User:George McGinn

From Rosetta Code
My Favorite Languages
Language Proficiency
TechBASIC Current, Proficient, Now Learning IoT
smart BASIC Current, Expert (Excludes SPRITES)
PowerBASIC Current, Advanced
SQL Current, Expert in DB/2, MS-SQL, MySQL, Oracle
VBScript Current, Advanced
ASP Current, Advanced
HTML Current, Expert
XML Current, Advanced
Perl Current, Advanced
PHP Current, Advanced
XSL Current, Novice
Swift Current, Novice, Learning it
Lua Current, Novice, Learning it
COBOL Current, Expert in all dialects
IBM Enterprise COBOL for z/OS Current, Expert in all dialects
Assembler Expert (Mainframe "F" & "G" Versions)
PL/1 Expert (Version "F")
VSAM Expert
SAS Proficient
REXX Advanced
CLIST Proficient/Advanced
Visual Basic Proficient
Visual REALIA Proficient
C Current, Intermediate, Can read it, can do some programming in it, rarely used right now
C++ Current, Intermediate, Can read it, can do some programming in it, rarely used right now
UNIX OS Advanced
Windows 2000 Server Advanced
MAC OS/X Server Novice, Still learning
Java Intermediate, Very little exposure
JavaScript Intermediate, Very little exposure

This is a list of users on Rosetta Code who say they can use smart BASIC with any level of proficiency.

I'm a Computer Scientist, started in 9th grade back in 1973 on a PDP-8E. Graduated high school with a degree along with my diploma.



During my high school years I wrote programs in Astronomy, Cosmology, Physics for professors once my math teachers found out how naturally programming came to me. Plus I was an amateur astronomer since 6th grade.

I spent most of my 40+ year career in research, first working with the late Nathan S. Kline on pharmacitical studies to find cures and drugs to help mentally ill patients and worked with various scientists in space exploration. Currently I helped a scientist with both a peer paper on leap seconds and proofed the science and math in the book she wrote "Flying In the Year 200 000" late in 2016 (available on KOBO).

In businesss I worked on advancing technology (some didn't even exist at the time) that saved corporations millions, and in the entertainment field brought fans closer to their talent by using the Internet in ways that were new. For example, I was the first to put a webcam in a radio station broadcast booth, and as part of the beta-testing team for RealServer v5, was the first to put the broadcasting of the radio stations of Clearchannel of Sarasota on their Internet sites.

My work in redefining the purpose of websites in radio became the template used by Clearchannel in 1997, where news, photos, traffic and weather content along with the ability to listen to their favorite station changed the radio industry.

One of my expertise is taking little-known or no technology and solving enterprise-wide issues. For example, at Verizon-TSI I was brought in by the late Chris Maronne to do a feasibility study on porting a nightly mainframe batch system to run it on a series of networked servers. Five years later with a small team of highly talented individuals, we not only turned the mainframe into a large fileserver, we converted a nightly batch system written in COBOL into a realtime file processor that saved an average of $1.2 million a month in third-party datacenter charges, and put Micro Focus' Net Express on every corporate radar.

Another project involved the newspaper and legal industries, where I used a scripting language called COBOLScript, invented by Matt Dean, a co-owner at Deskware and mixed it with PERL, VBScript and PHP and created an enterprise intranet/internet system to allow reporters and investigators to comb the internet to do background checks on individuals and companies.

Permanently disabled due to a car accident, four operations and a series of MRSA sepsis infections, I am currently still doing what I can in science, mainly cosmology, and learning to program Apps for mobile devices. With the introdcution of techBASIC and SmartBASIC, both mature but not widely used tools for App development, I am working in what ever time I can on projects that will show the power of these languages that run on iPhones and iPads.

TechBASIC is a really great language, it not only allows you to write classic BASIC programs, its capabilities with sensors, HiJack devices and "Internet of Things." Your only limitations To what you can accomplish is your imagination.

Already I am working on a small Geiger counter that will be controlled by my iPad, which will collect and analyze data at .10 second intervals. Images SI and Texas Instruments are only two of the many companies that provide sensor kits. However, if you are an electronic engineer or very talented in designing your own circuit boards, you can invent any kind of sensor, and TechBASIC, using Bluetooth, WiFly, or your mobile device's sound port can retrieve raw data either realtime or download at iternvals, and format it to readable graphs or other displays that make sense to you.

And I have just completed the schematics for a box that is loaded with 20 environmental sensors, you can use it to check everything from humidity, temp, moisture (air and ground), UV, radon, radiation 9both atmosphere and absorbed in the soil) and many others.

TechBASIC is as powerful as PowerBASIC is on Windows, and PureBASIC on the MAC OS.

SmartBASIC is one of those underrated apps that allows you to program classic BASIC programs geared for creating Apps. It is fairly robust, but its documentation is rather sparse, and sometimes getting more about how statements work from the author is worse than root canal at times. However, once you learn how this programming language works, it is one of the best to write games in, and is great at writing apps that are data intensive. You can create great GUI's and Sprites, as well as write sheet music and one programmer created a program that rivals what radio stations use today to automate playlists, commercials, news and announcer spots.

And SmartBASIC's author has lately said in posts on the support forum that SmartBASIC, while he's still taking requests for improvements, may no longer be maintained in favor for a new language he's developing that is written in all symbols, called SPL (Simple Programming Language).

However, dispite its shortcomings, such as the inability to record audio using your mobile devices' microphone (it works when you take videos), this programming language is very robust, has some great time saving coding features, and an SDK that, once you get an Apple Developer's License, SmartBASIC is one of the few languages Apple will allow you to sell/give away your apps through iTunes. This is, regardless of your preferences, a must-have, along with techBASIC, if you want to develop your apps directly on your mobile device. Both languages, once installed, do not need the Internet like many others to develop and test your code. That is a big advantage.

Follow me at my personal website: http://www.georgemcginn.com or https://georgemcginn.wordpress.com, where I will be writing reviews on App development languages, demonstrating SmartBASIC, techBASIC, Pythonista, and others with program examples in future columns, such as a series soon to be published on converting the "Vintage" games of the 1970's and 80's using SmartBASIC.



While peaceful pursuits yeilds steady progress, it's only when you rock the boat does true inspiration and invention occur --- George McGinn