andrewducker (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
andrewducker) wrote2003-06-10 11:29 am
andrewducker) wrote2003-06-10 11:29 am
Work
In answer to Julia:
I work as a systems developer for Standard Life. This means I get to program computers all day, or rather at the moment it means I get to surf the web while my mentor and my analyst change the specification I was working from about a foot to my left.
I work mostly in COBOL, a programming language that was first invented in the 60s, although I'm largely working with a version that dates from the 90s, which isn't quite so bad. At some point I hope to manouver myself into either the VB or Java teams (both more modern languages), and I've been assured that this won't be too hard once I've got some experience.
I currently spend most of my time looking at an entirely textual screen that looks something like this:
which is pretty sucky, but we've been assured that more modern tools are on their way and we should be working in something that uses, *gasp*, windows by the end of 2012.
I actually enjoy programming, so I'm putting up with the basicness of my current work with the intention that it will turn into something better in a bit.
I work as a systems developer for Standard Life. This means I get to program computers all day, or rather at the moment it means I get to surf the web while my mentor and my analyst change the specification I was working from about a foot to my left.
I work mostly in COBOL, a programming language that was first invented in the 60s, although I'm largely working with a version that dates from the 90s, which isn't quite so bad. At some point I hope to manouver myself into either the VB or Java teams (both more modern languages), and I've been assured that this won't be too hard once I've got some experience.
I currently spend most of my time looking at an entirely textual screen that looks something like this:
which is pretty sucky, but we've been assured that more modern tools are on their way and we should be working in something that uses, *gasp*, windows by the end of 2012.
I actually enjoy programming, so I'm putting up with the basicness of my current work with the intention that it will turn into something better in a bit.
no subject
VB isn't hard (but is too easy for non-experts to do 'wrongly' - i.e. slow and crap). I can read and make sense of Java code just fine (even though I haven't done any beyond 'hello world' I was once offered a job in it, so it can't be hard).
If you are a programmer with decent grasp of concepts then it takes about 3 weeks to get useful with a new language (to be truly expert depends these days on size of the standard libraries/object models/framework).
The code is never the hard bit, as you well know. The people are the hard bit.
no subject
But it's much nicer working with a nice IDE and a language that can manage function calls (and has local variables would be nice too).
Oh, and the people here are great.