The first computer class that I took was Basic Computer Programming in high school. We worked on TRS-80’s (Tandy from Radio Shack). I can remember writing short programs that would do some redundant operation. I was very impressed, but I didn’t see that computers would encompass all that they do today. It is one of my biggest regrets that I didn’t get a degree in programming (along with my math degree) or at least try. I found programming to be so logical. Some memories include “swap routines” and “dimensioning arrays” and trying to figure out what was happening with the data that was being input to a 4 dimensional array (I recall a friend telling me to envision a row of Rubik's cubes with drawers in each dimension of each cube, it worked!). I still find myself writing programs to calculate data for tasks that I perform often.
I want to take Visual Basic and Java classes to be able to program on 64 bit computers like I used to on older computers. I have put together some Excel spreadsheets that will generate some problems and results that I use to test students understanding of concepts, for instance, 2 by 2, 3 by 3 matrices, lines, parabolas and their solutions/characteristics, etc. I have also written some spreadsheets that calculate information for golf leagues and outings. The limitation in these spreadsheets is that they are “static”. I wish to have some programs that are “dynamic”, in other words, the programs will ask the user for occasional input and process his/her answers leading him/her to some subroutines (applets?) that will further the results that he/she is looking for. I have tried to learn some Visual Basic on my own. I experimented with macros, but only slightly. The problem that I encountered was the computer that I would run the macro on sooner or later would give some warning as to the possibility that my macro was a “virus” and would ask for the administers password or would not run the macro altogether.
Wow! TRS-80s?!?! I had totally forgotten about those. I coded a bit of HTML in the late 90's a also kinda liked the logic of it. It was good for me to learn I thought because it was very logical. It taught me to pay attention to the details.
ReplyDeleteI've often thought it would be fun to take a programming language. I just wish I could find the time.
I'm very impressed with your knowledge in computer programming. I wish I could comment more on the concepts you were writing about here but, it sort of sounds like a foreign language to me. But nonetheless interesting! My husband is a computer programmer and I get lost in many of his work conversations too. Perhaps he should be the one commenting on your blog! :)
ReplyDelete" I found programming to be so logical."
ReplyDeleteIt is. And if you take some courses in Java, C, VB, etc. your ability to think logically is critical. It definitely sounds like you have the foundation for understanding computer programming and operations.