My first contacts with Javascript date back to a distant era, when Netscape was the most popular browser on the Internet! I used a Sun server and studied a product called Netscape One, which came with a server-side scripting technology called LiveScript. It was also available in the browser, but it didn’t do much back then. The hot technologies were CGI and SSI. I was also interested in the novelty of the moment, PHP 3! If my memory doesn’t fail me, I’m talking about the period from 95 to 98.

My first contacts with Javascript date back to a distant era, when Netscape was the most popular browser on the Internet! I used a Sun server and studied a product called Netscape One, which came with a server-side scripting technology called LiveScript. It was also available in the browser, but it didn’t do much back then. The hot technologies were CGI and SSI. I was also interested in the novelty of the moment, PHP 3! If my memory doesn’t fail me, I’m talking about the period from 95 to 98.

When starting to write this post, I remember that July was a really busy month, without new posts on JungleCoders. But it was a month where I returned to reading about the issues of today about multiprocessing. A few years ago, there were fewer processors than users :-) It was the time of large computers or mainframes.

With the arrival of the personal processor, began the era of one-to-one, but they were small machines, with simple operating systems. Although there was a processor per user, there was no system operating system, much less resources on hardware to support task switching. Of course, for home computers, as super-micros and complete operating systems such as Unix already existed.

When starting to write this post, I remember that July was a really busy month, without new posts on JungleCoders. But it was a month where I returned to reading about the issues of today about multiprocessing. A few years ago, there were fewer processors than users :-) It was the time of large computers or mainframes.

With the arrival of the personal processor, began the era of one-to-one, but they were small machines, with simple operating systems. Although there was a processor per user, there was no system operating system, much less resources on hardware to support task switching. Of course, for home computers, as super-micros and complete operating systems such as Unix already existed.

Today, for the second time this week, I read a text that caught my attention about the hypothesis of Sapir-Whorf, that is, the way language can influence behavior and the way people think. I made a parallel between programming languages and keyboards.

Reading about Ruby, I noticed the numerous symbols and frequency with which they are used in the language. For a poor guy like me, who uses a Belgian keyboard at work and a French keyboard at home… symbols matter a lot. The creator of the Ruby language, Yukihiro Matsumoto, probably used a Japanese keyboard. Okay, it’s similar to the QWERTY Western keyboard… but I’ll just register my thoughts on symbols and languages. I remember reading earlier that the @ was chosen as the symbol for email and how some symbols were chosen in FORTRAN due to the limited keyboards of the time (1956-1957) and later used by other languages. A page I found, which illustrates the hardness of those times, can be seen here.

Today, for the second time this week, I read a text that caught my attention about the hypothesis of Sapir-Whorf, that is, the way language can influence behavior and the way people think. I made a parallel between programming languages and keyboards.

Reading about Ruby, I noticed the numerous symbols and frequency with which they are used in the language. For a poor guy like me, who uses a Belgian keyboard at work and a French keyboard at home… symbols matter a lot. The creator of the Ruby language, Yukihiro Matsumoto, probably used a Japanese keyboard. Okay, it’s similar to the QWERTY Western keyboard… but I’ll just register my thoughts on symbols and languages. I remember reading earlier that the @ was chosen as the symbol for email and how some symbols were chosen in FORTRAN due to the limited keyboards of the time (1956-1957) and later used by other languages. A page I found, which illustrates the hardness of those times, can be seen here.

In Python Your Life, I said I didn’t like Java. And I really didn’t. I first met Java at the Internet World 1996 in Rio de Janeiro :-). My last visit to that wonderful city. Single, with some money in my pocket… ah… Copacabana and the small bars of Rio… putz, I remembered that even back then I left my watch at home, afraid of robberies. But Rio is beautiful.

Well, Sun presented Java and mainly the differences between Java and JavaScript. I had a small provider in Manaus and we used a Sun server. I suffered to write the programs for the provider in C++, I remember spending two weeks looking for the binary files of GCC for microSparc… long live Google (back then the best was AltaVista). Java was free and the compiler from Sun cost around $3,000.00 (without manuals…), I fell in love with Applets and for a good time Java was just Applets.

In Python Your Life, I said I didn’t like Java. And I really didn’t. I first met Java at the Internet World 1996 in Rio de Janeiro :-). My last visit to that wonderful city. Single, with some money in my pocket… ah… Copacabana and the small bars of Rio… putz, I remembered that even back then I left my watch at home, afraid of robberies. But Rio is beautiful.

Well, Sun presented Java and mainly the differences between Java and JavaScript. I had a small provider in Manaus and we used a Sun server. I suffered to write the programs for the provider in C++, I remember spending two weeks looking for the binary files of GCC for microSparc… long live Google (back then the best was AltaVista). Java was free and the compiler from Sun cost around $3,000.00 (without manuals…), I fell in love with Applets and for a good time Java was just Applets.

Technology needs reason or motivation to be used? I say, technologies are like flags? Or like a soccer team?

I explain. Software flags are how I see questions about technologies being defended like the heart of a soccer team. Alias, I think we choose a soccer team for various reasons: your father cheered for it, you liked the color, it won the championship when you were a child…

I cheer for Grêmio, world champion in 1983. I don’t remember soccer games before the final match in Japan. But I’ve never been a fan of soccer… only remember it during the World Cup.

Technology needs reason or motivation to be used? I say, technologies are like flags? Or like a soccer team?

I explain. Software flags are how I see questions about technologies being defended like the heart of a soccer team. Alias, I think we choose a soccer team for various reasons: your father cheered for it, you liked the color, it won the championship when you were a child…

I cheer for Grêmio, world champion in 1983. I don’t remember soccer games before the final match in Japan. But I’ve never been a fan of soccer… only remember it during the World Cup.