The Joy of Programming
donraab.medium.com
donraab.medium.com
We used this IBM machine that looked like a keypunch but recorded the data onto an 8" floppy. Each of us got a floppy. We'd edit our program, then hand it to the operator, who would run it and give us our printout. Batch programming enforced a certain discipline -- you might get only a couple edit cycles every day.
I wrote a program that made little mazes, using the built-in random number function RND. Then I made the maze a bit bigger, until I figured out what size would fit on a piece of 132 column green bar paper. I had little inkling of the order of algorithms, mine might have been O(N^3). Anyway, the next day I received a stern rebuke from the teacher, apparently the operator found it still running the following morning, and shut it down.
I still love to program, though I'm not a software developer, but a so called "scientific" programmer.
I used to feel that I too would love coding forever. I looked up to those that did. I wanted to be like them. I still do. Of late, I feel like I’m waning. I’ve spent the last 10 years “using the right tool for the right job”. I became a polyglot. Because Smalltalk alone wasn’t where it was at. So I’ve become proficient with one tool/language or another for just about everything except front end web development. And…
I just feel tired of late. What I’ve worked on has been successful. I’ve played a key role in watering literally millions of agriculture acreage (well maybe more 100s of thousands, but there isn’t a good single word for that). And yet…
I’m tired. And it doesn’t feel fun anymore. I can’t find the sense of community I used to feel in the Smalltalk tribe. I loathe the types of non technical management that seems to oversee software development more than ever (I like them as people, I just hate the ineffectiveness of their roles). Where simplicity and elegance used to seem a laudable goal in software, it just seems to be an attractor of complexity anymore. Complexity attracts more positions, more roles, more process, and the extra cash that has sloshed around for the last 10 years just seems to soak that right in.
Curious if any of the “still loving it too” here, have any good advice on how to right this ship of enthusiasm before it founders.
"I will do this forever" becomes "You know what? I don't want to die in a meeting or in front of a keyboard."
In 1983.
My first program was an EEPROM duplicator.
Around that time, I also got a Commodore VIC-20 computer, with a Machine Language monitor cartridge. Since the whole thing had 3KB of RAM, I needed to write most of my stuff in Machine Code.
Still programming to this day. I’m retired. I could be sitting on the couch, channel-surfing, but instead, I spend most of the day on the computer, writing iOS apps.
I enjoy programming both as a job and as a hobby, but there are definitely days where I wrote more code for my side project than for work, despite spending more hours at work.
On the other hand, oiling the cogs of a big legacy CRUD app can be a highly soul-sucking experience. You would do some small changes required by the business process, while stepping on egg-shells in order to keep the fragile thing still working.
I began programming mid 70s (although I was 25, not 11) and I've been programming every since. I'm still picking up contract work.
One thing I vividly recall is coding in paper and pen. Back in those days, the computer time was limited and we didn’t have access to all those debugging tools. It meant I would think of the entire logic in mind and then write it on paper and even execute it using sample inputs. While it was cumbersome I developed this skill of mentally executing a code which helps immensely in debugging. It also helps me being able to keep track of business logic and architecture for longer term so that I could refactor or debug while taking a walk or while lying awake in bed.
One code I vividly remember is calculating determinant of a matrix. I was trying to figure it out when my friend outlined the algorithm to me. I quickly opened a book and began coding. After couple of days of trial and error I got it right covering al the edge cases. I still feel proud of that! Later I learned that that method is quite old and even has a name, LU Decompisition!!
There were also typewriters that didn't have zero, just used capital O
but look at that, they had handy fractions!
(found this with ddg search) https://mycupofretro.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/DSC09416...
My day job is building microservices/another CRUD thing but I hope to transition to more physical stuff in the future.
I didn't grow up with code/technology. I just came into it in my college years. Was a desperate attempt to escape poverty while failing out of college with debt. I got lucky to stumble onto this field. Later on I grew to like it just for creation. I have always been a builder (rc stuff when I was younger).
There.