User:Neowikian

Programming

I am a software developer (Java, Python, Jython, JavaScript, etc). I am a reformed C/C++ programmer, thanks to the previously mentioned languages.

I taught myself Prolog, CLIPS, Lua, FORTH, LISP, Objective-C, HyperTalk, AppleScript, Automator, Perl, PHP, Tcl/Tk, Tcl/Expect, LaTex, VRML, etc.

The languages I took in school are not so popular anymore: BASIC, FORTRAN, PL/1, Pascal, VAX Macro-11, IBM 370 assembly, etc. Fortunately, I know how to read and wave my fingers in front of me at the same time.

I have done a lot of web development. My favorite standards are: HTML5, CSS3, HTML, AngularJS 1 (waiting to see what Angular 2 is like), JavaScript (I love ES 6!), XML, DTD, XSLT, XQuery, MathML, SVG, RELAX NG (RNG sorta & RNC a lot), Schematron, SPARQL (noob!).

I dislike XML Schema (XSD/XSI) because it forces tedious attention to details taht are irrelevant most of the time, and it still manages to make relevant things hard to express at times. I have had bad experiences with people who write invalid XSI code and software that parses it with broken error detection/handling; bad signs for a technology. Check out RNC and Schematron!

I learned a bit of SWRL, OWL, and RuleML because I really love Protege knowledge IDE which started out as a neat CLIPS tool and then switched to being a semantic web tool. Logic is a pretty cool thing to do with computers. Not everthing is math, graphics, data entry forms, and reports.

I am most excited right now about Python 3—with its shiny new static type-declaration checking capability and all, and JavaScript ES6—which I want to use to write some Firefox addons.

I am dying to write a HTML/CSS/JavaScript sidebar sidekick for Firefox. Then, I can get easy appraisal of what is in web pages I am using, without having to pear at the source and read it all to get an overview/feel for what it is/does. Gotta keep up with "things," as they say.

I have used tons of different versions/brands of SQL. I will not bother to list them all. PostgreSQL is probably my favorite. Of course, like most people, I have used Oracle SQL many, many times at work.

I need to learn Swift 2 someday. I think I have had all the fun one can have with Objective-C without getting paid for it. And nowadays, Swift 2 seems like a lot saner thing to pay for or be paid for, I think.

I boldfaced all my language super crushes, just to be cute.

Computers

I've used and/or programmed everything. Okay, not everything, but a pretty broad spread.
 * HP 2000,HP 3000
 * Honeywell Multics
 * DEC VAX
 * IBM 370
 * Apple II, Compucolor, TRS-80, CP/M
 * Zenith/Heath, IBM PC, MS-DOS, MS-Windows
 * Linux, Unix (Solaris, SparcStation, AIX, Gould, HP/UX)
 * Mac classic, Mac OS X.

I boldfaced my favorites, for what it is worth.

Gaming

Not a huge gamer.

I play a few games on my phone. I like RPGs best, these days. I have played a little WoW. That's how I got interested in Lua. Perhaps WoW is bass ackwards loss leader for Lua. They just make too much money to be a loss leader.

Reading

My favorite entertainment reading genres are science fiction and horror. Fantasy hybrid versions of those are kind of fun too. Check out the late Jack L. Chalker's books sometime; fantastic stuff. I really read very little fiction/entertainment these days, however. I mostly read nonfiction now.

By far, more than anything else, I read computer programming/software books & articles; tons of online programming documentation too—APIs, syntaxes, file formats—all that jazz. I also read the news to keep up with what is going on. Maybe I will combine those things someday.

Television

I used to love television as a little kid, student, and yuppie. I don't really watch it much anymore. I have a few shows I watch in bursts. That is about it.

My favorite genres are same as books (fiction ones).