How Did It Start For You?

re: How Did It Start For You?

davidmeyer — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 22:38:49 GMT

I started out on an Apple IIe, and was quite the advanced gamer with my "green screen." I then "moved up" to a Commodore 64 and the TRS80's that were in use at the University with was across the street from the school I went to. Later, when I was in the military we had all Sun servers, so I cut my teeth on Solaris, and eventually Linux in the late 1990's. Today...I work on it all, but I am not nearly as technical as I used to be.

re: How Did It Start For You? From ZX-81 to Vic-20, to '64, to Atari XL, to the PC world.

wgilreath — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 22:55:43 GMT

My first computer was before I was even 10-years old, a ZX-81 back in 1977 for Christmas. Later I moved up to a Vic-20, and then a Commodore-64 in 1981. I remember the dense tome that was the "Commodore 64 Programmer's Reference" and how the 6502 opcode mnemonics were like an alien hieroglyphic language. What was really way cool about the '64 was the SID chip for sound, and the graphics with sprites. What was terrible was that I went through three units but they seemed to get cheaper. My older brother had an Atari 800, it had a 6502 but because the hardware was different some of the code we used to try and move among the machines didn't quite work. Many years later I took a class in machine language at a junior college, and thankfully the material used the 6502. The 6502 was a great microprocessor for its time. For a computer architecture book I wrote as lead author (http://www.caamp.info) I used the 6502 as the microprocessor instruction set to map the ultimate RISC instruction set of one instruction. But the Commodore back in the 1980's was the starting point where sound, sprites, algorithms, and programming inspired my interest in software and computer science. Its very cool to mention it, I wonder how many software developers were inspired by the Commodore 64, et al. The coolest game for the '64 (though it took forever to load from cassette tape) was "Forbidden Forest" by Cosmi. The music was awesome, my brother and I used to play it differently and compare strategies, only Zaxxon on the Colecovision was any competition...that and Donkey Kong. I later had an Atari XL, and then moved into the world of PC's with a Tandy 2000. I recall everyone who was into computers it was GW-BASIC, and then later QuickBasic (from which I then moved to QuickC...). For lacking many modern features, I used to write crude by workable text adventures in GW-BASIC. But before entering the PC world, the Vic-20 and Commodore-64 with the 6502 remain like a first car you own having a special fondness. Awakened an interest in languages, text processing, machine code I still have my enthusiasm for.

re: How Did It Start For You?

AzWiz — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 05:35:48 GMT

Hummm, now that I think about it, what started me resides now in my attic, a MITS Altair 8800a, serial #15. I inherited it from a guy at work who bought the kit, and couldn't get it to work. Got it complete with a Heathkit H10 terminal, paper tape reader/punch. and 4K basic on tape. I also got a deal on an old IBM 2970 reservations terminal (basically a Selectric with teletype electronics). So my first 8080 assembly code was a simple program to make a terminal out of this mess. Grab a byte from the modem, throw it to the screen, check the keyboard, check & see if the hardcopy flag was on, etc.. repeat. The next was disassembling 16K of MS Basic in a 16K ROM board, because it was addressed from 0-400h. Reassembled to run at F800 and burned into eprom. That was my kickoff, and it's been a wild ride ever since.

re: How Did It Start For You?

stryqx — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 07:44:05 GMT

It all started for me on a BBC Model B - 6502 based, 32k RAM, and heaps of I/O. The Tube interface supported hook-up of a second processor. I did all of my formative computer learning on this platform. Plus the gameplay was pretty good (Elite and Exile being my all-time favorites). I then moved on to an Acorn Archimedes, and this is where I learnt about other platforms and more importantly the porting issues between platforms. I spent a fair amount of time getting Unix-based code running on the Archimedes. I still run BBC and RISC OS software under emulation, as I can't really get into the gameplay of modern games - first person shooters got boring after Doom 2.

re: How Did It Start For You?

Deric — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 19:11:01 GMT

It all started back in 1984 with my first Macintosh. I could put my OS, word processor, and graphics application all on one 400K that fit in my pocket. My friends and I immediately put our mad computer skilz to work tacking the biggest problem of our time. Yes, that's right, we tackled, and solved the problem plaguing every underage kid. A few hours later, and a trip to the photo booth, we were all card carrying 21 year olds. I'm sure we all agree (for different reasons) that our first computer was a great investment.

Uh, IBM 650, Heathkit H8 much later

orcmid — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 21:08:10 GMT

Well, my first line of code was in 1958 (big anniversary next May) and in Fortran, but it was in machine-language programming of the IBM 650 (at that time in the tower of the U of W's Bagley Hall) that got me really going. Of course, there was a lot of (later-named) open-source work at that time, and I worked on parts of a handbook of available software that was created under a grant to the Division of Counseling and Testing in the Psychology Department. That experience had me always loving personal computing and programming in the small and I jumped at the chance to build and then use my own CP/M-based microcomputers until the PC became the established personal device. I'm still enamored of open-source projects and the engagement of early enthusiasts.

re: How Did It Start For You?

hennw — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 18:10:00 GMT

I started out on the VC-20 (in the US it was called VIC-20, right) just because Sinclair could not deliver the ZX-81 in time - so I got colour and 3 times RAM from my parents. The C-64 actually started my interest in programming (a slot machine, many PEEKs and POKEs I remember, my skills merely allowed BASIC). The AMIGA 2000 followed later which was way ahead of its time (GUI, Multi(?)-Tasking, etc.). Only business reasons made me turn to the 386SX later ... Anyone else remember times when a floppy drive was around 600 German mark, roughly 300 bucks at the time ?! :-)

re: How Did It Start For You?

dannyp123 — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 16:36:06 GMT

As another ex-PET/C64 beginner, I can't help but wonder what the analagous platform is for the kids of today. My oldest son is now the age (10) I was when I started churning out Basic (and soon thereafter 6502 machine code) on the PET. What platforms are you giving your kids to learn on?