# What languages do you program in? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 3, 2000, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-languages-do-you-program-in/39592 "2000-11-03T19:17:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Junior\_Spaceman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Junior\_Spaceman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Junior_Spaceman)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2000, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-languages-do-you-program-in/39592/61 "2000-11-06T04:52:20Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by mrblue92 \*\*\* > If you’re not writing operating systems, compilers, or extremely time critical stuff, I wouldn’t call you a “nut”, but, well, the word “sadist” does pop into my head… 😃 \*\* I’m going to assume you mean ‘masochist’, unless you’re talking about the pain I put my friends through when I enthuse at length about DEBUG :p. HenrySpencer ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2000, 4:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-languages-do-you-program-in/39592/62 "2000-11-06T04:57:13Z")
Enthusing about DEBUG is nuts. Just talking about it is sadistic. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Kyberneticist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/dc4da7/32.png) [@Kyberneticist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyberneticist)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2000, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-languages-do-you-program-in/39592/63 "2000-11-06T05:02:04Z")
Since we have some people familiar with assembly on this thread, can anyone tell me if there is an easy way to do basic text i/o in PPC assembly? In x86, just setting the appropriate interupt value and AX would do it. Under Yellow Dog, ended up using C libraries. Is there an easier way? ---
**Author:** ![cykrider](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f19dbf/32.png) [@cykrider](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cykrider)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2000, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-languages-do-you-program-in/39592/64 "2000-11-06T05:11:34Z")
I learned some Pascal and C++ in high school, and I’ve picked up the VB for dummies and messed around with that a bit. [hijack] I plan on majoring in MIS and the college that I’m going to attend requires you to take a class in Cobol. Is their any point to this? I plan on working with SQL, Oracle databases? If I know the basics of programming, why do I need to appy them to Cobol? Am I wasting my time? [/hijack] ---
**Author:** ![Junior\_Spaceman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Junior\_Spaceman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Junior_Spaceman)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2000, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-languages-do-you-program-in/39592/65 "2000-11-06T05:20:19Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by cykrider \* > \*\*I plan on majoring in MIS and the college that I’m going to attend requires you to take a class in Cobol. Is their any point to this? I plan on working with SQL, Oracle databases? If I know the basics of programming, why do I need to appy them to Cobol? Am I wasting my time? > \*\* Sorry to say, but Yes. Cobol isn’t just a waste of time to learn, even if you end up using it, it’s a waste of time to use. [/C programmer rant] Seriously, though, if you have to do it, just make the most of it and learn it - it never hurts to have another language under your belt, even just to stretch your brain regarding different ways of doing the same thing. Just try not to get a job using it. HenrySpencer ---
**Author:** ![Flymaster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c4cdca/32.png) [@Flymaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flymaster)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2000, 6:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-languages-do-you-program-in/39592/66 "2000-11-06T06:36:31Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Bumbazine \* > \*\* > > > [@](#): > > > > Why VB Script? Everybody knows that JavaScript (or its bastard Microsoft offshoot, JScript) is going to take over the world. > > I’d **like** to learn Java. But my boss has some kind of mental block against it.\*\* Just FYI, Java != JavaScript/ECMAScript/JScript. Don’t think that it is. 😃 My list: C C++ Java JavaScript QBASIC TI-BASIC PERL MIPS ASM ---
**Author:** ![Narile](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/71c47a/32.png) [@Narile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Narile)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2000, 8:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-languages-do-you-program-in/39592/67 "2000-11-06T08:05:24Z")
dropzone: > [@](#): > > > [@](#): > > > > Originally posted by Narile > > …but at least they misspelled in a consistant manner > > And was that intended as a joke? As I said, can’t spell worth a spit. 😉 Ahhhh, **Kyberneticist** but when you consistantly mispell cdr as car, search and replace is afterall so much more usefull then, neh? ---
**Author:** ![MysteryFellow63427](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a88e4f/32.png) [@MysteryFellow63427](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MysteryFellow63427)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2000, 8:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-languages-do-you-program-in/39592/68 "2000-11-06T08:30:00Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Narile \* > > > [@](#): > > > > \*Originally posted by Neuroman \* > > **How many programmers do you know that choose efficiency over sloth?** > > **neuroman, a great programmer always strives for an elegant over kludgy solution.** I agree. So, how many _great_ programmers do you know? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Bumbazine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bumbazine/32/362_2.png) [@Bumbazine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bumbazine)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2000, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-languages-do-you-program-in/39592/69 "2000-11-06T17:01:55Z")
**mrblue92,** You’re a **Progress** programmer? Have you ever thought about moving to Oregon? I work for a large printing company that uses a production system called _Hagen_ written in Progress GUI. Right now we’ve only got one guy who understands Progress, and if he gets hit by a bus, we’re screwed! (Our financials are in RPG III on an AS/400, which is my baby.) Just a thought. **Flymaster,** I know there’s a difference between Java and Java script. It just didn’t seem germaine to the discussion at the time. My boss hates them both. 🙂 > [@](#): > > **neuroman** said: > . So, how many great programmers do you know? After 25 years in the business, about 5. (I consider myself a very good programmer.) Okay, hijack’s over. Carry on. ---
**Author:** ![mrblue92](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@mrblue92](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mrblue92)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2000, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-languages-do-you-program-in/39592/70 "2000-11-06T18:54:37Z")
> [@](#): > > mrblue92, You’re a Progress programmer? Yes, sir. In fact, it accounts for about 90% of my programming at this point, but our app (Trend, aka SX Enterprise) is character–the GUI version (of the app) is too unstable at this point for our taste. I do not claim to be a DBA (we have another guy who does admin), but I know a considerable amount of the theory and could probably even do that job if need be. It’d take me some time to get up to speed as a DBA, though. > [@](#): > > Have you ever thought about moving to Oregon? Actually I had considered moving out West while in college, but part of me likes being able to see the family more than a couple times a year. My company really needs me for the next six months or so, so it’d be hard to just walk away. And nowadays I find myself wanting to write books more than wanting to write programs. > [@](#): > > Right now we’ve only got one guy who understands Progress, and if he gets hit by a bus, we’re screwed! I kid you not, if you’ve touched SQL and Pascal, character Progress is an absolute breeze. It’s possibly the easiest language I’ve ever learned, but I admit I had a pretty good variety of experience before then. GUI is a bit more complex because by nature it’s more heavily event driven, and I haven’t worked with it in a production environment yet. It’ll be coming next year for me, I’m sure. ---
**Author:** ![tracer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tracer/32/20578_2.png) [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2000, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-languages-do-you-program-in/39592/71 "2000-11-06T19:57:39Z")
Bumbazine wrote: > [@](#): > > **tracer** wrote: > > > [@](#): > > > > Why VB Script? Everybody knows that JavaScript (or its bastard Microsoft offshoot, JScript) is going to take over the world. > > I’d **like** to learn Java. But my boss has some kind of mental block against it. I can’t explain it. Just for the record, Java and JavaScript have **nothing** to do with one another. They don’t even share a similar syntax. JavaScript was originally called “LiveScript” by Netscape, but when Netscape teamed up with Sun, Sun decided that LiveScript would be more marketable and have more of a “webpage progamming” connotation if it were renamed JavaScript. JavaScript has far more in common with VBScript than it does with Java. ---
**Author:** ![Bumbazine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bumbazine/32/362_2.png) [@Bumbazine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bumbazine)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2000, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-languages-do-you-program-in/39592/72 "2000-11-06T20:45:19Z")
**tracer,** I stand, or rather sit (I’m eating lunch) corrected. ---
**Author:** ![Bumbazine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bumbazine/32/362_2.png) [@Bumbazine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bumbazine)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2000, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-languages-do-you-program-in/39592/73 "2000-11-06T20:56:45Z")
hmmm… As long as I was hijacking this thread for a personal conversation, I should have replied to **mrblue92.** while I was at it. My apologies, and too bad, you’d probably like it here. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2000, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-languages-do-you-program-in/39592/74 "2000-11-07T00:55:34Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Bumbazine \* > \*\*My apologies, and too bad, you’d probably like it here. > 🙂 > \*\* I’m disappointed. Since it was my thread I was going to claim a finder’s fee if you hired him! OTOH, Oregon’s nice, my family all moved to Washington, and that language doesn’t sound that hard… ---
**Author:** ![Flymaster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c4cdca/32.png) [@Flymaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flymaster)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2000, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-languages-do-you-program-in/39592/75 "2000-11-07T01:17:14Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by tracer \* > \*\*Just for the record, Java and JavaScript have **nothing** to do with one another. They don’t even share a similar syntax. JavaScript was originally called “LiveScript” by Netscape, but when Netscape teamed up with Sun, Sun decided that LiveScript would be more marketable and have more of a “webpage progamming” connotation if it were renamed JavaScript. > > JavaScript has far more in common with VBScript than it does with Java. \*\* Ahem. No fair claiming credit! I already pointed that out!!! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![mrblue92](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@mrblue92](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mrblue92)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2000, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-languages-do-you-program-in/39592/76 "2000-11-07T01:22:56Z")
Out of pure curiousity, I wouldn’t mind knowing the pay scale… FWIW, I have a Bachelor’s in Computer Science and 3.75 years of professional experience with Progress. ---
**Author:** ![pantom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/34f0e0/32.png) [@pantom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pantom)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2000, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-languages-do-you-program-in/39592/77 "2000-11-07T03:33:57Z")
[inside joke] **Bumbazine** : Stay that boring and you just might live to 850, though what you’re doing now sounds like its getting exciting. [/inside joke] My list (chronological order): BAL (IBM Assembly language) COBOL JCL Wang BASIC-2 UNIX/C UNIX Shell Scripting (sh & ksh) awk VAX DCL VAX BASIC VAX C UNIX/C again (and awk, and shell scripting) C++ SQL At home, I’ve tried out Amiga BASIC, Microsoft BASIC (pretty much the same thing, but then someone up there pointed out that Amiga BASIC was written by Gates), VB, and Visual C++. For learning how to program or teaching someone else how to program, VB is probably the best these days, since a person will quickly see satisfying results with this. And of course the one thing I don’t have is what’s hot: Web programming, like Java, perl, HTML, or whatever. ---
**Author:** ![Bumbazine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bumbazine/32/362_2.png) [@Bumbazine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bumbazine)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2000, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-languages-do-you-program-in/39592/78 "2000-11-07T04:34:29Z")
**pantom,** And I was looking forward to a peaceful and quiet old age. 😉 **dropzone,** A finder’s fee, hmmm? That’s an intriguing concept, but knowing my employer,… **mrblue92,** Ummm… I’m not real sure. :o Let me get back to you on that. ---
**Author:** ![Bumbazine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bumbazine/32/362_2.png) [@Bumbazine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bumbazine)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2000, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-languages-do-you-program-in/39592/79 "2000-11-09T20:20:24Z")
**mrblue92,** I apologize for putting you off in my post above. I couldn’t answer your question about pay scale for a couple of reasons. a) If I were to publish that information publicly, my employer would be really angry. b) I really do not know. Let me explain: I’m not the guy who does the hiring around here. If you had been interested, I would have immediately hooked you up with my boss, who **is** the guy, and the two of you could have taken it from there. I’ve tried to make some discreet inquiries about salary ranges here, and had no luck. They ‘negotiate’ everybody anyway. My sources outside the company, however, say that the range for a P/A with about 5 yrs experience would be ~ 40 - 60k. I hope that satisfies your curiosity. BTW, Happy (belated?) Birthday. ---
**Author:** ![mrblue92](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@mrblue92](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mrblue92)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2000, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-languages-do-you-program-in/39592/80 "2000-11-10T00:42:14Z")
**Bumbazine** : Thanks for the effort… I fall within that bracket now, but would probably ask minimum 60K to move from where I am now, probably more unless I was really sure that I’d really like what I was doing. It is nice to be in a field in high demand. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-languages-do-you-program-in/39592.md?page=3)