No more, thanks

It was 41 years ago this month that I wrote my first program. It was in Fortran IV, as I started my undergraduate course in programming.  About a year later, I got my first programming job, using Fortran IV.

Then, I realized that if I were to ever work someplace else, I needed to learn Cobol, the language of choice at that time for implementing business systems. So, I took a class in Cobol.  I used Cobol in my next job extensively.

At that time, the experts were predicting that a new language called PL/I would replace both Fortran and Cobol.  A large university nearby switched the undergraduate curriculum to PL/I. So, I bought a book about PL/I and studied it, though it fell into disuse almost immediately, and I never used it in a job environment.

I also took a class in assembler, which was required for a degree that I started but did not complete until many years later.  It was IBM 360 assembler, which was widely used at the time.  Now, the 360 is gone, and the assembler with it.

About this time, the PC revolution was underway.  Most PCs at that time came with Basic compilers (the old, original Basic).  To write for PCs required mastery of Basic.  So, I learned Basic for my night job writing for PCs.  After that project was over, I never used the old Basic again.

I got a new day job, which started using Cobol.  Then, we obtained a system from a third party that was written in Pascal, so I learned Pascal.  Pascal was a very good language, but had a short run.  Now, no one uses Pascal, and younger people have never heard of it.  In our shop, and most others, Cobol fell by the wayside, and is now never used for new systems in most places.

My job was in a Hewlett-Packard shop.  That company had developed an excellent language called Transact.  I learned Transact and used it for years.  But, it fell by the wayside, also.

I went back to graduate school and was required to use the language C.  The problem with C was that too many people tried to use it for purposes for which it was not designed.  C is now used less and less. 

At my first full time teaching position, I was assigned the beginning programming course.  I started using Fortran 90 (similar to Fortran IV, but with modern block structures) because the syntax is so simple.  But the chair didn't like my choice, and I was told to switch to Java,  So I learned Java. 

I also taught computer organization, and the book used MIPS assembler.  So, I learned MIPS assembler. 

When I got my current teaching job, I was required to learn two more programming languages, Alice and Visual Basic (VB).  This last language only bears a very slight resemblance to old Basic, so I count it as a new language, especially since at this school, anyway, it requires the mastery of a development environment, Visual Studio, which is more complicated than VB.

So, let's count the languages.  Fortran IV, Cobol, PL/I, 360 assembler, Basic, Pascal, Transact, C, Fortran 90, Java, MIPS assembler, Alice, and VB.  That's 13 languages.  Currently, I only use the last 3.  Java is still around, but I don't currently teach it.  Most of the other languages are dead or dying, and I will probably never even see them again, never mind use them. 

Yesterday I was attending a training/orientation session to prepare this school to become a "hub" for high school robotics contests.  The robot controllers are programmed by a language called EasyC.  For some reason, one of the participants wanted me to become the EasyC expert here.  I found myself saying "no."  Fortunately, another faculty member present was eager and delighted to become the EasyC expert, and I was eager for her (and not me) to be "delighted."  Problem solved. 

I am basically sick to death of spending hours and hours of work on obtaining a skilll that becomes almost immediately useless.  I started thinking about the many languages I have learned, some good, some bad, but most now useless to me.  An experienced person can learn the essentials of a language quickly, but it takes years of use to really understand all the quirks and tricks, and how to really use it well.  I'm tired of it getting really good at a language, then being forced to abandon it.  I have taken the attitude that I will only learn a new language if I really, really must.  EasyC did not qualify, I don't care how "easy" it is.  You may notice that C++ is not on my list, and that's why.  Only if I must.  Time to cut my losses.