Sasko Usinov

Sasko Usinov ,the developer of the revolutionary SKY IDE.

Q. Hi,Sash Please tell us a bit about yourself and SkyIDE.

Sash:- Hi, I’m Sasko Usinov (sash),author of SkyIDE. SkyIDE is the IDE for programmers that supports Java, C/C++,D,Pascal,VBScript and many other languages.You can access SkyIDE Here.[ http://skyide.com ].

Q. When did you first get into computers?
Sash:- I’ve been in the computer industry for about 15 years. My first PC was purchased 15 years ago and it ran a very early edition of Microsoft Windows. I never took computers seriously until about 5 years later when Windows 95 came out. I started playing around with settings, the registry, drivers etc. As time progressed, I developed an interest in finding out how things work around. I wanted to find out how the buttons appear on the screen, how the windows and menu bars are created, how they are all connected etc. All of my technical but non-programming knowledge was gained naturally by simply experimenting stuff. I was not afraid of breaking anything. I mean, what’s the worst thing you could do? Delete all of your files or damage your boot sector and partitions and render your PC unusable due to it. That’s when the fun starts. J My programming knowledge however was gained by reading books, lots of them!

Q. What made you want to start SkyIDE?
Sash:- Simply passion for programming and technology made me start this project. I love technology: computers, mobile phones, hand held computers and technology in general. I wanted to contribute and be part of the game. I wanted to do something with my skills!

Q.Other than SkyIDE do you have any other projects on the go?
Sash:- Not at the moment, well at least not any big projects. I have one little tweak-like utility that messes around with the registry that I work on from time to time but my main focus is SkyIDE.

Q. Which is your favourite programming langugae? Why?
Sash:- C++ by far! C++ and other C++ based languages such as Java are the only languages I would ever use. I am very familiar with C++. I am familiar with pointers, inheritance, multiple inheritance, abstract classes, virtual methods, data casting and pointer to functions and probably other features. I have used VB in the past and I don’t like it. Don’t get me wrong, VB is a perfect language for anyone to start a GUI development but if you want to start a serious project you will find that classic VB5 & 6 are very confined in what you can do. There are a lot of hurdles that you need to jump through when you want to deal with the Windows API. It’s like you are confined in one room full of tools and boxes and when you want to access a different room, you have to jump and climb on the boxes in order to access the exit and get access to the main room. However this is my opinion only. I haven’t tried the latest editions so I can’t comment on that.

Q. Do you have any plans for the future of SkyIDE project?
Sash:- I really don’t know and I can’t answer that question. You never know what the future holds. It’s hard to give you a clear answer. I don’t know how many people use the current implementation of SkyIDE, what the statistics are, what their opinions are and whether software developers are interested in keeping the project alive if I was to open source the project.

Q. What are you hobbies and interests away from the desk?
Sash:- Going to the GYM is my hobby. I do this regularly every week. It’s a must for anyone that wants to stay fit. I also love listening to music. I could listen to any music that sounds good to my ears. I am more into electronic type of music, general electronic and non-hard trance music. Basically I love all sorts of electronic music except for hard-trance and house. I used to play tennis at one stage but now the only activity I do is exercising at the GYM.

Q. Do you have any experience with operating systems other than windows? How much you are involved in it?

Sash:- Oh yes, I am a big supporter of Linux and BSD. For the last 8 years or so, I’ve always dual and recently triple booted of one hard disk. My favorite BSD distribution with no doubts is PC-BSD and my favorite Linux distribution is PCLinuxOS however my very first Linux was Red Hat Linux 5.1 and I stayed with Red Hat for quite some time up to 7.0 when they made KDE look like GNOME. There was a big debate on this one and it just put me off big time. Then I tried Mandrake, I tried SuSE when they were on their own, and I went back to Fedora when it came out for a few weeks and then again I moved to the KDE-centric distribution called Yoper. I stayed with Yoper for a while. Suddenly, out of nowhere PC-BSD 0.7 popped out and I just went “not bad….” “not bad at all” especially when PBI got introduced. I liked everything I saw. It replaced my aged Yoper. I liked features such as the PBI, the menu structure etc. Ever since then, I have been a big supporter of this operating system. I also made my self familiar with PCLinuxOS. For me it’s hard to choose between PC-BSD and PCLinuxOS. I like both, although installation of software in PCLinuxOS is easy, I do prefer PBI instead. PCLinuxOS and PC-BSD are the only operating systems I truly consider for desktop use. Even though I am a programmer, I want a desktop OS that just works, point and click, period.

Q. Any advice you’d give to new programmers?
Sash :- Yes, for any new starting programmer out there I recommend C++ as their first language. Most people will disagree with me but I strongly believe C++ is the right language to start your programming career. Forget Pascal, forget Basic, forget Java….C++ is the one you need. Once you learn this language, you will find most of the remaining languages very easy to learn. This is because most programming languages are based on C++.

Q.Did you “teach yourself” your skills, or did learn from a school or other resource?
Sash :- Yes, I gained all of my programming knowledge by my self by reading C++ books and tutorials I found on search engines.

Q. Where do you see yourself in ten years time?
Sash :- It’s hard to say really. I don’t know what the future holds.

Well that’s it. Thanks for taking the time to chat. Keep up the excellent work with SKYIDE.

Sash :- No problems, you are very much welcome and Thank you back. http://skyide.com