Wait, What

[afuna]

Spent the afternoon in the car with my mom running various errands and we got to talking. It turns out that mom was a systems programmer way back in the day of mainframes, and knows COBOL and assembly. And dad taught himself C in order to build a rudimentary inventory system (on a microcomputer? is that the thing?) -- this was for their first company, so late 80s/very early 90s.

I am floored. I was vaguely aware that she'd had a job involving computers and banks, but I did not realize the extent. Why did they not tell me this earlier? D:

(Note: Dad never taught me C; mom never taught me assembly. I wonder what would have happened if they had, though? I suspect murder and mayhem!)

Anyway, I found myself promising to teach her how to master excel -- or at least work it enough to run totals for her job. I suspect murder and mayhem! Whoo!

Comments

[afuna]

*hands on hips, and sticks her tongue out at you* Hey, at least I didn't write that...!

C... I don't really remember it that well. I thnik I may have preferred C++, except for the whole dynamic lookup/multiple inheritance thing, which I haven't dug into in enough detail to see how it actually works.

I have (sadly?) not tried assembly! I've tried an assembly-ish language, for an ant behavior simulation, but nothing actually low-level enough to actually be poking at the CPU directly. *eyes thoughtfully*

[pauamma]

Assembly can be fun, if you don't need to fight the CPU and the syntax to do what you need. :-) (Tempting, me? Nah. What gave you that idea?)

[afuna]

*chin in hands*

So, how often do you manage to get to a point where you're not fighting the CPU or the syntax to do what you need? :-)

(*eyes you warily*)

[pauamma]

In assembly? Hmm, I haven't done any assembly programming in over 10 years, but I think I got to that point on an Intel 8051-based project.

[afuna]

Hummm. *notes for reference* Not that I know how/where to get started on a project, but ...

[pauamma]

Embedded programming is fun. :-) (Disclaimer: I would probably need to relearn a lot before I get back to that point.)

[afuna]

Mmm, and I would need to start from scratch. I guess we'll get there somehow :-)

[pauamma]

Indeed.