At 05:55 PM 10/4/2008, Alan P. Biddle wrote:
We have a lot of folks here who do programming at a variety of levels. After a 20+ year hiatus, I am looking to get back into doing a bit of programming. The intent is not to get into it at a professional level, but to be able to rip off quick and dirty small programs. Data acquisition, taking the output of a program and merge and reformat it for specific purposes, which of course I can do in some cases with Excel, are a couple of things which come to mind. It will need the ability to interact with external hardware. However, the primary purpose is as a brain stretcher for someone who once thought F*RTR*N was a real language.
I am tempted to say that I am looking for the current generation BASIC, but I am want something a bit beyond that, though of course the ability to print "Hello World" with less than 10 lines of code is a plus. ;) And it needs to be something I can get into using a free or low cost compiler. I am not much interested in spending a few hundred dollars.
People have recommended Python, older versions of Delphi, early version of C, etc, as what I should do. Well, maybe. So if anyone has a good recommendation, please contact me OFF LIST. And did I say, it needs to be cheap?!
Hi Alan,
If you don't mind a little learning curve, C++ will give you the most control and once you learn it is pretty easy to use. You can download Visual Studio Express C++ for free from the Microsoft web site. If you decide to go this way, buy "Programming Windows" by Charles Petzold. This has been the PC programming "Bible" since Windows 3.1. The current version is the 5th edition.
C++ is not that complicated but Windows is a little nasty to get used to. DOS is much easier (and DOS programs will still run under Vista) but you have to look around for something that will compile a DOS program. I used the now ancient Microsoft C++ V7 for InstantTune in 1994. Perhaps you could find it on eBay? I still use it under WinXP when I get the occasional change request (believe it or not I still get them!)
Another alternative if you are only doing simple things is the MixSoftware C compiler which is still available and only costs $20. I actually used this for professional projects many years ago and the manual is probably the best C run-time library manual ever written. I still use it even on current projects as a reference.
I hope I see you at the Symposium this year! If you have any questions, please fell free to email.
73, Tony AA2TX