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• Thursday, September 14, 2006 12:11 PM

  Former BASIC programmer

  I started out in 1975 programming in BASIC, mostly because I wanted to learn how to program the neat games that were available for us to play. By 1980 and the advent of the micro-computer, I was an expert at programming. Unfortunately, that was just not true. A technical school offered courses in programming and after enrolling in the program there was little in my former knowledege to aid me. Top-down programming concepts replaced spaghetti programming and different languages taught me that there was much more to learn. By 1985, I was deep into Assembly language.

  We now have languages that are really powerful and tap into libraries that do much of the mundane work. Once you have programmed graphic routines in Assembler you appreciate the ease that GDI2 or DirectX provide. Using line oriented languages are a bad way to learn programming. I don't need to know how to make a wheel to build a cart if a wheel maker provides me what I need to know about his wheels to make my cart work. Almost all programming now use the concept of objects.

  Languages like Visual Basic and C++ are better alternatives. A child can learn the basics of programming and when they've learned the mechanics then explore OOP.

  —Darren J Kindberg
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