Retired. Learned Fortran in the late '60's, graduated to Fortran 77, advanced out of the direct programming experience about the time c became available. Took an Ada class with my team but only remember that it was very obtuse, not like Fortran at all. Became a computer user, Windows, Office and so on.

A couple months ago, November 2014 found a reason to learn Meep and so installed Ubuntu, practiced a little with Linux, then Octave, then Meep. Meep scheme control files parenthesis cause me all sorts of grief so I'm learning C++ to write a tool to scan for matching parentheses. Trying my hand at C++ to do this, because if I learn enough C++ I have the option of using the C++ interface to Meep. I have an old book, Sams Teach yourself C++ in 24 hours, published in 1999, which is a help but stackoverflow is a big help and I appreciate it.

Steve