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Ask HN: What “old” programming languages will you still be using in 2017?

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Re: Ask HN: What “old” programming languages will you still be using in 2017?

#401

Post by voltagex_ »

LeoPanthera wrote: post #393
ptaipale wrote: post #6

- sh (I really don't use bash features in scripting) - awk - perl - sed, if that counts as language. It's funny that a course that I took in university almost 29 years ago, for learning the use of Unix scripting tools, is one of the most useful learning experiences in my daily work today - even if my job is not really a programmer. But very often I see colleagues (project managers, architects etc) struggle with proce…

I'm not proud of it (and I'm not going to share the code) but I wrote a CMS for a medium-traffic site entirely in bash and standard unix tools like awk/grep. It should be an absolute clusterfuck but it's been surprisingly reliable and performant, to the point where I have no desire to replace it.

If you can't show the code, can you give any info about the overall design of it? I can't even think how you'd structure a "large" application in shell scripts.

Re: Ask HN: What “old” programming languages will you still be using in 2017?

#402

Post by huherto »

cle wrote: post #18

Perl is one of those languages that nobody likes at my work, but that is impossible to get rid of. Java is in the same boat, but at least it's still marketable so engineers don't mind working with it as much.

Java is good if you don't create 10 layer enterprise applications where each component is broken on 17 maven artifacts.

I use Perl to manage such a monster.

Re: Ask HN: What “old” programming languages will you still be using in 2017?

#403

Post by ereyes01 »

randomthrowr88 wrote: post #181
paulrpotts wrote: post #2

Lots and lots of C. (I'm mostly an embedded C programmer these days). Some C++ for a bit of higher-level "business logic" that benefits from a class-based approach, but a fairly limited subset of "modern" C++.

Serious question: How does one get into this C embedded stuff? I'm addicted to low-level "embedded" type work. But all I hear back from are Django, RoR, $HOT_JS_FRAMEWORK, DevOps teams/recruiters. Is there some buzzword or special topic to know and do a project in? Any suggestions for projects to display on GitHub, topics to know through and through (domain specific knowledge)? I sit at work thinking all day about Ra…

Search for companies that need to design sophisticated hardware at very low cost. This pretty much guarantees they need to hack microcontrollers, which are usually programmed in C. One I've worked with in my past life as an embedded developer is TI MSP430 (costs pennies), but there's many others.

Another route to code in C close to the hardware is to find work writing Linux kernel device drivers. Of course, you have to know the Linux kernel fairly well in addition to being a good C programmer to land that sort of job. Companies that need this skill include server manufacturers that design their own network interfaces and such, and perhaps phone manufacturers, or companies that design their own SoC's (Qualcomm, TI, etc). Maybe some IoT startups need this skill as well.

Yet another way to code in C is to work in a place that needs to program DSPs. Usually, this also requires knowledge in video/audio engineering. Companies that need this skill design and sell devices that do some sort of video / audio encoding (like video conferencing devices, etc).

I'm sure there's many others I'm not thinking of. I hope this helps...

Re: Ask HN: What “old” programming languages will you still be using in 2017?

#404

Post by _pfxa »

tonyarkles wrote: post #363
_pfxa wrote: post #203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's such a nice UI paradigm married to a decent lisp (any lisp is better than no lisp :)). Once you get the actual hang of it you can't ever leave it. Just like real coffee vs. instant abominations.

Any recommendations for a good starter guide? I've done some lisp here and there, a bit of Clojure, and some other FP-style things (e.g. Elixir). I'm not scared by parens :). I'm just not sure where to start with elisp and getting into a good groove with it. Edit: also a long-term Emacs convert, just haven't written any of the elisp myself.

I myself have discovered everything I know along the way, and have read no guides, so unfortunately don't know any of them. Tho C-h t is the unavoidable initiation to emacs the editor.

Using tools lik Org mode, Rmail, Elfeed etc. gives you many opportunities to write some useful elisp, which is a pedagogical experience.

Emacs is like the mildly beautiful geeky girl which you fall in love with: whenever she spots you inclined to some new cute girl, instead of going mad with you, reveals such a wonderful piece of her interior world that you just forget the other one :)

Re: Ask HN: What “old” programming languages will you still be using in 2017?

#405

Post by danoli »

charlieflowers wrote: post #377
mercurialuser wrote: post #356

I will use Clipper open source alternative called Harbour. I started using Clipper in 1986 and some of 1986 code still runs today. Clipper was a compiler for Ashton tate dbase II language. Harbour now allows to run old code on windows, linux, Mac, Solaris and a bunch of other less common OSes, both in text mode or using some gui lib. It will also run on android and ios (using Qt).

Wow! I had no idea Clipper was still around. I was using it in 1993 with code blocks (essentially lambdas and first class functions, but not closures).

Holy cow. Used this for a summer job at an agricultural cooperative. Some special linker was a big help, and so were the trade journals (which I would have to track down for this to make sense).

Blast from the past.

Also, the floppies got wiped out on the way to the big demo, 'cause the backpack was up against the car speakers in the back seat on the way there). Maybe '91.

Re: Ask HN: What “old” programming languages will you still be using in 2017?

#406

Post by raboukhalil »

nafizh wrote: post #272
raboukhalil wrote: post #259

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[Shameless plug] Not too long ago, I wrote a small book that tries to address those kinds of questions, i.e. how to use Bash to solve problems instead of 1-liners. You may find it useful: http://adventuresindatascience.com

The book looks good. Is there a place I can find the table of contents or reviews of your book?

Here's a table of contents: http://robertaboukhalil.com/book-toc/, hope it helps!

I don't have a formal place for reviews but I posted about it on HN previously and the response seemed positive: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10112615.

Also, you can enter "hackernews" to get 25% off

Re: Ask HN: What “old” programming languages will you still be using in 2017?

#407

Post by raboukhalil »

blurbleblurble wrote: post #318
raboukhalil wrote: post #259

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[Shameless plug] Not too long ago, I wrote a small book that tries to address those kinds of questions, i.e. how to use Bash to solve problems instead of 1-liners. You may find it useful: http://adventuresindatascience.com

The book starts with: "Following the 2008 US elections, all eyes turned to Nate Silver... " And goes on from there ;)

Haha I may need to update the intro to reflect more recent events.

Re: Ask HN: What “old” programming languages will you still be using in 2017?

#408

Post by anonymousjunior »

voltagex_ wrote: post #401
LeoPanthera wrote: post #393

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not proud of it (and I'm not going to share the code) but I wrote a CMS for a medium-traffic site entirely in bash and standard unix tools like awk/grep. It should be an absolute clusterfuck but it's been surprisingly reliable and performant, to the point where I have no desire to replace it.

If you can't show the code, can you give any info about the overall design of it? I can't even think how you'd structure a "large" application in shell scripts.

A lot of cron

Re: Ask HN: What “old” programming languages will you still be using in 2017?

#409

Post by copperx »

nonsince wrote: post #142

- C! (I'm not using it at my current job but I'm just about to start a new job that's mostly C) - Scheme! (Because I love it) - Bash/Awk/Perl/Sed! (Because I use Arch for everything) - Java! (Because you can't have everything in life)

I was about to google C!, literally. By the way, if C# is pronounced C-sharp, I wonder how C! would be pronounced ...

Re: Ask HN: What “old” programming languages will you still be using in 2017?

#410

Post by [deleted] »

reikonomusha wrote: post #209

Many folks have said it here but I'll say it again: Common Lisp. I have been using it professionally for 5+ years as a full-time employee at various companies. Some big-name ones, some smaller start-up ones. The mean Lisp team size has been around 4, but I did work on a project of 15 Lisp programmers. None of these projects were legacy code. Some were in places you wouldn't expect (embedded, multi-processor systems o…

[deleted]
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