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Many people don't know a single computer language, but are still happy to use them to write production code 
And that makes a lot of us very unhappy using that computer language to write fix production code.
I've voted 3-6: C#, VB.NET, JavaScript, SQL, HTML/CSS... Probably more, but that depends on your exact definition of "computer language" 
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Sander Rossel wrote: And that makes a lot of us very unhappy using that computer language to write fix production code.
I made a comfortable living in the 90s following a particular contractor from one client to another fixing his over engineered code (my agent knew his agent and I got first dibs on the recovery contract).
Crappy code from someone else should be viewed as an opportunity, your own crappy code on the other hand...
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity
RAH
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That's nice if you need the money and if the person who wrote the code is no longer around.
I've worked with such code and the developers who write it.
They suck the joy out of programming.
They know they're bad programmers and it makes them insecure and that makes them stressed...
And they're taking it out on the person who is looking to change things (for the better)!
I remember writing an SP in SQL Server, some export went from 15 minutes to 3 seconds.
The person who wrote the 15 minute code literally started shouting "SO THIS IS HOW WE DO THINGS NOW!? SP'S!? ANOTHER SOLUTION TO THE SAME PROBLEM!!!"
Of course he didn't know SQL...
That's my experience anyway (and it wasn't just this one programmer)
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Mycroft Holmes wrote: Crappy code from someone else should be viewed as an opportunity, your own crappy code on the other hand...
Yes indeed! If it were not for crappy code from someone else, I probably wouldn't have a job.
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Sander, you old cynic! You will have to stop visiting QA, it's rotting your faith in humanity... 
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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I already stopped visiting QA.
It's humanity that's rotting my faith in humanity 
I keep a positive outlook in life though, we'll all be dead someday 
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What's really fun is following someone who has absolutely no programming experience (and freely admits it) but ended up designing a system in an off-the-shelf database program. I worked for one company where the head of the accounting department had designed such a system in R-Base. This was back in 1998 and one of their concerns was that it wasn't Y2K compliant. I was able to create a system in VB6 and Sybase SQL Anywhere (they had already bought the package). Reports that previously had to run overnight could be generated instantaneously once I finished converting everything.
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The "current working set" is probably quite small - hence my vote of "4-6", but with a day or so "Brush up" I could probably get back each of the number I've used for production code over the years. So should they count? Probably yes, so maybe 16-20 would be more appropriate? I'd have to sit down and count pretty hard to work it out exactly though.
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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Same thing, but I suspect that it would take more than a day or two to get back into some of the stuff that I haven't touched for many years. I did quite a bit of I4GL and ESQL in the '90s but I expect that both would inspire plenty of confusion if I looked at them now. Similarly VB.NET - even though I use it from time to time - just doesn't stick in my head as a language.
On the other hand, I haven't programmed in pure C for a great many years but I have no problem reading C code and I don't think it would take me very long at all to start writing it again.
98.4% of statistics are made up on the spot.
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Maybe they still exist, but I don't think I'd wind back to FORTRAN or VAX Macro Assembler (for example).
The thing is, there's such overlap in languages. C, C++, C#, php, javaScript. Are they really all so different? However - wanting to click (tic, in UK speak) a larger-number box, I counted them each separately.
Oddly, counting HTML/CSS as a single language, it's no longer uncommon for me to have four languages on a single page.
| Ravings en masse^ |
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| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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W∴ Balboos wrote: C, C++, C#, php, javaScript. Are they really all so different?
Oh yes!
You can write C code in C++, but that's nasty.
You can write C++ code in C# - but that's not "good " C#.
You can throw together some javascript from your bin contents and call it a website ...
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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The structure's the same; It's really rather nuanced, but not very different. The learning curve was pretty fast (starting out from C).
OK - php and javascript are essentially un-typed.
C and javascript don't have classes.
C and C++ allow easy inline assembler (the good ol' days).
C and php share function names in their built-in-ish libraries.
They look so much alike - and they have there uses.
C# for those who find C++ too difficult.
javaScript and PHP when everything will end up a string at some point.
C - because control is everything. The only thing.
| Ravings en masse^ |
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| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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The structure is very similar - which is where the problems usually start!
C# is more for people who want to concentrate on getting the job done instead of the mechanics of doing the job - C++ takes more work to do the same job, but yes, you have a lot more control in C++ than you do in C# where there is a shed load more going on behind the scenes.
JavaScript and PHP are languages for non-programmers, and don't have the "safety features" and designed-in "good code encouragements" that C++ and C# do.
C is for control freaks, yes - but Real Coders use assembler instead! 
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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... dialects like angular, vue, react, pl/sql, tsql, bootstrap etc. ?
Some of these require their own proficiency and working knowledge.
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