For most grizzled programmers, the command line was where all the programming action took place. In fact, you’ve got to admire the dedication required to write some several-hundred thousand lines of code using a terminal, but they did it.
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\nCommand line programming is rough-and-tumble, just like Unix or DOS or any text mode-only operating system. That’s the way programming life was during the microcomputer era (starting about 1977) going up through the mid-1990s.<\/p>\n
Now you have to understand that the programmers way back when actually enjoyed using a command prompt; text mode didn’t intimidate those guys. They relished the cryptic commands, most of which they knew by heart.<\/p>\n
In fact, many text mode commands were developed to make programming easier.<\/p>\n
The Integrated Development Environment, or IDE, eventually appeared, which made complex programs easier to manage. I remember using Borland’s IDE with TurboC back in the early 1990s. It was handy, but I continued to use the command line for coding some simple tool.<\/p>\n
IDEs became a necessity with graphical operating systems. For such development, a programmer needed tools that would automate a lot of the routine drudge work with building a windowed program.<\/p>\n
Sure, you can “hand code” a Windows program. I’ve done it. The source code file was about three pages long (assuming some 30 lines per page), and it merely popped-up a window. But with bitmaps, icons, and other graphical elements, using an IDE is preferable.<\/p>\n
My C programming books strived to teach the language by using the command prompt, or these days a terminal window. I did that for two reasons.<\/p>\n
First, it’s easier to code my books’ small, sample programs at the command prompt. An IDE offers complexities you don’t need to code a program that spews out the numbers 1 through 10 in text mode.<\/p>\n
Second, it’s good to know one’s roots. The command prompt is still a viable tool, often quicker than using a mouse and graphical methods to accomplish the same task.<\/p>\n
With my latest C programming book, Beginning Programming with C For Dummies<\/em>, I chose an IDE, Code::Blocks (CB). While it does take longer to use CB to set up my examples, that’s the way the world is heading. Even so, I wrote all the book’s programs at the command prompt. Old habits die hard.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I’m one of those nerds who just can’t give up the command prompt.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6225","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-main"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6225","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6225"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6225\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6293,"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6225\/revisions\/6293"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6225"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6225"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6225"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}