++, and 6502 Machine Language.
Languages I Know
This table lists the computer programming languages I know, even if only a little. They're ranked by how well I know them, and, how much I like them.
Language | Comprehension | Appreciation | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
Visual FoxPro | 1 | 4 | Been writing professionally since 1999. A wonderful hybrid of Visual BASIC and SQL. Shame Microsoft killed it. |
FreeBASIC | 2 | 3 | A fantastic 32-bit BASIC variant. |
JavaScript | 3 | 5 | A surprisingly competent scripting language. |
SQL | 4 | 6 | Wonderful for data handling, and nothing else. |
C# | 5 | 1 | My favorite desktop application development language. Extremely quick and easy. |
QuickBASIC | 6 | 7 | The best traditional BASIC variant of the late 1980s and whole of 1990s. |
Visual BASIC | 7 | 2 | Used to be the best for RAD. Never should have been discontinued. |
PHP | 8 | 11 | A complete mess of a language, but somehow gets the job done. |
JScript | 9 | 13 | Only useful on Windows. |
Java | 10 | 8 | The worst UI design in the world, but codes easy enough. |
C | 11 | 9 | Credit for being so foundational, but very cryptic to work with. |
C++ | 12 | 10 | Painful to read, but insanely powerful. Really should convert symbols to words. |
Python | 13 | 12 | I don't understand why people like this language. I don't find it easy to work with or useful for application development. |
6502 Machine Language | 14 | 14 | Near impossible to use, but it runs at lightning speed. Extremely popular for 8-bit CPUs. |
RPG | 15 | 16 | Should have been obliterated when they made SQL. |
COBOL | 16 | 15 | Horrible, horrible, horrible. |
Markup Languages I Know
These aren't so much programming languages as structural layouts. Most are for design, but some are for data.
Language | Comprehension | Appreciation | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
HTML | 1 | 1 | Been typing it by hand since 1998. |
CSS | 2 | 3 | For as many committees, meetings, and versions it's gone through, it's still really unfriendly and messy! |
MediaWiki | 3 | 2 | Superior to HTML and CSS in several respects, but ultimately based on them. |
XML | 4 | 6 | Little more than an extremely bloated data format. Querying it is like pulling teeth. |
VT | 5 | 5 | An old video terminal markup language for displaying on old text terminals. |
SVG | 6 | 4 | A vector graphic markup language using XML. |
Gallery
A flowchart of which programming language you should begin with. A bit skewed toward Python.
Categories
Links
- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_programming - Wikipedia.
- rosettacode.org/wiki/Rosetta_Code - Rosetta Code, various programming snippets in various languages.
- repl.it - Replit. An online interpreter of many languages.