Programming for fun!

[COMECON]

Hi!
I recently started "programming for fun". I still use my preferred languages for "seriously programming" (for example, I use PHP for an IRC-wikimedia bot), but I like trying new... or old, things. I found a book of my mum, I think it was wrote on 1992, and I saw a lot of programming languages (probabily obsolete) there. I knew some of them, like Pascal or ADA, but I never touched them so... I installed freepascal and GNAT, and I just can tell it's a great entretinement while I'm bored.
Do you "program for fun"? What languages do you experiment with?

[MG&TL]

Yeah...python, ruby, (don't talk to me about PHP...that's not fun), assembly, C, C++ (the stuff that compiles still amazes me).

I tend to experiment with new libraries or techniques rather than languages. :)

[COMECON]

Yeah...python, ruby, (don't talk to me about PHP...that's not fun), assembly, C, C++ (the stuff that compiles still amazes me).

I tend to experiment with new libraries or techniques rather than languages. :)

I also like compiled languages, in my opinion it doesn't have to be a disvantage... I just played a bit with C++, but I learnt some C when I had to patch an irc daemon (ugly memories).

[Erik1984]

Yes I do! Unfortunately I find it very hard to actually finish projects. Have been programming 'for fun' for > 10 years now. Started with QBASIC and later discovered FreeBASIC (also for Linux) which is largely backwards compatible with QBASIC. Through my studies I used Java and C++ and started using Java for fun too. Ubuntu made me discover Python and that's my preferred language now for my hobby projects.

[MG&TL]

I also like compiled languages, in my opinion it doesn't have to be a disvantage... I just played a bit with C++, but I learnt some C when I had to patch an irc daemon (ugly memories).

Ooh...you nearly got me angry there..."compiled doesn't have to be a disadvantage"...;)

C doesn't have to be ugly, but regrettably it is often. Probably the vast amount of shortcuts people can and do take.

[COMECON]

Ooh...you nearly got me angry there..."compiled doesn't have to be a disadvantage"...;)

C doesn't have to be ugly, but regrettably it is often. Probably the vast amount of shortcuts people can and do take.

I didn't mean the programming language itself, I mean the compilation process versus the interpreted languages... It may be less friendly or "quick", but once you have compiled the program it runs faster than interpreted. Perhaps the Java-like virtual machines are between interpreted and compiled... But Java isn't exactly my preferred language, I like C :P

[alexfish]

Bacon without eggs for breakfast

[lisati]

(don't talk to me about PHP...that's not fun),
I'll only mention in passing that policy scripts for Postfix (http://www.postfix.org/SMTPD_POLICY_README.html) using PHP is doable, but somewhat less than ideal.

I started with Fortran on portapunch cards circa 1977, and moved to BASIC on a Wang 2200 (http://www.wang2200.org/) the following year. Over the years, I've also looked at COBOL, PL/1, Pascal, assembler on an IBM mainfraime, a little bit of assembler and C on MS-DOS.

[mythic97]

I mess around with Ruby and have you heard of D its like c++ + Ruby + java and some others as well
Which seems like its just for fun but could be useful

[vidwarren]

I do! I wrote a script in JavaScript and PHP for my website that will check whether a piece of Siteswap (juggling notation) is 'valid' i.e. juggle-able. It will also provide some modifications including the ability to breed any two juggling tricks of the same length to make a new one.

It will then provide you with a link to a 'JugglingLab' animation, an open-source Java based animator (not my work).

I've used it to write tons of new tricks, and have even learned to juggle some of them.

Writing this was absolutely the best way to learn more about JavaScript and Siteswap!

I've written lots of other stuff, and it has been really fun, but it's always for my business too rather than just leisure.

EDIT: Oh yeah, apart from Supercollider! It's a programming language for music (with a C based syntax, it can run from a plug-in in Gedit). There's a whole 'Livecoding' world that perform on stage by writing out lines of code from scratch.

Supercollider lets you create and modify waves, call MIDI and arrange it all into music. I'm pretty new to it but I did create a 12-bar-blues script that improvises a blues progression. It's amazing being able to harness the power of coding. I just hit 'play' and it's never the same tune twice.

If you've got a background in coding and music theory, it is very quick to pick up Supercollider.

[WinterMadness]

ever since I started university for computer science, I really dont program for fun anymore

[Majorix]

ever since I started university for computer science, I really dont program for fun anymore

Agreed. I am too fed up with programming for the homeworks that I hardly have the time and the motivation to sit down and develop for fun. All the fun was when I was coding on my own, self-taught.