Inspired by a recent poll here about C#(.NET) vs Java, where the clear winner from comments was actually Python (+1) I thought about the entertainment of language wars and for this mid-summer period throw out a walk-down-memory lane poll. Which of these pre-internet era languages do you swear you really swear as true that you actually programmed in at school or at work or home? Comment the ones that you loved and those you hated, what you found magical or frustrating, how you came across the language or any other memory these languages provoke. I know there are many more, these are just the ones I remember clearly, but add your favourite pre-internet langauge in the comments.
Engineering Applications & Platforms
Algol9%
Assembler37%
BASIC47%
B12%
C (the original C :-) )35%
CLIST12%
Delphi12%
Eiffel5%
FORTH4%
FORTRAN13%
Lisp7%
LOGO10%
Objective C8%
PASCAL13%
PERL (on the edge of the era, I know, but so cool, and such a mess)9%
PIC1%
PL/I6%
REXX2%
Simula2%
Smalltalk3%
Speakeasy1%
COBOL (last on the list - like PERL, still an active language)9%

99 PARTICIPANTS
682 views7 Comments

Question

Inspired by a recent poll here about C#(.NET) vs Java, where the clear winner from comments was actually Python (+1) I thought about the entertainment of language wars and for this mid-summer period throw out a walk-down-memory lane poll. Which of these pre-internet era languages do you swear you really swear as true that you actually programmed in at school or at work or home? Comment the ones that you loved and those you hated, what you found magical or frustrating, how you came across the language or any other memory these languages provoke. I know there are many more, these are just the ones I remember clearly, but add your favourite pre-internet langauge in the comments.

Engineering Applications & Platforms

Algol9%

Assembler37%

BASIC47%

B12%

C (the original C :-) )35%

CLIST12%

Delphi12%

Eiffel5%

FORTH4%

FORTRAN13%

Lisp7%

LOGO10%

Objective C8%

PASCAL13%

PERL (on the edge of the era, I know, but so cool, and such a mess)9%

PIC1%

PL/I6%

REXX2%

Simula2%

Smalltalk3%

Speakeasy1%

COBOL (last on the list - like PERL, still an active language)9%

99 PARTICIPANTS

682 views7 Comments

Answer

I can't vote on my own poll, but I fell in love with REXX, hated Pascal, but raised a positive eyebrow at Delphi. I was better at Fortran than at Cobol, and despise Basic as much as I hate to love Perl. But Lisp was cool as cucumbers even though I wasted too much of my time in Logo. The root of my education in this area, and I think the spark of a career was Assembler, and a University class in Logic.

Answer

I am really surprised by the low COBOL turn-out :-)

Answer

My favorite was Assembler. You could actually read what was in memory, what was in registers, what instructions were executed in the error dumps. Pure science

Answer

Where is RPG on this list. Still being used today but in a different form (RPG Free)

Answer

Thanks to BASIC I’d got into this gig. The awesomeness I had when I coded my first videogame was outstanding.

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