Full-Time Computer Programmer

Everything that comes into my hands and can be programmed, I start to program it; either a computer, the phone box, the Raspberry Pi, the air conditioning, the Autocad, the MS Excel and MS Word or the light controller for turning on and off the lights.

 What about the language? Whichever is available. I started to program in Fortran IV, by preparing a set of punched cards, bringing them to the UTN FRBB and waiting 15 days for having a result. I programmed in BASIC using a punched tape to be read on a PDP-8. At that time, we also invented languages, LAPE (Lenguaje Algorítmico Para Entendernos), LPI (Languaje Pila Interpretado), written on an HP9810, today all are museum pieces.

In the 70s, "structured programming" was at the top trending. “Go To Statement Considered Harmful” said Prof. Dijkstra in his letter to the editor. Now, we speak about objects, Object Oriented Programming. My teacher in my first computer course, who is now one of my best friends, a mentor for me, invented a language called SOL (Structured Oriented Language), and I took the opportunity to code a pre compiler SOL-BASIC, my final Tesis.

Then I went back to Fortran, which already was Fortran 77, but in the meantime, I had to program a tax system that were 100 COBOL programs, about 10,000 lines of code, a two-years project. The programs in Fortran for ATEC SA contain one hundred thousand lines of code. After that, I returned to BASIC, different BASIC versions: Quick BASIC, HT BASIC, BASIC 250 running on the HP 250 and the migration to the BASIC on the HP3000, Visual Basic, VB3, VB6, VBA in MS Office tools. The BASIC WRQ Reflection. Where were the programs in Pascal and Algol?

Now, I program in Java, C, Python using the Eclipse, NetBeans, DEV C ++ environments. How many Shell Scripts have I coded? Or using JavaScript or HTML 5? Programming in Shell Script has been a common procedure in the last 30 years. It was wonderful to transform the Mainframe Batch files to Unix Shell Script in CAMMESA. Great are the Bourne Shell and the Bash.

Once, I learned to program PLCs, using ladder logic. It was for that moment, but whenever I'm in front of an elevator or waiting for the traffic light, I think how to program it to work better, or how is it programmed now to work in that way.

The program is unique, I have it in my mind. The language is an accessory that allows to communicate the program with the computer.

Now, IoT is opening a new door for programming, opening a big gate, I would say. Lots of connected devices, where each one has a program

Every night I go to sleep thinking about an algorithm to solve a problem and there are countless awakenings where I have the problem solved. Sometime, I was a programmer for two companies. With which company problems fall I asleep?

One day, I had to create overlays in PCL for laser printers. I invented a language called MKFO to make it easier. Still today, I use it when someone asks for Laser overlays. The interpreter for MKFO was originally coded Fortran IV, but I migrated it to a PC Fortran, VB6, VBA on a MS Excel Worksheet. Also, I have a Java version and a C version. Six languages for the same algorithm. It wasn’t an easy task for a 500-lines program. Programming printers using PCL-5 was always interesting for me.

I love programming. I accept the challenge of making new programs to solve new problems.

Live life to programming! (in my beginnings, to computers, now, to anything)!