Path: ...!2.eu.feeder.erje.net!feeder.erje.net!eternal-september.org!feeder3.eternal-september.org!news.eternal-september.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail
From: The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid>
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers,comp.os.linux.misc
Subject: Re: The joy of FORTRAN-like languages
Date: Mon, 30 Sep 2024 18:39:38 +0100
Organization: A little, after lunch
Lines: 47
Message-ID: <vdenoq$2as01$1@dont-email.me>
References: <pan$96411$d204da43$cc34bb91$1fe98651@linux.rocks>
 <vd8o1s$178gk$5@dont-email.me> <llr46dFmeudU2@mid.individual.net>
 <vd9r10$1d6gq$4@dont-email.me> <vd9rub$18mq$2@gal.iecc.com>
 <vd9see$1d6gq$5@dont-email.me> <llruqbFqbh9U4@mid.individual.net>
 <vdarnl$1l4ch$5@dont-email.me> <20240930100149.000050ac@gmail.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Injection-Date: Mon, 30 Sep 2024 19:39:39 +0200 (CEST)
Injection-Info: dont-email.me; posting-host="2efc34bfa98cee095ea5c8bf6ba9396f";
	logging-data="2453505"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@eternal-september.org";	posting-account="U2FsdGVkX1/SazId5pt0AaU2yvInV/NpuanOnwgraL0="
User-Agent: Mozilla Thunderbird
Cancel-Lock: sha1:Hlr+5U0+OBLsC2BUCkDHfsgHcVc=
In-Reply-To: <20240930100149.000050ac@gmail.com>
Content-Language: en-GB
Bytes: 2963

On 30/09/2024 18:01, John Ames wrote:
> On Sun, 29 Sep 2024 07:22:45 +0100
> The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> wrote:
> 
>> I think the worst thing was Turbo Pascal, which convinced huge
>> numbers of amateurs that they could actually write code.
> 
> OTOH, like BASIC, it *enabled* large numbers of amateurs to actually get
> shit done and develop software that met their own needs when solutions
> were either nonexistent or prohibitively expensive - the kind of thing
> that drove the microcomputer revolution. Sure, it might've made for a
> little mess along the way, but in the long run it's not so terrible ;)
> 
The problem is that many of those amateurs thought they were in fact 
professionals

And you could hack code *without regard to its context*

Sure I hacked a little basic, but once I started on assembler and C, my 
engineering training kicked in and it was all documented, sometimes 
planned and really quite structured.
"Every code block in assembler must have an explanation of its purpose 
that will likely be three times the length of the code."..was the 
mantra. Even today writing code that no one but me will see I have 
extensive headers for every function or code block explaining what it is 
supposed to do and often line by line comments.

And sometimes I write the comments first.

// open port

//set up event handler for asynch connection

//listen on port, and vector incoming data to handler

....and so on



-- 
You can get much farther with a kind word and a gun than you can with a 
kind word alone.

Al Capone