Rebooting into programming

[Sean Cleary]

Well, I was a programmer for a few decades.
Fortran, assembly, C, Enough C++ to recognize the thought pattern
when
I found it in assembly.
It has been a decade without a programming job, and without
substantial programming.
I want to reboot, restart, re-learn.
Starting with the basic fun of programming, create a game whose
overall plan was abandoned like a blocked novel the time I tried to
use it to learn Modula-2, when that was fresh and new.
And I will learn Python. Some of the books on that language say that
they will teach good programming. Well, they at least give hints.
And I am wondering if there are any urls or books that would give me
an understanding of the modern process of creating a program. Not
language books, not 'Structured Rapid Prototyping' which IIRC is
about
programming methods,

*but how to parse a problem into a program. *

My own start was creating programs in Fortran and Basic. So,
according
to an authority, I was a ruined ex-virgin from the start. I can
reboot
on that. So I am going to re-read a book on programming patterns. It
was nice the first time, but hard to apply.

Got any suggestions?

And is Object Oriented the latest thing? Has nothing replaced it? Is
it still considered the best thing since whenever?

[Phlip]

On May 11, 11:11 am, Sean Cleary <seanearly...@hotmail.com> wrote:

> Got any suggestions?

- Linux (in VirtualBox on your PC)
- Ruby on Rails
- Test-Driven Development
- Capybara/Selenium

They are really easy to install and use AFTER you understand them and
know how to avoid a long list of Gotchas. From here, find a Rails or
similar users group in your area. Bring your notebook, and they'll set
you up.

> And is Object Oriented the latest thing? Has nothing replaced it? Is
> it still considered the best thing since whenever?

Nothing will replace OO, just as nothing ever replaced the Structural
Programming that OO added virtual methods to.

[BGB]

I mostly still just use C and some C++...

seemed good enough for me, and sites like TIOBE seem to agree:
http://www.tiobe.com/index.php/content/paperinfo/tpci/index.html


I also have my own scripting language, but:
it still has a vaguely C like syntax (more like JS and AS3 though);
it is fairly solidly in procedural/OO territory (it is more like C++ in
that it can easily be used either like C or like an OO language).


so, yeah, probably not that much significantly different.

I am personally not so much into the whole "chasing rainbows" thing
(chasing new languages or features), and so from my vantage point here
in mundane-land, not that much seems to be going on (beyond several
major languages half-assedly trying to bolt on closures).


or such...