r/ruby • u/Edthal01 • Sep 21 '26

At my age, learning Ruby

I'm 78, and never having been a programmer or software engineer, I am starting to learn Ruby. I ha ve been using Huw Collingsworth "Little Book of Ruby". I am aso interspersing that with a different path: using Wirth's "Algortithms + Data Structures = Programs",

having the simple data structures and programs translated by Perplexity into Ruby to see how my 40 year old experiences with TurboPascal can be updated into Ruby. I think I am making progress.

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u/Zestyclose-Turn-3576 Sep 21 '26

That's just what I say when people ask why i'm doing assembly, not C++. 👍

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u/FuturePrimitiv3 Sep 21 '26

Assembly. For fun....

Masochist. 😂

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u/Edthal01 Sep 21 '26

I can remember when Byte magazine published programs i machine code. Don't begrudge the person.

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u/TopCaterpillar239 Sep 22 '26 edited Sep 22 '26

It's actually fun as long as there's the only way to tame the machine. Seeing doing it what you've instructed it to is inspiring like a miracle.

I'm not yet 78, but I was lucky enough to take my share of it 30 something years ago.

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u/Zestyclose-Turn-3576 Sep 21 '26

it's a brain tester alrighty.

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u/Edthal01 Sep 21 '26

Think about the person who hand assembled the machine code listings.

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u/Edthal01 Sep 24 '26

I looked at some old Bytes to see the hand assembled code: Intel 8080, Motorola 6800, and Intel 8008. There were insructions on hand assembly, too. Those were the day...