Software

Having been coding since 1982, starting of with a Dragon 32 with BASIC an then machine code. I still have a couple of them, and might have to put together a little project, when I can face loading software on to a tape again.

My workhorse languages I use today are C and PHP, some Javascript. For something a bit different, mainly for fun, Python. Maintaining historical Microsoft Visual Basic 6 systems, it's amazing how many are still out there. A little dabble in coding on Arudino as well for some control projects, and I do like getting a soldering iron out and making circuit boards.

Setting Up a Server

This is more of an aide memoire for me, but others migh find it useful. I have my own virtual server running at Fasthosts, and have installed Ubuntu from scratch. This isn't really a definitive guide, but will certainly help anyone on their way.

Read more about Setting Up a Server

C

Most of my coding examples will have been run on a Linux server using the gcc compiler.

getch() fudge

Acting on a key press can be really useful, but I found the standard build on my Linux server did not support it. Here is a workaround I found that works really well, and part of my personal mylib.h file

Here is the code for this function:

#include <stdlib.h>

char _getch() {
   char ch;
   system("stty raw -echo");
   ch=getchar();
   system("stty -raw echo");
   return ch;
}

Example use to display the key pressed until the user hits the space bar.

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include "mylib.h"

void main(void) {
   int ch;
   do {
      ch = _getch();
      printf("%c\t%d\t%x\n", ch, ch, ch);
   } while (ch != ' ');
}
				

        
PHP
        

        
Javascript
        

        
Python
				

				
VB6
        

        
Arduino