General Software Discussion :: General Observations About Software History

Posted: Nov 09, 2023 4:16:59 am

cgetty	Quote Add Reply
Administrator Programming King Posts: 66 Registered: 2013-12-25	From a mechanical world to a world of software These are just some musings about software as I encountered it from about 1985 to 2012. I worked for an electric utility. Specifically I worked in the electric meter shop for a small municipal located in southern California. Some of the types of meters I worked with. These meters were located at SCEs facility their display case. SCEs Display link Back in the days when electronics started to come onto the scene well along with that there was this thing called software that worked in conjunction with the electronics. In the beginning it was very simple very ones and zeros and took a lot of effort to get this information under your belt as far as knowledge. For example we had these things called substations that distribute electricity into the neighborhoods. And these substations had mechanical devices relays and sensors and gauges that were analog no software per se. But in my experience around 1985 software started to become a part of the industry and we were off to the races. So for example when we installed a upgrade to one of our substations the electronics was like sold as a package it came with the hardware. so it worked pretty well together. and in those days if you bought a big system it was very expensive so you tended to hang on to it for as long as you could to squeeze every ounce of life out of it. And then later we built another substation and that substation had general electric parts in general electric software and it wasn't compatible with our other system which used a different software. That's when I learned the concept of integration. It was a small cottage industry that developed as a result of systems not being compatible with each other in these guys were really really sharp and they were really tuned in and they were making pretty good money. As time went by the city I worked for develop their own IT department. their strategy was lock everybody down don't let anybody change anything and that was the way it was pretty much. l understand that because a lot of these people The operators of the computers screwed things up all the time introducing more work for the IT department then they needed to have, I get it. On the other hand the IT department wasn't particularly interested in the software that had to do with our substation because it had critical mission value they did something wrong a breaker could go off people could be out of power things could explode I mean they didn't want to get involved with any of that. And of course from 1985 to around 2012 the pace of progress was very fast trying to keep up with all these changes it was daunting. During this time I was able to start dipping my toe in the lake of software development. It was kind of on the down low if my supervisors knew what I was getting into they would have probably pushed it away but they were busy with their jobs and it actually kind of worked out well for us. As long as my other work got done it was tolerated. Some of the software that we put together During this time there was large software companies that you could buy packages for but they were too much money for us to buy for our small needs. And with most of these company's it was all or nothing. They wanted all the business. You couldn't start small and grow bigger. Later on you could but not in the beginning. So we were able to quickly put together small apps that served our purposes. For example some of the applications was like a database to keep track of our meters the current transformers the power poles in the field, distribution transformers in the field capacitor Banks there were many things. Some simple program to interface with the electric meters themselves to process the data from them now that they were electronic. actually they became little computers. And the things that we couldn't do ourselves we hired people to come in and specifically develop it for us programmers It was a very exciting time for me. Of course we went through the usual process. First we kept this information on spreadsheets which quickly we realize wasn't going to be enough. But then in our case we use a database called paradox. And that seemed to work very well for a while. Then about 1995 I ran across Delphi. we use Delphi from version 1 to version 7. then the company seem to just fall apart for whatever reasons I don't know. One of the good things about Delphi is that there seem to be a large user base there were a lot of people had forums that were all about Delphi a lot of people writing books and a lot of people making components for the Delphi program I was very happy with Delphi for a while. Software can be very pleasant I mean enjoyable if you don't have a deadlines to meet in people screaming at you to work faster you know, I didn't have that. It was a very nice experience. During this time the internet was maturing. I was looking to develop applications as the saying goes right once deploy anywhere. I was not wanting to develop for a specific operating system but so that you could use it on the internet and have generic tools. Of course during that time there was a lot of growing pain as far as using the internet like we can use it today in 2023. There is a thing called a citizen developer. That describes what I was pretty much. I knew enough to write software to get in trouble. Because it wasn't my main job I couldn't get really deep into it like trying to learn c programming and Pascal and basic and Ruby on rails and PHP and Java it goes on and on. I did try to learn these programs but it just was more than I could absorb even today I'm saturated with all this stuff. That's why programming with no code or low code tools was appealing for me. Drag and drop put little graphics on a pallet on the screen push a button deployed on the web and you have an app. But if you wanted it to do anything substantial you had to know a little bit more about what's going on under the hood. Kind of like a software integrator. Then I ran across a platform called CrossUI. it's very much like Delphi except it works with Java. it's drag and drop put things on the screen easy to deploy but then again you need to know what's going on under the hood or your apps are just fluffy do nothing apps. CrossUI, I like it but as far as the examples they give there's a few of them that are complete but most of them are just like samples that aren't finished. And these guys they know what they're doing but when I look at some of the things I even made using this CrossUI I have to scratch my head and say how the heck is this thing working I mean it's just a lot of parts to it and if you don't use it a lot you forget as with anything I suppose. Some of the features that I like about CrossUI as you can use it online and create applications fully blown means is much knowledge as you have if you can put it to work you can do it right there online. Of course I don't always have internet service so they do allow you to download a package for Windows or Linux and you can develop them locally on your own PC without the internet I like that. Another good thing is that if you want to do anything substantial you need to learn a little bit more about the nuts and bolts which forces you to dig deeper and learn more when you use their frame work That's a good thing. Although sometimes it drives me a little crazy. One thing that Jack from CrossUI needs is a bigger user base. By having more YouTube videos that explain how to use his frame work in detail would be very helpful. Like this video that I made a few years ago. That frame work was called UIbuilder. This video was just a simple introduction but I think these type of videos would be very helpful. You can view the video from this link below UI Builder the predecessor of CrossUI This week I looked at about 23 different programs that they were low code or no code. But many of them you can only use on the internet many of them are very scaled back as far as what you can do with them initially. And I went over the list of what 23 of them and I have to preview it more but it's going to take some time I just get saturated easy you know how it is my eyes start the gloss over and fall asleep in front of the computer screen. Anyway that's it in a nutshell for now. Clark
Last edited by: cgetty on Nov 23, 2023 11:59:31 pm Profile

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From a mechanical world to a world of software

These are just some musings about software as I encountered it from about 1985 to 2012.

I worked for an electric utility. Specifically I worked in the electric meter shop for a small municipal located in southern California. Some of the types of meters I worked with. These meters were located at SCEs facility their display case. SCEs Display link

Back in the days when electronics started to come onto the scene well along with that there was this thing called software that worked in conjunction with the electronics.

In the beginning it was very simple very ones and zeros and took a lot of effort to get this information under your belt as far as knowledge.

For example we had these things called substations that distribute electricity into the neighborhoods. And these substations had mechanical devices relays and sensors and gauges that were analog no software per se.

But in my experience around 1985 software started to become a part of the industry and we were off to the races.

So for example when we installed a upgrade to one of our substations the electronics was like sold as a package it came with the hardware. so it worked pretty well together. and in those days if you bought a big system it was very expensive so you tended to hang on to it for as long as you could to squeeze every ounce of life out of it.

And then later we built another substation and that substation had general electric parts in general electric software and it wasn't compatible with our other system which used a different software.

That's when I learned the concept of integration. It was a small cottage industry that developed as a result of systems not being compatible with each other in these guys were really really sharp and they were really tuned in and they were making pretty good money.

As time went by the city I worked for develop their own IT department. their strategy was lock everybody down don't let anybody change anything and that was the way it was pretty much. l understand that because a lot of these people The operators of the computers screwed things up all the time introducing more work for the IT department then they needed to have, I get it.

On the other hand the IT department wasn't particularly interested in the software that had to do with our substation because it had critical mission value they did something wrong a breaker could go off people could be out of power things could explode I mean they didn't want to get involved with any of that.

And of course from 1985 to around 2012 the pace of progress was very fast trying to keep up with all these changes it was daunting.

During this time I was able to start dipping my toe in the lake of software development. It was kind of on the down low if my supervisors knew what I was getting into they would have probably pushed it away but they were busy with their jobs and it actually kind of worked out well for us. As long as my other work got done it was tolerated.

Some of the software that we put together

During this time there was large software companies that you could buy packages for but they were too much money for us to buy for our small needs. And with most of these company's it was all or nothing. They wanted all the business. You couldn't start small and grow bigger. Later on you could but not in the beginning.

So we were able to quickly put together small apps that served our purposes.

For example some of the applications was like a database to keep track of our meters the current transformers the power poles in the field, distribution transformers in the field capacitor Banks there were many things.

Some simple program to interface with the electric meters themselves to process the data from them now that they were electronic. actually they became little computers.

And the things that we couldn't do ourselves we hired people to come in and specifically develop it for us programmers It was a very exciting time for me.

Of course we went through the usual process. First we kept this information on spreadsheets which quickly we realize wasn't going to be enough.

But then in our case we use a database called paradox. And that seemed to work very well for a while.
Then about 1995 I ran across Delphi. we use Delphi from version 1 to version 7. then the company seem to just fall apart for whatever reasons I don't know.

One of the good things about Delphi is that there seem to be a large user base there were a lot of people had forums that were all about Delphi a lot of people writing books and a lot of people making components for the Delphi program I was very happy with Delphi for a while.

Software can be very pleasant I mean enjoyable if you don't have a deadlines to meet in people screaming at you to work faster you know, I didn't have that. It was a very nice experience.

During this time the internet was maturing. I was looking to develop applications as the saying goes right once deploy anywhere. I was not wanting to develop for a specific operating system but so that you could use it on the internet and have generic tools. Of course during that time there was a lot of growing pain as far as using the internet like we can use it today in 2023.

There is a thing called a citizen developer. That describes what I was pretty much. I knew enough to write software to get in trouble. Because it wasn't my main job I couldn't get really deep into it like trying to learn c programming and Pascal and basic and Ruby on rails and PHP and Java it goes on and on. I did try to learn these programs but it just was more than I could absorb even today I'm saturated with all this stuff.

That's why programming with no code or low code tools was appealing for me. Drag and drop put little graphics on a pallet on the screen push a button deployed on the web and you have an app. But if you wanted it to do anything substantial you had to know a little bit more about what's going on under the hood. Kind of like a software integrator.

Then I ran across a platform called CrossUI. it's very much like Delphi except it works with Java. it's drag and drop put things on the screen easy to deploy but then again you need to know what's going on under the hood or your apps are just fluffy do nothing apps.

CrossUI, I like it but as far as the examples they give there's a few of them that are complete but most of them are just like samples that aren't finished.

And these guys they know what they're doing but when I look at some of the things I even made using this CrossUI I have to scratch my head and say how the heck is this thing working I mean it's just a lot of parts to it and if you don't use it a lot you forget as with anything I suppose.

Some of the features that I like about CrossUI as you can use it online and create applications fully blown means is much knowledge as you have if you can put it to work you can do it right there online.

Of course I don't always have internet service so they do allow you to download a package for Windows or Linux and you can develop them locally on your own PC without the internet I like that.

Another good thing is that if you want to do anything substantial you need to learn a little bit more about the nuts and bolts which forces you to dig deeper and learn more when you use their frame work That's a good thing. Although sometimes it drives me a little crazy.

One thing that Jack from CrossUI needs is a bigger user base. By having more YouTube videos that explain how to use his frame work in detail would be very helpful. Like this video that I made a few years ago. That frame work was called UIbuilder. This video was just a simple introduction but I think these type of videos would be very helpful.

You can view the video from this link below
UI Builder the predecessor of CrossUI

This week I looked at about 23 different programs that they were low code or no code. But many of them you can only use on the internet many of them are very scaled back as far as what you can do with them initially. And I went over the list of what 23 of them and I have to preview it more but it's going to take some time I just get saturated easy you know how it is my eyes start the gloss over and fall asleep in front of the computer screen.

Anyway that's it in a nutshell for now.
Clark

Last edited by: cgetty on Nov 23, 2023 11:59:31 pm

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