In this excerpt from Charles Petzold’s writing, he reflects on his journey as a programmer spanning decades and various technologies. He reminisces about early experiences with PL/I on IBM mainframes through working at New York Life Insurance Company to later embracing C# after encountering challenges in PL/IIntended for an audience interested in programming history and personal experiences of developers, Petzold discusses his fascination with the evolution of technology while highlighting moments where he felt like a “real programmer.”
He also shares insights from participating in a project involving solving mathematical puzzles using only C language without any external libraries or complex tools. This exercise brought him back to pure algorithmic coding and emphasized the importance of thoughtful problem-solving before diving into writing code. Petzold concludes by mentioning his online publication “Et cetera” containing similar musings alongside links leading back to his personal website and homepage.
Overall, this piece showcases how technology advancements have shaped the programming landscape while reminding readers of its roots in simpler times when it was primarily about code and problem-solving rather than sophisticated interfaces or extensive libraries.
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