Dead end tools and technologies you wished you hadn't bothered with

[darrenb]

VAX/VMS

[Doggy Styles]

Ada , very much so, in most of RR aero jet engines. EFA, Tornado, Chinook, Lynx, as well.

Haven't seen Coral for years.

Ah, Gibbon, I seem to recall you worked for Marconi at some point on avionics. Is that right?

[Gibbon]

Ah, Gibbon, I seem to recall you worked for Marconi at some point on avionics. Is that right?

Worked along side them on the F3 Radar when I was in the mob.

Them were the days, typical software development lifecycle would be:

Aircrew - Gibbon old chap, would you mind awfully having a go at making the Radar do "SECRET THINGS"?

Gibbon - See what I can do sir, could I have your empty fag packet to do my detailed design on?

Some time later.

Gibbon - Right sir, got a hack together, do you fancy having a look?

Aircrew - Jolly hockeysticks, I'll book the combat sim and we'll shake it down.

And so off to the sim to shoot a few MIGs down before
tea and buns.

[Sysman]

I once used the MS Agent API to incorporate the paperclip and his friends into an application. I hate to think how many now defunct Microsoft APIs I've had to learn and use over the years.

Wre you ressponsible for this?

[Sysman]

And all that stuff I know about thermionic valves and amplifiers.

Wasted.

Oh.

They're coming back at ridiculously inflated prices.

.

Ok.

Nothing to see here, move along.

Yep. Just heard a plug on Radio 6 for those. Some chap put an iPod connector into his old valve jobby so that his missus can enjoy her MP3 collection with proper warm valve sound.

[SupremeSpod]

A skill I wish I'd never learned?

Arguing with AtW.

[Sysman]

Are Ada and Coral still about? We used them for military software back in the 1980s.

I was still using Ada less than 10 years ago. Not for military purposes though.

[NickFitz]

Now I think about it, I haven't had much call for my 68000 assembly language skills recently

However I always liked the 68000 so I'm glad I bothered with it

[Sysman]

VAX/VMS

That kept me going for a good few years in the eighties and was handy when the recession hit in the 90s.

[Sysman]

Gibbon - See what I can do sir, could I have your empty fag packet to do my detailed design on?

Them were the days!