Micro-, machine-, assembler on up the line. In the early days --- maintained wrote and maintained assemblers, compilers, and operating systems for mainframes in special applications. Last code used in commercial product 1980. Last code for personal use around 1990. Last direction of development of commercial product involving software development 1993. Last use of a compiler for anything meaningful around 1995. Still review machine low level code from time to time to assist with forensic analysis. Now and then get the urge to tweak something, but opening up a system for meaningful code mods these days is no minor challenge. For the most part can find what I need by shopping around for an application package that has the functions I want. I'm perfectly happy to let someone else do the support and modification work.
But it was surely a lot of fun. Some great memories.
Otis Wright
John Francis wrote:
In the mainframe days systems analysis, programing, and coding were all different jobs. Now-a-days I understand they are usually combined. Coding was the grunt work. Yes, the term tends to be used derogatorily these days, unless you are talking about microcoding. Everyone who has written workable machine code (not assember code) raise their hand.
Been there. Done that. Got the T-shirt. Machine code, assembler, and autcode.
Nowadays I don't program in anything lower-level than C.
Machines are so much faster (and bigger), and compilers and libraries are so much better, that apart from a few very specialised OS routines (and some of the library routines themselves) there's no real point.
