Since I came in contact with it, in the 80s, I have always been a fan of Unix systems. Strangely, it is by learning DOS that lead me to Unix. It was a new world, for me, after being working on Digital’s RSTS/E for a few years. I soon find out that DOS was a
I remember being asked how many words per minute I could type, in a programmer/analyst job interview. I was greatly surprised by the question. Are you hiring a programmer or an office assistant? It turns out that this ‘house’ never did really needed programmers. They were hiring people to go on customers’ sites and ‘type’
I was never a fan of SAP. I think that the SAP popular wave was based on false assumptions, like “One can never go wrong by choosing IBM”, yeah right…, tell that to the Canadian Phoenix payroll system… (more on that in a future article). I was a reseller/consultant of SBT ERP systems for many
I like OpenStreetMap. I think theirs maps are prettier. The response time is quick and the details are amazing. They do not have satellite view and “Street View” but for real mapping usage they are great. They have the best rendering of rivers in my view (with the Transport Map). There is also a OpenSeaMap
I will generally use exiting code to complete a task. I am able to create new code but I am also very good at understanding existing code. With the years, I find that using existing code is very often the best economical (read least effort) way to go. I have also used whole systems of
Interesting article about the birth of vim and “line” editors. I am a vim fan. Besides punch cards in my early programming, I used TECO which was very cryptic but I was able to adapt quickly to ed, ex, vi and finally vim. Some people prefer emacs but it did not pass my first test