Well, for all those who do not know me: my name is arun. But this name is all too common in this world. So well for online purposes I have another name - deostroll. How I got that name? It wasn't assingned to me by someone; rather I had come up with it myself. The story behind it is quite complicated, but this name somehow captures a particular phase I went through my youth. Thats all I want to say about that...
I am currently working in a call center - allsec technologies. The job that I presently do is telemarketing. Not something that would look good for a programmer however, but I AM a programming maniac. The job that I do now does not seem to reflect my real interest. But none the less my interest has not gone down a bit. I enjoy learning about new things in the field of programming and technology. The degree that I have does not show that I am a programmer as well - b.tech civil engineering. So well you should be asking how I got involved with programming?
I was not that academically good with my college studies. I was depressed about my performance and stuff. Some would often criticize me of the discipline I took. But the real reason behind why I had taken civil engineering was only because I wanted to do my college from a reputed institution. So well civil engg was the only other option I had at the time; I mean the only option that was stuck to my mind. Nothing else had visualized!
My first year marks were not good and life was sailing across rough seas. Somewhere after the third semester and in the beginning of the fourth semester my father brought me a computer. So after that life changed...
My first ever language was c++. Even before I got into college I had studied c++. That was in my school - 11 & 12th std. I used to work in turbo c++ 3.0. However in school it was not a very fascinating experience. Things only got fascinating after I had actually got the computer. If I had brought a computer during my school days life would have been different. However I never want to think like that now.
I studied the language in school. I explored the language when I got my own computer. I started playing with it, and of course learned a lot of things. Somewhere during those days I somehow learned that windows was made in c++. Windows from turbo c++! This must be a great language I thought for myself. This was what geared me into venturing into graphics.h and other header files. I learned a lot of things while I explored more and more... I even looked at header files my self to see if I understood something. I never did; even now I wonder what exactly the iostream.h is about - how was it designed and all...
When I got access to the internet I used google to search for things related to turbo c++. I was frusturated. I knew it was an old compiler; but I was expecting atleast something to be there that is copious and meaningful. Nothing. :sad:
Soon I got to know more about windows and how it worked. I got to know about event-oriented programming and object oriented programming. I learnt about OOP, but event oriented programming was not usually dealt in classrooms or even in the syllabus. This ended me with getting more curious. Even now I wonder how to include a mouse in my program. What are the header files I've to include, etc. I heard that if you wanted to know about these things you needed a sound knowledge in assembly language. I was even determined to study it. But I did look thorough some assembly stuff, but saw nothing that links to c/c++ in anyway that was relevant.
So well even now I am wondering how to do things possible in windows in a simple c++ program. However I do not want to sophisticate matters here. Through my efforts I would want another person like me to learn from my footsteps. Therefore I would want to do easy things that demonstrate concepts at the moment.
Access to the internet allowed me to learn about many other things non-c++ like vb, java, etc. I began to appreciate vb because it was cool. Working in vb was fun. And there was always a way you wanted to accomplish something. Learning that was exciting and fun too.
So well I guess it is time to conclude. Here I would want to say that my first love i.e. turbo c++ needs attention. A lot of new versions have come out. A lot of standards have come about. A lot of chanages have been created. But my spirit remains the same. I want to know how to create things. I feel like I am standing over a huge mine wondering how to dig. If you want you can acquaint yourself with the latest standards. But this basic knowledge becomes hidden. When turbo c++ came people had to actullay code for their program to handle mouse events. Now we have new libraries and header files that allow you to reuse code. It does not tell one how to actually program for this capability. You are being abstracted from this knowledge.
This realisation has lead to two things. One is a wiki at codepedia. You can access it by clicking here. The other is the blog out here.
The main aim of the wiki is to simply provide people with material that is related to turbo c++ 3.0. It is a frequently used compiler where I live. It is also aimed at people like me who have used the language and learned to appreciate it, but could not get any online references relating to it.
The blog is just something like my notebook. However I will make sure that people who read it are able to apply what I have learned. This is a blog to promote the use of turbo c++ 3.0 inspite of its apparent obsolescence.