{"id":3744,"date":"2023-09-14T22:32:07","date_gmt":"2023-09-14T21:32:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/priscimon.com\/blog\/?p=3744"},"modified":"2024-12-09T21:36:48","modified_gmt":"2024-12-09T20:36:48","slug":"back-to-basic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/priscimon.com\/blog\/2023\/09\/14\/back-to-basic\/","title":{"rendered":"Back to BASIC"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I fancied doing some BASIC programming yesterday and wrote a prime sieve in PC-BASIC. It can list primes up to about 10,000 at a decent speed but struggles with larger numbers because of memory and data type limitations in BASIC. Here is a screenshot showing the program and its output.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\"Screenshot<\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Besides BASIC, other old computer tech has occupied my time lately. I run a VM with Red Hat Linux 4.2, which I first used in 1997, and code in C and C++ inside the VM<\/em>. I also switched from the feature-rich GNOME desktop environment to the rudimentary Fvwm window manager.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\"Screenshot<\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

My explanation for this trend is that I am rediscovering computers as a hobby, now that my new job does not require me to learn about them as an occupational necessity. I can enjoy using old operating systems and programming languages that I could not explore to sufficient depth as I speed-learnt to my present level. Take programming for example, I barely spent time coding in BASIC once I was comfortable with it and instead quickly moved on to Pascal, Clipper[1]<\/sup>, Visual Basic, Java, and so on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I suppose I am in a similar situation with my photography. From lusting for the latest digital cameras, I now take more pleasure from the slow and intentional motions involved in operating old film cameras.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either it is that, or it is simply nostalgia showing my age.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[1] Clipper is the first language that I used for serious programming. I did my project for GCE O-Level Computer Studies with Clipper.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I fancied doing some BASIC programming yesterday and wrote a prime sieve in PC-BASIC. It can list primes up to about 10,000 at a decent speed but struggles with larger numbers because of memory and data type limitations in BASIC. Here is a screenshot showing the program and its output. Besides BASIC, other old computer […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3744","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1j9q5-Yo","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/priscimon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3744","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/priscimon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/priscimon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/priscimon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/priscimon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3744"}],"version-history":[{"count":25,"href":"https:\/\/priscimon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3744\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4427,"href":"https:\/\/priscimon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3744\/revisions\/4427"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/priscimon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3744"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/priscimon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3744"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/priscimon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3744"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}