Star651

Hello, this is Star651.Tyler, Iknown amby onlymost 14Rosetta (atCoders theas timeStar651. of this writing), butI have been programming since 2006!.

I started learning the ASCII values in 2005. I had an old time Braille 'n Speak (a computer for the blind, that has audio on it). That thing didn't even have a web browser on it! I started programming with KeyList (KLT) Databasing, a programming language even the smartest of programmers just might not know about. It is a language that runs on the BrailleNote, a more updated computer for the blind, with a refreshable Braille display and speech that is actually eloquent (not to say that it uses Eloquence Speech Synthesizer :D). I would write these databases for my BrailleNote, and keep personal data in them. In fact, KeyList Databasing should be a language in the language index. So should the language used to make CBT tables for the BrailleNote, and speech tuning for DECtalk, but those are whole other stories.

In July of 2006, (when I was obsessively listening to music) I was looking at some files built into my computer. These particular files had a .htm file extension. I would open them in my word-processor just to see what they looked like. And I saw what you would see; lines upon lines of code! When I opened it in my browser, (obviously) I saw an almost-plain document, with some marks (which turned out to be images in IMG tags) in the document. I thought to myself, "Gosh! If these codes don't need to be compiled, then it should be easy to write files using it, right?" Whether you believe me or not, it actually ''was'' easy learning HTML. My first few lessons (starting on July 4, 2006) I taught myself just by looking at HTML documents in my computer and on the Internet. It took me a while to figure out how to put a title in my titlebar (the first HTML programming trick I learned). It took me a while to get used to the fact that to end the tag, you just repeat it with a slash after the less-than sign. The second thing I learned was called a table tag, but, of course, it didn't look like a table. I didn't start using TD tags until lesson 3, and I couldn't figure out TR tags until maybe ... lesson ... 10? Yeah, that's right! After I learned table data column tags, I learned heading tags. I thought at first that there was just one heading tag (H1). I didn't realize until later that there were at least six, and a rumored 7th one that doesn't work (that was probably printed in one of the books by mistake). After headings, I learned image tags, links (the one I wanted to learn back in lesson 2, if not 1), and then text input boxes. I then learned how to ''alt''-caption the image tags, a good thing for blind people like me. I mean, come on! I'm blind, and I'm learning CSS, a '''visual''' design app? How did I become so unique? After learning image captioning, I learned those much-needed TR tags that I should have learned in either lesson 3 or 2. This is when I finally decided to look for some HTML-themed books. At the library, I saw ''Beginning Programming for Dummies''. After perusing the extremely long table of contents, I finally saw what caught my attention, '''PLAYING WITH HTML'''. Upon opening to that page, I realized how much HTML could really do! Apparently, these hyperlinks that I learned to create before could be internal or external! Before I looked at that book, I would post an A (link tag) without closing it. I thought that the title of it was the ''href''! Haha! That book really woke me up, realizing what I had done! My seven links (that I had in my personal document) looked like two, visually! Well, now I knew that almost everything, not just Titles, had end tags. Well, that was a Title wave for me :D. I learned about the HR and BR tags with no closings, Blockquote text, Bold, Italics, Underlines, and so on. After I got the language basics to the point of feeling like an elementary programmer, I saw the next section: JavaScript. I knew that it was commonly used in HTML documents. Back when I was learning the first 9 lessons in HTML, I actually kept calling HTML "JavaScript", never realizing my mistake until September 2006, with that programming book. Well, that didn't stop me from learning real JS. I ended up learning how to make document.write messages, alert boxes, and prompt boxes. I had developed a bad habit, though. Back in my HTML Lesson days, I capitalized all my commands. I capitalized everything that wasn't text. In fact, I sometimes coughtcaught myself looking at all-caps image alt-captions! And, as any experienced simple Web programmer should know, that completely destroys JavaScript. I didn't know this, and my programs came out blank. So, one day, (I don't know what I was thinking) I typed a document.write command in lowercase, and it worked! Upon realizing this (I had to punch through a few SGML DTDs before understanding this) I discovered what happened, and I made an alert box, just to celebrate. I didn't learn how to save the prompt box user values in variables until early 2007. At the same time, I had been taking Word documents, changing the extension to .txt (without conversionactually converting the file), and finding this stuff inside of it. This stuff, I called "Word Language". I was always dissecting this code, being the programmer I was, and still am. It was late 2006 when I went on an ebook-downloading spree, when I discovered the HTML and XHTML Definitive Guide, 4th Edition. While the little books about HTML from the library were teeny-tiny, 20-page booklets, this book I downloaded off the Internet was HUGE! I thought I was in programming heaven! This book from O'Reilly Media (back in the days of the book's publishing, around 2000, it was O'Reilly and Associates) hardly ever taught me a JavaScript command, and NEVER a Java command, even though a whole quarter of a chapter explained how to link to a Java applet or application in an HTML document. I just said, "Yeah, I'll just get the JavaScript guide from the library when I need it! That book downloads site doesn't have it! Maybe I'll check other sites!" So, over the course of a year or so, I had pretty much mastered HTML.

In early 2007, I started writing apps in JavaScript. The first one was code, copied almost exactly out of the JS Definitive Guide. It was for factorials. I messed around with HTML and JavaScript, and I had big dreams of Java. I kept trying Java, but the programs never worked. And, now that I'm wiser, I'm starting to realize that in order to do Java, you need the program to convert it into bytecode. (Duh!) I am going to email Sun one of these days, because I want them to make a Java interpreter that reads and runs Java like a browser and its components run JavaScript and HTML. After a year or two of being brainwashed into thinking that the MS-DOS (Microsoft Disk Operating System) programming language was obsolete, I was shocked to find out that the Command Prompt program in Windows allows you to write and run programs in MS-DOS. I went to ComputerHope.com, to their page on MS-DOS, and picked the randomestmost random, but safest, command: ''ver''. I typed it in to my Command Prompt, and, sure enough, my version number for my Windows XP came up. I then said to myself, "Why wasn't I told that in the first place? I could've starting MS-DOS at the same time I was learning JavaScriptHTML, or even ASCII values in 2005!" Going back to the time after I started learning HTML, I tried manually formatting Microsoft Word files. When you change the file extension (without converting) of a word .doc, .rtf or .pwd file, you see this odd programming code. I never knew the name of it, but I called it Microsoft Word Language (or Code), whichever was appropriate at whatever time. After DOSing around for several days, I decided that I didn't want to get in trouble with the Debug prompt; I'm not the longest branch on the tree when it comes to Assembly Language. I always wanted to find a program that, when you type binary into it, the binary digits get converted to internal binary that the computer can understand. By 2008, I was learning Computer Braille Tables (CBT), another one of those languages that only runs on BrailleNote. I also learned a little Unix, just for fun. It's not like I'm going to use Linux too much more. But, I learned a little bit about programming in Terminal. I realized how much like MS-DOS (or, as we call it here at RC, BatchfileBatch File) it is. Throughout 2008 and 2009, I tried making different JavaScript apps, including one that makes different lengths of 1000hz bleeps when you click the different buttons, a tic-tac-toe board using small text-input boxes and the letters X and O on the keyboard, and an app that calculated the Net Income. I also used JavaScript and dynamic HTML (remember the lowercase d, I'm not talking about visual DHTML here). I made this dynamic app in 2009. It would count the number of times you clicked a count button in 60 seconds. The dynamic Meta HTML tag would pop up a box, telling the user that the 60-second time was up. I used a JavaScript URL for that. I'm still wondering what book will tell me more about the Server tag (and server-side JS, of course) in HTML. I know how to calculate binary values from ASCII, as well as ASCII from binary. Just for fun, I make JS apps that do this. That, and between regular ASCII and hex. I made this weird app, called base-36 Codes. I type in something random into it, such as ''10000000000''. I see what it is in base 36. When I have enough letters to make a word, I do different things, I start out by changing the 1 to 2. If that is still too low, I change it to 3. If that's too high, I change it back, and go to the next digit, zero in this case. I manipulate each one until I get the word I'm looking for. For example, if you make an app that converts decimal into base 36, and type 1012010 into it, it makes a word! Figure it out with your own program, and tell me what word 1012010 makes when converted to base-36. But, in my opinion, languages like Computer Braille Tables (CBT) and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) should be part of RC. I am in the process of learning XML, the language I used to mistake for XHTML. I just didn't realize that a markup language could be written in a markup language. HTML was written in SGML, oh my! Once I learn XML, I will start work on a language to replace SVG and other image markup languages. The language will be called Imaging Heap, (or Imaging HEAP), the Heap being an acronym for Helpful Electronic Application (for) Pictures. I'm such an XML newbie, I'm wondering if there are any XMLers on RosettaCode that can help me make Imaging Heap. I like the sound of the name (What do you get when you cross a pop star with visual design software? Imaging Heap!), and having 3D effects (you can put the images in a heap, so it looks like a pile of icons on your screen). So, I'm not just a musician anymore! I program as well, which is why I'm on RC. So, altogether, I program KeyList Databases, HTML, Microsoft Word, JavaScript, MS-DOS, CBT's, and occasionally CSS. I also like binary, and use ASCII, and plan on making my image XML DTD. Thanks to my knowledge of MediaWiki markup, I can use RosettaCodeRosetta Code to submit my JS and DOS apps as source code! I'm still new to this site, so I'm not quite ready to start going through my archives and submitting. But I own two websites. If you like comedy music, I write comedy/parody music. The website is: [http://tyler_zahnke.editthis.info www.tyler_zahnke.editthis.info]. I provide programming services, including web design, through something I started on November 29, 2011. It is called Prosomawi Media. This is the website where the tech side of me comes out just as much as it does on Rosetta Code. It's [http://prosomawi.editthis.info www.prosomawi.editthis.info]. Thanks for visiting my little box at Rosetta Code.