> The point of this is, I'm under 20 and while I know how to program, the "two" languages I know how to program are hardly ever used anymore. Therefore, I think that there's a difference between knowing how to program and knowing how to work a computer. Two very different things, considering that it depends on whether or not you actually have the equipment to learn either.

I agree that knowing how to program and knowing how to work a computer are not necessarily related. Generally, people who know how to program are also very handy with computers, but in a modern environment, programming isn't as necessary as it used to be. Being able to surf the web doesn't cut it either, though. I think trying to label people as "those who can use computers" and "those who can't" is silly, though. It's like saying that someone who plays in the NBA is an athlete, but a lineman in the NFL isn't an athlete because he can't make a bastketball free throw to save his life. Being a skilled computer user encompasses a broad range of skills, and different people have different levels of skill in different ones. Can't say much more than that, really.

But that's not why I'm posting. I wanted to say something about knowing two languages that are hardly ever used to program anymore. First of all, you might be surprised at how much they are still used in -- even if only for old programs that are rarely modified. Some day somebody might need to change those old programs, and where would we be if nobody knew those old languages anymore? Rewriting everything from the ground up. (Not always a bad idea.) But more important than that is that knowing how to program -- the general ways of thinking, the approaches, the kinds of techniques required to accomplish certain tasks -- is usually more important than knowing a specific language. Leaning a new language is just picking up the syntax, but learning to program is learning how to think like a programmer. commie_bat says in the other reply that his background in C allowed him to work on a FORTRAN 77 project. FORTRAN and C are not very similar -- but knowing how to program probably made it workable.

> Crystal"did that make ANY sense whatsoever?"109

Don "I know all this because my four years of engineering in university were 5% knowledge that I still apply today and 95% learning how to think and operate like an engineer" Monkey