Programming Printers

thwr

@scottalanmiller said in Programming Printers:

@thwr said in Programming Printers:

No, seriously, from what I understood he's talking about configuring things, maybe creating some macros to switch paper feeds or printing a form template stored on the printer (Lexmark and many other "big" printers can do this).

Yup, I have a good friend who is a programmer (like a 10X big time programmer that works for places like Dell and major consulting firms and names his own price) and his father in law thought his job was a joke, even though he earned way more than him and got to work from home or anywhere that he wanted and was a third his age and never had to go to college, yada yada) because the father in law was a video game programmer himself.

Well, actually he meant that he installed a video game once. Like Curtis, he thought that "installing software", you know like popping in the floppy and double clicking on the install icon, was what programming meant. Programming is just too complex of a subject for many people. Once they can't grasp what software does, they tend to start imagining that programming is something that they have seen or could understand and weird concepts start to arise. Like changing the time on your analogue watch becomes programming. Write a poem is programming the paper. Putting soap in the dishwasher is programming the dishwasher. Driving a car is real time programming. Writing your diary in bed is embedded programming.

Oh I think @fuznutz04 made a pretty good statement about what programming is (not)

thwr

@scottalanmiller said in Programming Printers:

@thwr said in Programming Printers:

No, seriously, from what I understood he's talking about configuring things, maybe creating some macros to switch paper feeds or printing a form template stored on the printer (Lexmark and many other "big" printers can do this).

Yup, I have a good friend who is a programmer (like a 10X big time programmer that works for places like Dell and major consulting firms and names his own price) and his father in law thought his job was a joke, even though he earned way more than him and got to work from home or anywhere that he wanted and was a third his age and never had to go to college, yada yada) because the father in law was a video game programmer himself.

Well, actually he meant that he installed a video game once. Like Curtis, he thought that "installing software", you know like popping in the floppy and double clicking on the install icon, was what programming meant. Programming is just too complex of a subject for many people. Once they can't grasp what software does, they tend to start imagining that programming is something that they have seen or could understand and weird concepts start to arise. Like changing the time on your analogue watch becomes programming. Write a poem is programming the paper. Putting soap in the dishwasher is programming the dishwasher. Driving a car is real time programming. Writing your diary in bed is embedded programming.

A bit offtopic: I just had to think about my old mentor. He was like Yoda, like 200 years old, always smiling, barely speaking German at all (he was from Poland). He once said: "Wait 15-20 years, you will see that a lot of developers will actually configure things instead of doing real development." - this was in the context of the massive amount of upcoming frameworks. And he was right: I just had a meeting about a project where a partner used like 10 different frameworks (not little APIs but full blown frameworks) to run a little embedded webserver - they failed big time, the result was unstable like nothing else I could imagine.

Anyway, long story short: IT is big, there's a lot of misconception and wrong understanding of things.

Romo

@fuznutz04 said in Programming Printers:

Actual video of me programming my coffee pot to brew coffee...

Coffee Programming

Need a written guide, can't really follow along with just the video when "programming" is so complex.

thwr

@Romo said in Programming Printers:

@fuznutz04 said in Programming Printers:

Actual video of me programming my coffee pot to brew coffee...

Coffee Programming

Need a written guide, can't really follow along with just the video when "programming" is so complex.

Hope that helps:

void getCoffee(unsigned char intensity)
{
  switch(intensity)
  {
    case 1:
    case 2:
    case 3:
      outputCoffee(intensity);
      break;

    default:
      outputMilk();
      break;
  }
}

nadnerB

@fuznutz04 said in Programming Printers:

Actual video of me programming my coffee pot to brew coffee...

Coffee Programming

0 out of 5
Instructions unclear. Nuts caught in ceiling fan.

RamblingBiped

I've been programming since the late 80's. I can remember setting the time on my parent's VHS so they could record a TV show.

I can't believe I've been leaving that off my resume all these years!

scottalanmiller

@RamblingBiped said in Programming Printers:

I've been programming since the late 80's. I can remember setting the time on my parent's VHS so they could record a TV show.

I can't believe I've been leaving that off my resume all these years!

That's nothing, in the old days we used to program using analogue turn dials! That's when the hard core programmers were still around. You young whipper snappers have it easy with your buttons and digital displays.

stacksofplates

@scottalanmiller said in Programming Printers:

@RamblingBiped said in Programming Printers:

I've been programming since the late 80's. I can remember setting the time on my parent's VHS so they could record a TV show.

I can't believe I've been leaving that off my resume all these years!

That's nothing, in the old days we used to program using analogue turn dials! That's when the hard core programmers were still around. You young whipper snappers have it easy with your buttons and digital displays.

I remember programming my grandmas rotary phone to make phone calls!

scottalanmiller

We used to have them like this. Look at those complex dials! Only an expert could cook like this.

JaredBusch

@scottalanmiller said in Programming Printers:

We used to have them like this. Look at those complex dials! Only an expert could cook like this.

WTF, no popcorn button. Do not want.

scottalanmiller

@JaredBusch said in Programming Printers:

@scottalanmiller said in Programming Printers:

We used to have them like this. Look at those complex dials! Only an expert could cook like this.

WTF, no popcorn button. Do not want.

Kids today could never use one of these!

Dashrender

@scottalanmiller said in Programming Printers:

@JaredBusch said in Programming Printers:

@scottalanmiller said in Programming Printers:

We used to have them like this. Look at those complex dials! Only an expert could cook like this.

WTF, no popcorn button. Do not want.

Kids today could never use one of these!

hell, I can barely use that

Carnival Boy

@scottalanmiller said in Programming Printers:

We used to have them like this.

We still do!

thwr

Kiddies... this is HARDWARE PROGRAMMING in its purest form:

0_1473693137552_upload-daaa3fd5-887f-4fe0-ab6f-4a26b68b8ac3
(CC0, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punched_card#/media/File:Blue-punch-card-front-horiz.png)

thwr

@RamblingBiped said in Programming Printers:

I've been programming since the late 80's. I can remember setting the time on my parent's VHS so they could record a TV show.

I can't believe I've been leaving that off my resume all these years!

Do you remember ShowView (VCR Plus+, G-Code, VideoPlus+)?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_recorder_scheduling_code

RamblingBiped

@thwr said in Programming Printers:

@RamblingBiped said in Programming Printers:

I've been programming since the late 80's. I can remember setting the time on my parent's VHS so they could record a TV show.

I can't believe I've been leaving that off my resume all these years!

Do you remember ShowView (VCR Plus+, G-Code, VideoPlus+)?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_recorder_scheduling_code

Hmm... on second thought maybe it was the early 90's?

Brains

@scottalanmiller said in Programming Printers:

I found it!!

https://community.spiceworks.com/topic/79629-do-not-have-access-to-hosted-email

You can finally learn everything that there is about programming printers.

alt text

Also,
W T F
http://www.djfixxx.com/

It feels like I stepped through some sort of Magic Way Back Machine.

Actually, it seems he upgraded his site in 2008 and added that nifty top menu!

DustinB3403

@Brains said in Programming Printers:

@scottalanmiller said in Programming Printers:

I found it!!

https://community.spiceworks.com/topic/79629-do-not-have-access-to-hosted-email

You can finally learn everything that there is about programming printers.

I would murder for a programmer who can install ink / paper into a printer.

#MurderforOGPrinterProgrammers

thwr

@DustinB3403 said in Programming Printers:

@Brains said in Programming Printers:

@scottalanmiller said in Programming Printers:

I found it!!

https://community.spiceworks.com/topic/79629-do-not-have-access-to-hosted-email

You can finally learn everything that there is about programming printers.

I would murder for a programmer who can install ink / paper into a printer.

#MurderforOGPrinterProgrammers

Called (task) dispatching

Documentation: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.windows.threading.dispatcher(v=vs.110).aspx

RojoLoco

@Brains said in Programming Printers:

@scottalanmiller said in Programming Printers:

I found it!!

https://community.spiceworks.com/topic/79629-do-not-have-access-to-hosted-email

Also,
W T F
http://www.djfixxx.com/

It feels like I stepped through some sort of Magic Way Back Machine.

Actually, it seems he upgraded his site in 2008 and added that nifty top menu!

I wish I had the time to hire him as a DJ, just so I could shoot at him with a pellet gun when he showed up.