QBASIC and other languages.

[Agamemnus]

WHEN WILL TOONSKI'S WEBSITE UPDATE?!?!?

[Moneo]

I agree with Nathan --- QB for fun, C for professional.

I also agree with AGA regarding the C compiler. Yes, here the human to some degree is serving the compiler. We must remember that at the time, compiler writers were enamored with the concept of one-pass compilation, 'cause the machines were slow in those days. So to do this they made the programmer do extra work putting delimeters on everything. Nowadays with fast machines we don't need all that, but we're stuck with the definition of the C language and its compiler as it was.
*****

[Agamemnus]

possibly.

[Mac]

Why? Because it was written with the machine limitations in mind and is thus cryptic.

Now we can afford the luxury of verbose, self-documenting languages which are destined to rule. That's why macros in EXCEL and Microsoft Word are generated in QBasic format. And why VB is popular.

But since all programming in the future will be done in Korea, India and other places where people will work for peanuts, maybe the C language will become more universal, since it doesn't make any sense anywhere and is thus acceptable to all.

Mac

[na_th_an]

[...] in Korea, India and other places where people will work for peanuts

A little harsh, isn't it? There is people in this forum from those places. And they don't work for peanuts.

Not everyone is from the US. If you think so, at least watch what you write.

[Antoni Gual]

QBasic? , C?, VBasic? Always the same....
You shoud be more open-minded!
http://members.tripod.com/rkusnery/weird.html

Discover the charms of BrainF*ck! :rotfl:

[Mac]

True, I goofed and forgot there are other countries on the Internet. I was speaking to US Residents (whether native or from Korea, India, or Spain). I was lamenting the fact that the old days, where we programmers could command a big salary are over. The poor countries of the world can, via the technology of Internet and other communication, take over many tasks previously the privilige of residents of the US and, because $100 a month is a lot of money in their country, they obviously can afford to work for less. Thus corporations are no longer forced to pay $90,000 a year for a U.S. resident programmer.

I see you are in Spain - a country that also exports cheap labor. But not for long. You will soon find all Europeans are no different from US Residents - they are highly overpaid by world standards. Soon all of your jobs, other than garbage collection, will be exported to China or Africa or India via the Internet. Better log off and learn how to drive a garbage truck!

Mac

[oracle]

You have a point. Indians in particular learn computer skills and then sell them for very little. I don't think, nath, that it is a rude thing to say.

[na_th_an]

It is the word "peanuts", man. Monkeys eat peanuts.

[Mac]

I see you took offense at the term "peanuts".

Let me just say that in American English, the phrase "to work for peanuts" is standard and non-derogatory and brings up no vision of monkeys, etc. If anything, it brings up a vision of elephants working hard to move fallen trees for which they will be rewarded with peanuts. The phrase simply means "to work for little pay".

I had never thought about it before, and now I am curious where the phrase came from. Perhaps from our civil war era where peanuts (goober peas) were the only food available for the Southern army near the end.

Oh, well, I've caused us to drift too far from the subject, QBasic. Sorry.

Mac