What is your background/experience with...

budgetkids

So in regards to this post:
http://brickowl.com/forum#/discussion/1021/what-id-to-use-and-how-api-create-an-inventory-item

and this one:
http://brickowl.com/forum#/discussion/1022/how-do-i-mass-upload-items

I feel really out of the loop. It seems everyone who sells Lego here is also some sort of programmer. First time I have ever heard of "API" was here and I had to research it just to follow everyone.

My question is this:
What is everyone's background with programming, languages, certifications, etc. etc.
I am asking because maybe I should jump on the bandwagon to keep up with everyone. The interesting part is I know I am most likely the youngest one here and grew up with technology and I know most here did not. Maybe it’s time I learned something beyond basic HTML?

Chris

walstib

Chris,

It sounds like you know more than me, so don't feel too left out. I have hacked my way through understanding the surface of things and manipulating what I see, programing anything myself is out of my skill set since around 1985. I think of myself as a skilled software user but Deanna's post about what they do with Excel makes me feel like a complete amateur.

Ask me to build a house or teach a bunch of youth about leverage, that I can do.

Since I started here I have been tempted to learn, half because I don't like not knowing how to do something, but mostly I am too busy with other hobbies and life to get into it.

I am way too busy here to try and sell all my inventory in multiple places, barely have time to add inventory, and my friends who do know what they are doing advise me it's not worth the effort to get into unless I have the need to do something like sell on multiple venues.

I would like to have something that I can manage my personal collection and stockroom that recognizes BOIDs, copy and pasting those from a list can be quite quick, I feel like I am in a bit of a holding pattern until the right idea/function/program comes along for that.

misbi

I taught myself MS Access about 12 months ago when BL looked like it was going down the pan. I started to learn Python programming 6 months ago when I joined Brick Owl. I'm a civil/structural CAD draughtsman and no spring chicken, being the wrong side of 50. If I can figure it out it, I reckon most people can if they really set their mind to it. It does take a lot of reading and frustration though and it's no coincidence that I'm already at my computer at 5:00am

Brikomania

I taught myself MS Access about 12 months ago when BL looked like it was going down the pan. I started to learn Python programming 6 months ago when I joined Brick Owl. I'm a civil/structural CAD draughtsman and no spring chicken, being the wrong side of 50. If I can figure it out it, I reckon most people can if they really set their mind to it. It does take a lot of reading and frustration though and it's no coincidence that I'm already at my computer at 5:00am

I'm also learning Python myself with only one purpose in mind, bricks. I have so many ideas in mind and processes that could be done with simply programming, but don't know how.

Hopefully I'll be able to do so in some months. I even planned creating a website with tools to share with other people.

DagsBricks

Structural draftsman as well though I never learned LISP. I did dabble in Python a while ago and would like to keep doing that. No need to yet.

misbi

I used to do a bit of AutoCAD application development back in the days of AutoCAD 2000. I still use AutoLISP for some of my inventory processing even now

steendorp

I used to be a programmer. Did quite a lot of programming in QBasic (well that's a while ago), MS Access, Visual Basic, ASP. Now I use C# and for database purposes I use SQL server.

Now I am a projectmanager and automates pickprocedures in warehouses with voice-systems and small handheld terminals. It's a little bit the same as automating our proces of picking LEGO, but then on a bigger size.

So those skills help me now handling the pickproces of our store. Well, my BO store could be handled far more efficient, if I had some more space in my house. :-)

Frank

SuperBrick

My question is this:
What is everyone's background with programming, languages, certifications, etc. etc.
I am asking because maybe I should jump on the bandwagon to keep up with everyone. The interesting part is I know I am most likely the youngest one here and grew up with technology and I know most here did not. Maybe it’s time I learned something beyond basic HTML?

Chris

I am not officially a programmer but I have had considerable training in programming and about 50% of my job involves verifying and modifying programs. Since most of these programs are fairly old (15+ years) they are typically written in Fortran 77 but it also includes more recent programs written in Fortran 90, C, C++, SAS, R and SQL (to access an Oracle database). In addition we also use Bash scripts, Perl and Python to manage program flow.

In my spare time I like to develop programs (in addition to Lego) to make running my store easier and this typically involves a mysql database accessed using php.

I don't think everyone selling Lego is a programmer but when these questions are asked it tends to be the programmers who answer. If you enjoy writing/modifying basic HTML I would suggest you consider looking into PHP which is mostly used to create interactive websites. If you do not enjoy programming but just do what needs to be done then there are probably better ways to spend your time.

Gerrit