I dumped more than a few old backups over the past couple of weeks, to fascinating results.
Much to my amazement, I kept a fair amount of source code from the past couple of decades, and it was fun (if occasionally embarrassing) to look at the hundreds of personal projects I dabbled in, from little hacks and scripts to entire desktop apps (none of which even run anymore, unless I can bother to set up a VM for them).
The awesome thing was that after hitting a set of densely packed folders with college coursework, I came across a “Sinclair” folder… I have absolutely no idea how I managed to convert some of those assembly files across (I suppose the older bits were migrated by way of CP/M on the +3), but it was then that I decided to try to summarize the whole thing in some fashion.
For your amusement, here’s a more-or-less complete tally of what programming languages I was into over the years:
| Year (est.) | Languages | Platforms |
|---|---|---|
| 2012 | A lot more Python and JavaScript, a little more Java, a little raw C, some Objective-C, some Ruby, a little Lua. | Macs, some Linux boxes and a plethora of ARM devices (Android, iOS, Linux). |
| 2011 | ||
| 2010 | ||
| 2009 | ||
| 2008 | Python (including PyObjC), JavaScript, a lot less Java and Perl, as little PHP as humanly possible. | Macs and assorted ARM devices. A few Linux machines. |
| 2007 | ||
| 2006 | ||
| 2005 | ||
| 2004 | ||
| 2003 | ||
| 2002 | Loads and loads of Perl and PHP, very little JavaScript, some C. | Mostly Macs. |
| 2001 | ||
| 2000 | A bunch of Linux and Windows PCs, some Sun boxes. | |
| 1999 | ||
| 1998 | ||
| 1997 | Java (I had faith). Some C++, some Perl. | |
| 1996 | ||
| 1995 | ||
| 1994 | MPW, more 680×0 stuff, Object Pascal, Objective-C, C++ (mostly Microsoft MFC), a bunch of Lisp, some Prolog, some Perl. | A bunch of 68k Macs, VMS and UNIX gear, my beloved NeXTCube. |
| 1993 | ||
| 1992 | ||
| 1991 | ||
| 1990 | x86 assembly, Turbo Pascal, a little C (there was even a copy of Brief…) | A few PCs, some 68k Macs |
| 1989 | ||
| 1988 | ||
| 1987 | ||
| 1986 | 680×0 assembly, Pascal | QL, an Atari ST |
| 1985 | ||
| 1984 | ||
| 1983 | BASIC, Z80 assembly | Sinclair ZX81, Spectrum 48K (later +3) |
| 1982 | ||
| 1981 |