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I retired and I'm trying to forget everything I ever knew about computers. So about the languages I use.
Spanish: it is pronounced the way it is spelled, unlike English. It has fewer exceptions than the other languages I know. (I'm fluent)
French: so much of English comes from French. The spelling sucks, but not as bad as English. (I'm conversational)
Mandarin: It is logical, but the tones drive me crazy. (I'm a high beginner. Give me two years)
English: English is totally illogical. There are so many exceptions. The rules for plurals have two pages of exceptions. I honestly feel sorry for my students learning English. (My native language)
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Member 12415033 wrote: English: English is totally illogical
Definitely.
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C#: Has good market share and will be around for a while, so I have a paycheck. I do WinForm and web development, but it's a plus that it runs on other platforms, should I need to go there. The con is that the MS C# dev team struggles to remain relevant, so 95% of new features do nothing more than make the language more complicated than it should be.
SQL: It's the language of the major DBs I use and is mostly the same. The con is that it's mostly the same across DBs ...
In the past: VB 4/5/6: At the time highly popular, which ensured a paycheck. Syntax is highly readable and was designed for rapid development -- C++ guys whined about how hard it was to create screens while I was producing entire applications that ran for years. The cons? MS stupidly killed its cash cow, and folks still whine about "go to".
For me, the major plus of any language is that it has sufficient market share and longevity to keep me employed. A lot of the details that folks list don't mean much to me -- it's just another language.
Upstream a responder listed about a dozen tech's that went the way of the dodo -- I did most of the ones listed, plus a few others. After a few decades, having to learn yet another language for a short-term assignment lost its magic. 
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BryanFazekas wrote: For me, the major plus of any language is that it has sufficient market share and longevity to keep me employed. A lot of the details that folks list don't mean much to me -- it's just another language.
True for me also.
Although I will say I have no desire to write COBOl lambdas.
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I like C#6 because it's clean and smart. It's easy to write code in, and quick. As a sort of RAD language, it's great.
I love C++ primarily because of the ability to do metaprogramming with it, which makes it unlike any other major language out there. Beyond that, I love its flexibility. It does take a long time to acclimate to it, and make avoiding all the gotchas instinct, but once you do you it's so worth it.
There's smoke in my iris
But I painted a sunny day on the insides of my eyelids
So I'm ready now (What you ready for?)
I'm ready for life in this city
And my wings have grown almost enough to lift me
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The language I use is better than the language you use!
I have been around long enough to have actually used Fortran and COBOL.
Several years ago I got involved in a project that uses JavaScript. Ugh! Why do we have to use it?
Now that I am proficient in it, and with it's new features, I really like it. It is now my code of choice.
In time, I will probably be forced, under duress of course, to use another language; and the cycle will repeat.
Nothing succeeds like a budgie without teeth.
To err is human, to arr is pirate.
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Heh, as an embedded developer (now retired) C/C++ was pretty much my only option. A lot of my career was spent on TI DSPs and something like C# was never an option.
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Yeah, I gotta stick up for C++. People with less than 20 years experience all think C++ is complicated and weird. They are too young to remember that C++ was perfectly compatible with C's weird declaration syntax, and that a whole generation of C programmers got to learn C++ gently and incrementally. The compatibility of C++ with C and with previous C++ standards is why there is a modern language for high performance code, and we aren't all stuck with C. C++ is the reason Java and C# look like they do.
Back before github, before sourceforge, when there weren't vast code libraries online, being able to use the code you found was important, and C++ let you do that with C++ and C source code.
The reason less experienced people brag that they don't need to learn algorithms and data structures is because Alexander Stepanov created STL, the library of generic algorithms and data structures in 1995, for C++.
C++ is still where the programming world goes for high performance. Someday, maybe Rust...but not today.
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may i please inquire what is weird about C declaration syntax . i should state i have much experience w/ C and C++ and in fact only those languages so syntax of other languages i do not know of for purposes of comparison and judgement . i find nothing weird re/ C or C++ but of course as implied i am not expert in such matters .
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int* i,j; declares a pointer-to-int called i and an int called j, not two pointers like you'd think, because part of the type is in the declarator (the part with the name). A pointer to a function returning an int has to be parenthesized like int (f)(float v); Don't even get me started on abstract declarators. You can declare a function that takes an array like f(int a[10]) but the type of a is int. Unless this is part of a template declaration template <typename T, int N> f(T a[N]); in which case the type of a is T[10], and there's that abstract declarator thing again. Forgive me for not trying to compile these, I might have got some of it wrong. C declaration syntax, and therefore C++ declaration syntax is just strange. If C++ syntax was created from scratch, I sure hope they'd have done something different, maybe more like Pascal or Modula.
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thank you kindly for the straight dope . re/ declarations as best as i recall the superb text by Harbison & Steele which explains such are to be performed merely by following the rules of precedence . the Kernighan Ritchie text i found confusing on this subject even they seemed confused . i compiled the code below and displayed the types for the aforementioned int a[10]. i present as a minor curiosity . they seem logical to me . may i say what i find weird/confusing/odd/uncertain/strange is utilizing const and * . thankfully i rarely utilize pointers . -Best
#include "pch.h"
using namespace std;
const char narrow_space = ' ';
void foo(int a[10])
{
cout <<__LINE__ <<narrow_space << typeid(decltype(a)).name() <<endl;
}
int main()
{
int a[10];
cout << __LINE__<<narrow_space<<typeid(decltype(a)).name() <<endl;
foo(a);
const int* p;
int const* p_;
cout << typeid(p).name() << endl;
cout << typeid(p_).name() << endl;
return 0;
}output :
13 int [10]
7 int * __ptr64
int const * __ptr64
int const * __ptr64
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C because I know pretty much what is happening under the hood and it doesn't change much. Second point is important for older folk who just want to do their job and not have to learn new syntax with every project.
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The user should be able to select the colors.
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Artisan crafted ruler. (7)
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Tsarina ?
In a closed society where everybody's guilty, the only crime is getting caught. In a world of thieves, the only final sin is stupidity. - Hunter S Thompson - RIP
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Yeah - pretty easy one to end the week. You are up Monday!
Solution
Definition: Ruler
Artisan [crafted (anagramed)]
TSARINA
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That's why I try and avoid using anagrams 
In a closed society where everybody's guilty, the only crime is getting caught. In a world of thieves, the only final sin is stupidity. - Hunter S Thompson - RIP
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Preparing to move my home office to another room after 20+ years, so you can probably imagine...
Found a couple of gems:
* The first USB stick / thumb drive I ever bought. I remember when and where by association with another significant event (daughter's wedding). March 2005, a whopping 256MB for $60. Still works too!
* A pocket USB hard disk I came by around that era. Seagate ST625211USB, if anyone wants to look it up. About 7cm dia, 1.5cm thick. 2.5 GB of real spinning rust. Again, still works!
Haven't yet unearthed my old tower, Pentium III, iirc. Shipped with Win ME, upgraded to XP as soon as it was available. Must be 22 or 23 years old. Hmmm, should I fire it up for old times sake?
Software rusts. Simon Stephenson, ca 1994. So does this signature. me, 2012
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If I were you, I'd move only the stuff that is actually in use to the new room, and seal the old room for future archaeologists. You never know what you'll find there, tunnels to the dungeon dimensions included!
Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.
-- 6079 Smith W.
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Yep. Treat it like a time capsule.
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
"Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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Good thought, but the room is to become a bathroom. Herself now requires a walk-in shower, not one over the bathtub.
However, the next room may experience such a fate in a few more years.
About half of what I'm moving out is going to recycling or the charity shop.
Software rusts. Simon Stephenson, ca 1994. So does this signature. me, 2012
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Perhaps you'll find more archeological software gems in the contents of that USB stick and USB hard disk, in case you've backed-up code there. As in - 'Did I write that code'? Some of that code would be worth posting in the Weird and Wonderful page.
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*shudder*
I did find some stuff from a project I was hired to urgently take over maintenance from a guy who had just been committed to a mental hospital.
It'll probably give me nightmares again.
Software rusts. Simon Stephenson, ca 1994. So does this signature. me, 2012
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I've heard it said that you should write your code as if the person who is going to maintain it is a psycho killer, but this seems to be the reverse!
The difficult we do right away...
...the impossible takes slightly longer.
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