Who is the youngest Progress Developer??

Cecil

19+ years progress programming and still learning.
Hi this is a question that has bothered me for years.

I started full-time as Progress Developer in Version 5/6 when I was 18 and I have been a Progress Developer for the last nine years.

So my question is who/was is the yongest full-time developers in the world developing Progress apps?

James.
 
Hi this is a question that has bothered me for years.

I can understand why, it's a vitally important issue. ;)

Ok, seriously, I haven't worked in many different places as a Progress programmer, but when I have the ages have ranged from undergraduate placement (19/20) to 30s for full-time employees, contractors normally older.

So 18 is pretty young (for countries where post-18 education is normal), but only really because most places demand a degree before employing programmers. Some geeky types get work while at school, and before programmers became a dime-a-dozen, it was quite normal to get a job programming straight after leaving school, rather than going to Uni.

It's arguable because Progress is niche (ie. not known by people who don't take an interest in their industry), and not perceived as dynamic and new-bright-shiny, it won't be first on the list of most young, thrusting know-it-alls, and I suspect a lot of programmers fall into it by chance (like me).

My own, unsubstantiated, suspicion is that Progress 4GL programmers are likely to be an older demographic, not least because Progress is way behind the times in keeping the core language up to date with modern approaches, and for the aforementioned niche reasons creating a lesser appeal for bright-eyed young graduates.

The more recently aquired branches of the company are a little more edgy, the messaging, event processing sides, so maybe one day Progress won't have a reputation amongst people vaguely familiar with it at odds with its name.
 
I started full-time as Progress Developer in Version 5/6 when I was 18 and I have been a Progress Developer for the last nine years.

So my question is who/was is the yongest full-time developers in the world developing Progress apps?

I think it will be difficult to answer this, as most Progress programmers I've met don't use even the Peg, let alone this forum, though they may be vaguely aware of them, so won't be able to contribute.

Incidentally, James, I reckon at 27 you are probably one of the youngest programmers to have significant experience in V5. I would imagine most programmers who started out on that would now be 40 at least, although I am aware there is a lot of legacy code out there.
 

joey.jeremiah

ProgressTalk Moderator
Staff member
i started working with progress when i was 14, for a part time summer job while my friends were flipping burgers.

i wrote some other stuff before and during that time, mostly in pascal and assembly. the bigger ones were a crude dos editor and the last one was a 3d virual reality engine i wrote after taking a few classes about optics in physics class. i also wrote a few school projects and book reports with progress in school but don't tell that to the sales office :)

what really struck me at the time was how simple it was to put together an application with progress, atleast compared to what was around at the time, somehow along the way i feel they forgot that. although progress has always focused on productivity after playing around with frameworks for a long time and maybe now mda's ? but nowadays you've got to be an architect or lead developer to know what the **** they're talking about.

i made a few contacts and went into contracting. i still work part time splitting my time between progress, university and getting in trouble but theres a fair deal of money in contracts.
 
Greetings,
I started in the Progress world at V8 in 1998 / 1999 aged 18&19, and commanding a salary for which I were paid at a number of organizations of 23,000 in the UK. Aged 18/19 earning over 20,000 pa, driving a mercedes benz 190e 2.5 16, boy did I have fun.
I am now an Advanced Business Software Architect with HNC in my pocket, utilizing the OpenEdge product.
PSC rules!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 

corby-fellas

New Member
Well, firstly, my reply's been a long time coming!!!

I too started young as a Progress Developer in versions 5/6, literally 2 weeks before my 18th birthday in March '98. I started part-time while I was still at college (with James), and then about four months later went on to working full-time.

I worked with James for about four years until he went off to London and then to NZ. I'm still at the same company, currently developing in 9.1E, mainly WebSpeed and GUI.

Thats all for now.

Andrew

Hi this is a question that has bothered me for years.

I started full-time as Progress Developer in Version 5/6 when I was 18 and I have been a Progress Developer for the last nine years.

So my question is who/was is the yongest full-time developers in the world developing Progress apps?

James.
 

dayv2005

Member
Well I'm a full time progress developer, and i just turned 20, i was 19. I wondered this as well often at times and i happened to see this thread so i posted.

I went to a software engineering school and then dropped out and then another one and graduated. I was train in Asp.net and Java mainly because face it right now those are probably the biggest supply of developers. So i was pretty much guaranteed a job through this small software company as an asp.net developer.

Well time came to it and these people came to my school because they were interested in some of our graduates. Next thing i know they offered me a job before i even graduated because of my knowledge in asp, They planned to merge from progress to asp down the road.

Well when i took the job they then taught me progress, which I'm still very new to it. So, it's what i'll be programming with for probably the next year.

So to answer the question i was a full tiem progress developer at the age of 19.
 
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