Thanks @christos that was interesting. I had a good laugh, at you using 'clipper'. I used 'clipper' for handling the statistical storage for controliing the servo positioner (I wrote in 'fourth') for a lazer at Kitt-Peak National Observatory, years ago. So that makes two of us from the dbaseII, dbaseIII era. :)

I (still) have to use clipper at work, some of our older systems use it.

I can't remember if I was using it on CP/M, I doubt that I was using on an IBM PC platform, but it may have been on DEC VM system. Too many years ago, I guess I am getting old. I am not even sure if it was supported on VM or maybe we emulated it. Oh well...

My first coding was at University about 35 years ago. No PCs back then, you used punch cards for input and everything came out on paper about a half hour later in a bin periodically filled by the I/O clerk. To go tinker on code you had to walk a couple blocks (or hitch up the buggy) to the I/O room in the building that housed the university mainframe. Fairly simple programs would take weeks to debug.

A few years ago I accidentally inherited a forum (long story) and couldn't help messing with the html. When I got another admin who is a professional programmer he got me started with php and JavaScript. I'm glad I started learning all that stuff in vB3. Even the html/css on vB4 would have scared me off, let alone the more complex php.

EDIT: Does anyone else here have experience with analog computers? I was never very good at it (always overloaded integrators)

Wowww....... If you ever need a library call me. I believe that I had the widest library (3nd party) for Clipper. Dozens of 720kb Floppy disks :) :)

Chris

--------------- Added [DATE]1377581079[/DATE] at [TIME]1377581079[/TIME] ---------------

It was Fourth or Fortan? ... You sent me centuries ago :) :)

Forth. Sorry I misspelled. It was used quite a bit in robotics, and the scientific community. Servo control, hardware control that kind of thing. I loved the language. It unfortunately it is not a practical language for applications.
When I was using clipper we were using 8" floppy's and 14" platters for the hard drives. :)

I enjoyed using clipper it was so much faster that the dbase interpreter, although I cannot remember all the advantages.

Of course all of us old guys used Fortran. It was powerful, but I never enjoyed using it. Unfortunately, any time I worked on some old goverment program it was either Fortran, ADA or Cobal.

How have I learned php?

By making it (php.net)

MATURE my dear ,,, MATURE !!! ... never old .... just like the good wine.... :) :)

Nerbert, I have seen quite a few old non-analytic analog computers. I was fascinated with them. In some point in my studies I had to design a (not-so-simple) analog computer to solve an easy differential equation. I never actually had to build the thing so I have no idea if it really worked. So I cannot say I actually really used one. :)

So far @nerbert and @paul when the prize.

@Paul for still using 'Clipper'
@Nerbert for trying to hack an analog computer, by overflowing the input buffer to the integrator.

I had a professor who insisted that if you design a digital controller for a physical system the only legitimate test would be against an analog simulation of the system -- that you were asking for trouble if you used a digital simulation. I don't remember his reasoning but I was skeptical at the time. I complained that even then, back in the early 80s, analog computers were obsolete and you couldn't get repairs for them but he had in mind a sort of Moore's law for analog computing, pointing out that op amps were available at Radio Shack for pennies and you could always build your own. All of us in the class were supposed to learn to program the things but there weren't even enough patch wires to go around. I think the only student who actually got the analog simulation to work was some quiet Chinese guy. I turned in a digital simulation and I think everyone else just blew it off.

Later in grad school I had access to the things for just tinkering around. Some attempted projects required several linked together but for all that I never actually got anything working just right.

https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/attachmen...1&d=1377645202

Oh the memories ....