What was your first programming language? Favorite? Least Favorite?

[Lee]

Very cool indeed to see a Forth guy cooler yet to see -two-!

I never used Forth professionally, but had a great time with it as a hobby  a decade or two ago.  I wrote (what I then though was) a great screen editor - I'll have to resurrect that code and see if I still think so.

Somehow it just seems somehow wrongish to run Forth on the modern PC hardware, though it wouldn't be the first time I put "retro" software back into service.

As for tcl/tk I've been meaning for years to really dig in and learn that.    I used to pick up programming languages just for the sheer fun of it (Forth, Pascal, Logo,C/C++ etc) but nowadays I have so many other demands on my time (Wife, Kids, TC forum browsing).

Any suggestions on a nice modern, 32 bit Forth? 

Any suggestions on a good quick tcl/tk turotial?

[bmarkus]

I used FORTH to build an intelligent graphical terminal for a nuclear plant for example. Hardware was based on MOTOTOLA 8-bit 6800 CPU, no hard disk, only tape cartridge. Only available development environment was MOTOROLA ASSEMBLER. Using FORTH we could develope really fas the terminal.

Our systems were also used in secondary schools to teach computers, process satellite images, etc.

Reasons why FORTH was gone in the last two decades is off topic here.

I compiled two systems for TC which are still living and maintained, after some testing I will submit them:

bigFORTH - http://www.jwdt.com/~paysan/bigforth.html

Gforth - http://www.jwdt.com/~paysan/gforth.html

[jpeters]

Any suggestions on a good quick tcl/tk turotial?

Example using tcl-tk.tcz
This pastes text into entry widget with  "<control> p"  

Code: [Select]

#!/usr/local/bin/wish8.5

label .label -text name  
entry .entry -width 12  -relief sunken -textvariable mytext
pack .label .entry -side left -padx 1m -pady 2m
bind .entry  <Control-p> {.entry insert end [ paste ] }
focus .entry

proc paste {} {
set mytext "My Name"
}

More info:
http://wiki.tcl.tk/

[bigpcman]

My earliest programming experiences started in the 1970s writing hex code programs on a DEC PDP8 and Intel 8080 development system. Next I wrote an assembler for the TI 9900. After that I wrote a BIOS for the CPM OS in Z80 assembler. From there my job was to create AMD 2900 bit slice controllers including the micro code instruction set, followed by writing micro code programs.  I have played around with PHP, Basic and C code but never really liked it much.  I have been more of a hardware guy than a software engineer.

[fast forward 20+ years in the ugly world of "management"]

Now that I have some time to spare I have been engaged in the Linux world necessitating learning shell scripting.  I’m still a novice at it but I’m progressing as the need arises.

Like so many others, I got interested in web site development and now spent much of my spare time in this area.

[bmarkus]

My earliest programming experiences started in the 1970s writing hex code programs on a DEC PDP8 and Intel 8080 development system. Next I wrote an assembler for the TI 9900. After that I wrote a BIOS for the CPM OS in Z80 assembler. From there my job was to create AMD 2900 bit slice controllers including the micro code instruction set, followed by writing micro code programs.  I have played around with PHP, Basic and C code but never really liked it much.  I have been more of a hardware guy than a software engineer.

[fast forward 20+ years in the ugly world of "management"]

Now that I have some time to spare I have been engaged in the Linux world necessitating learning shell scripting.  I’m still a novice at it but I’m progressing as the need arises.

Like so many others, I got interested in web site development and now spent much of my spare time in this area.

Great, very similar here. For example I developed a CDL2 interpreter for AM 2900

Programming in many languages, but always hating PERL.

My current favourite is Python. Fast to develop, portable and code runs on LINUX and WINDOWS, reach with modules, easy to read and clean code, great data structure, can be compiled to WINDOWS EXE, ...

Everybody must try. You can create your first real application in few hours.

[gerald_clark]

First: Fortran 4 Waterloo Fortran.
Least favorite: COBOL.
Favorite: C

Other Favorites:
  Perl for power and ease of programming.
  FORTH for just plain weirdness and fun.  I implemented FIG FORTH for OSI 6502 based computers about 30 years ago.

[jpeters]

I'm happy to announce that I still have an Atari ST available (only one left) that uses the Motorolla 8-bit 6800 CPU (perfect for bmarkus' FORTH software!)

* recently upgraded with COLOR monitor, dual sided floopy drives, increased RAM.  
* thrown in is the latest version of Pagestream (printing software....14 font disks).

Although I paid about $4,000 for the complete setup (comes with midi cords), I'd be willing to let it go for a small discount.  
* They don't make computers like this anymore!

[bmarkus]

Regarding Forth, I just finished the bigforth extension, I will submit it today.

[gerald_clark]

Now all we need is a really big telescope.

[Lee]

Thanks jpeters, for the example and link re. tcl/tk.

Béla, I was just kidding about "a nice modern, 32 bit Forth" but, having followed the link to the bigForth site, I'm intrigued by it.  Thanks for the info.  OT: I don't suppose you did that nuclear plant work at Westinghouse in the 1980's?

[bmarkus]

Béla, I was just kidding about "a nice modern, 32 bit Forth" but, having followed the link to the bigForth site, I'm intrigued by it.  Thanks for the info.  OT: I don't suppose you did that nuclear plant work at Westinghouse in the 1980's?

No, it was in Hungary, at Paks nuclear power plant and used in the monitoring system to display info about reactor inside but not for primary control circuits. But it was working for years realibly

bigforth looks interesting. Also there is a live community as I see. The only issue is the lack of documentation. At least I did not find it, specially about the key features, like capability to generate native compiled Intel executable code But you can play with it as soon as will be added to the repository.

[MikeLockmoore]

I'm a Forth guy too!  At least as a hobby language.  I've not done a lot with it recently.  My best Forth app was a Motorola 68HC11 simulator running on a 16-bit Windows Forth.  You could load .s19 binaries, single-step, run, and do a bunch of other debugger-type things with the virtual HC11.

First: BASIC

Favorite, philosphically: Forth - I like the simple (weird!) syntax and the virtual machine model behind it

Favorite, pragmatic: C  - this is what I use by default, and wrote most of my code in it

Least Favorite: BASH shell script

Disfavored: C++ (esp. templates and other recent complications), Java

Intrigued by (but not much practice yet): Python, Lua

I don't like BASH because it's different enough from C that many things don't work like I'd first guess, so I'm constantly needing to look stuff up.  The C-shell would probably be better for me, but BASH is the lowest common denominator, so I muddle along with it.

In C++, I now tend to use it more like a slightly more flexible C, and not use many of the object-oriented and template features.  The syntax for all of that stuff gets really complex, for not not much benefit.  But I do need to use it to interface with some useful libraries like FLTK.

Java: There are a few things I like about it, but its syntax tends to make code verbose and repetitious.