Programmers?

[Lunkhead]

I'm curious to poll the people here to get some info about who is a programmer, how much they program, and in what languages.

I program full time. I use Java. I work primarily on Web related code, so I have done a lot of Web stuff as well (HTML, CSS, JavaScript).

What about you all...? Looking more for simple factual info and not bragging and flame bait.

[king_arthur]

Used to be a programmer 'til I got laid off. Still do a lot of stuff on my computer at home, most recently HTML, perl and PHP. I'm also learning how to create online courses, currently using a front end thing called eFront - I don't know if you consider that programming or not.

Best "programming" story: when I got my BA at ASU in 2006, they had a "foreign languages" requirement and I hadn't taken any since high school. Sat down with the counselor, who mentioned that, as far as ASU was concerned, "current programming language" courses count as "foreign languages" for graduation.

The official guidelines seemed to say something about "two subsequent semesters in a current programming language," but they relaxed that on my account, and so for my BA from ASU, I met my foreign language requirement based on courses I took in Fortran and Cobol.

Well, they're sorta current. Somebody somewhere must still be running some Fortran programs, some Cobol programs... then again, my Firefox spell checker doesn't seem to recognize either one of those names as correctly spelled words...

Charles

[Manhattan Glutton]

I program full time but I'm looking to get my title adjusted to "architect" since I've been doing more of a leadership role lately.

[Lunkhead]

And you're writing iOS apps? C# servers?

[Manhattan Glutton]

iOS apps, C# web server, MUMPS database

BTW I'd be glad to put in peoples' resumes. We're like the Google of the midwest, so they say. Although most people end up still doing VB stuff.

[irwin]

I am a UNIX sysadmin in Real Life(tm), which of course involves its fair share of small programming projects, mostly in perl, python and PHP. Having come from a computer science background before the age of Java (and indeed my college C++ course did not cover STL as it had not yet been standardized at that time), I consider my "native tongue" to be C. I do sometimes find myself editing C/C++/FORTRAN code (yes they still use FORTRAN in research. Ugh) to fix things, but I can't even remember the last thing I wrote from scratch in C.

Before I had kids, I did do some programming on personal projects. These days, not so much.

[fluffy]

I can probably program better than whoever wrote the poll handling code for phpBB, which always tells me "the submitted form was invalid."

Programming is the majority of my job although at times I play architect or team lead instead (but when I do I'm still coding and not just making stupid decisions from on high, so I guess that makes me not actually an architect).

My favorite and primary language is C++, but these days I do a lot of Java as well (yay for Android development), and at Sony I did my fair share of Javascript as well. Incidentally, JS is a great language hobbled by a hideous syntax and some ridiculous ad-hoc behavior (which, fortunately, can mostly be subverted via

Code: Select all

"use strict";

in modern JS interpreters). Unlike most Java and Javascript programmers I actually understand the basis and rationale behind those languages, and can also articulate what's wrong with them while knowing how to get around those problems (and swearing under my breath every minute of it).

I've also done my fair share of PHP and Perl both professionally and for spare-time projects. They're quick-and-dirty languages for doing quick-and-dirty things. I'm a bit aghast at how much of the web runs on both of them. (Incidentally, Amazon.com's HTML generator runs primarily on a thing called Mason, which is basically Perl with PHP-style embedding, although the backend logic is mostly C++, Java, and Perl with all sorts of neat distributed component stuff running the show.)

Oh, and using C++ without STL and boost::shared_ptr/weak_ptr is like using a Ferrari that's stuck in first gear. It can still go really fast but you're likely to break something expensive if you're not careful.

Personally I'm looking for an excuse to write something in Vala, which is basically modernizing C and adding the useful parts of C++ that make sense, while keeping the syntax reasonable and the ABI C-compatible. Sadly, it seems to be in the "Gnome ghetto" and most people don't realize that it's a great language on its own (much like most people still think of Javascript as being something that runs in the browser and nothing else).

[roymond]

I just found a box of my old Assembler punch cards.

I'm a hack, but I do useful things to get into trouble. Mostly in those fake scripting tools like Frontier, JS and lately something called Processing, which is an open source data visualization environment that can rip through huge data sets really well. One client is pushing 300 million songs to listeners a day and I analyze their server logs with Processing.

In the past I made digital asset management systems and automated print and web production processes.

[inevitableguy]

I can program in FORTRAN and I think I could probably still pound something out in the Commodore 64 version of BASIC. So, if it magically becomes 1986 again, I'm all set.

[fluffy]

I just found a box of my old Assembler punch cards.

I'm a hack, but I do useful things to get into trouble. Mostly in those fake scripting tools like Frontier, JS and lately something called Processing, which is an open source data visualization environment that can rip through huge data sets really well. One client is pushing 300 million songs to listeners a day and I analyze their server logs with Processing.

In the past I made digital asset management systems and automated print and web production processes.

Processing is pretty neat. That's another language/library I've been wanting an excuse to learn, although usually I end up just writing one-off data visualization apps in languages I'm more familiar with.

http://beesbuzz.biz/blog/e/2006/07/07-visualize.php
http://beesbuzz.biz/blog/e/2006/07/12-visualize_2.php

[jast]

None of the options describe me. I don't enjoy programming (anymore) and I don't get paid for it, but I do it anyway. Sometimes.

[ujnhunter]

On the side for fun... I like to make video games/demos. VB & C+ in the past and C# in the present.

[Manhattan Glutton]

I'm looking to get my title adjusted to "architect"

Well, I got the "it's against our culture to have titles" speech from two people. Going up the chain of command some more.

[fluffy]

At the new job there aren't really titles, just areas that people work in, which in a lot of ways is fine. I don't like how job title tends to dictate job function.

[Manhattan Glutton]

It's annoying when you're doing all this extra stuff and still "software developer". Trust me.

[irwin]

Around these parts, anyone that does anything remotely technical is either a Programmer N (for N between 1 and 7) or a Computer Resource Specialist N. Software Developer, DBA, sysadimin, web designer, even sometimes desktop support: all "Programmer".

Job-description-wise it often feels like I spend 90% of my time under the inevitable catch-all "Other duties as assigned."

So it goes.

[Caravan Ray]

Where is the option that says:

Let's beat shit out of the nerd?

[HeuristicsInc]

Sheesh, CR. Yeah, poll is borken. I mostly write C++ for work. Recently had a stint as team lead also while the regular lead was off having a baby. Wrote my own website in Perl.
-bill