[ThomasBHickey]

I started coding for fun while an undergraduate in the late 60's and spent much of my time coding until I recently retired, except for one year when I dedicated my time to directing a project that led to a major system for the company. Most of that time was as a researcher and I had the freedom to use whatever language seemed appropriate. The list grew to dozens (anyone remember Bliss, Metafont, SAIL or the great SIGMA assembler?), finally ending up in Python within Hadoop. Since retirement I've time with J after spending a year or two with APL in the 70's.

I find I'm losing the absolute need to code, but I can't think of anything else that could have offered me the variety, depth and engagement (not to mention a reasonable salary) that coding has over the last 50 years.