Recently, I have had the opportunity to put my programming skills to the test. Utilizing Python 3 for the first time, I ended up building a script that allowed me to pull specific data from tables and place that data into a CSV file. The purpose of the program (script) was to get data that we would have had to request from our agency’s data management department. Instead, I can now bypass that step and get the data I need when I need it. It’s great when you can control your computer to do what you want it to do rather than vice versa.
As I mentioned on my home page, I have had some exposure to various programming languages. The first "programming language" that I recall using was called Logo. On the Apple II computer, you could type in coordinates and the triangle would move to those locations making lines. From there, I touched BASIC on the Apple II as well as Pascal.
My official study on programming computers came with BASIC on the TRS-80 Tandy computers at my school. I do fondly remember learning how to make flowcharts and writing very simple programs. The best part of my computer class was playing Oregon Trail. I actually preferred to play the game on the Apple II. Nonetheless, the game was entertaining at the time.
When my uncle and aunt purchased a computer for my brother and I, I dabbled a little more with BASIC using MS-BASIC. I remember acquiring a book with BASIC code in it for various types of programs, including a Star Wars fighter game. I spent hours typing the code into the interpreter and saving it only to find out that program ran to a point before crashing. I never really did debug the program, but the experience was very educational for me.
QBasic was the next langugage I became familiar with. In QBasic, I learned how to create GoSubs and Functions. I actually found the experience quite entertaining as I could do more than what I had accomplished in BASIC. I think the one thing I liked most, at the time, was that I no longer needed to write in the line numbers. That was a pain in BASIC. However, as I look back, I do have some fondness toward it. I guess those difficult experiences that you overcome have a place in your heart.
Eventually, I made it to C—Microsoft QuickC to be exact. I definitely became much more familiar with functions and how to pass values through variables. Definitions caught my attention with that language. Even more so, was the fact that I could now compile programs I made and have them run by typing the name in the command prompt. Having that ability made me feel like I was improving my programming ability. However, I still had issues understanding arrays and pointers.
By the time I had found my way on the Internet via AOL and a 56k modem, I had come across a few new languages: Visual Basic, Java, and Python. I had seen many "progz" on AOL and had learned that the majority of them had been written in Visual Basic, the next level of the Basic language, from my understanding. It would be later in college where I would dabble in programing in that language as well as in Microsoft Excel, but I was fascinate by the idea of creating "progz".
Yahoo! had online games that had been written in Java. Everytime I would load the game, it would mention that Java was loading. It took forever for the games to load, but when they did, they were actually quite good. Like with Visual Basic, Java was another language I would learn in college.
I had seen posts and heard in chatrooms of Python. It was free to download, easy to use, and could do many things. I installed it on my Windows 98 machine, but never really understood how to use it. Tkinter lacked the luster of Microsoft Visual Basic’s user interface, so I abandoned the program for a time.
Another programming language I played with in college was Cobol, which was quite interesting. I was even surprised to learn that the language was in full use among many companies. I am certain that it will be in use for many years to come.
Z80 Assembly caught my attention during the ROM era online. If you could understand Z80 Assembly, you could hack Gameboy ROMs and create cheat codes to be get whatever you want in whatever game you played, especially when it came to Pokémon. I did my best to learn what I could of the language on my own, and I will say that I was very fascinated with the language because I could eventually disassemble a program into Assembly and get what I want from it. This idea lead me to learn a little about the Assembly used in Intel processors. I had hoped to learn the language in college, but, at the time, Cobol was the only class offered.
Like everyone else at the time, I had begun to look into HTML, CSS, and Javascript. I wanted to create a website that looked as good as some of the sites I visited. It took many attempts and a lot code review before I could code HTML and CSS in Notepad. Javascript didn’t come as easy for me, so like water, I went the path of least resistance. For me, it was fun to see the code of people’s websites. There was always something to learn.
Eventually, I bought space and a domain online. Plus, I learned of XAMPP, so I began to dabble in PHP and SQL. During my early years on the Internet, I had learned about CGI and Perl. I had wanted to learn those and manipulate my website hosted on AOL Hometown. When I learned that you needed your own server or access to a server to use them, I let the idea fade. With XAMPP and my own site, I went over to W3Schools and began learning what I could of the languages. Getting used to seeing all the variables declared early on was something that took practice. Even to this day, I need to slow down when seeing PHP code. SQL was interesting, but I didn’t spend as much time with it because I didn’t have much data to work with. Nonetheless, I did manage to learn how to create and navigate a database in MySQL.
So here I am at work re-familiarizing myself with Python and building a program to get the information I need for my tasks. As I tell people, the hardest part about programming is the logic. Typing it out is much less time consuming and easier if you are good typist. The logic took time and many trials, but eventually, I accomplished what I set out to do. Now, I’m wetting my feet in some of the automation libraries of Python 3. I can’t wait to see what I come up with next.