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With the recent brouhaha about vulnerabilities in many relatively recent processors, I got to thinking back to the time when I first started programming. Back then, things seemed so much simpler and much more straightforward.
To start off the new year, I thought it might be interesting to find out how people got their start in programming.
My first exposure to programming was by means of a Teletype over a dialup line using an acoustical coupler to a PDP-8 computer running TSS/8 and which had 24 KB of RAM. At the time, Star Trek ToS was on the air, and I thought this was the new, big thing. I was quickly disappointed by it not measuring up to anything like what I saw on TV, but I saw it had promise. Started with BASIC (and FOCAL). Later on was exposed to a PDP-11 running RSTS/E and programmed in BASIC+ as well as some Pascal.
As for owning a computer, the first one I bought was an OSI[*] Challenger 4P with a whopping 4KB of RAM!
From those humble beginnings, I ate up everything I could lay my hands on and later worked for a wide variety of companies that ranged in size from major internationals to tiny startups. Even had a hand in a project for Formula 1!
So, my fellow Soylentils, how did you get started programming? Where has it taken you?
[*] One day when my girlfriend came over and saw the OSI logo on my computer her eyes got huge! You see, The Six Million Dollar Man was on television at that time, and she suddenly suspected I was connected to the "Office of Scientific Intelligence"!
(Score: 5, Funny) by Justin Case on Thursday January 04 2018, @09:03PM (2 children)
I found one at a friend's house. Having read plenty of science fiction, I sat down and typed:
PLEASE PROVIDE OPERATING INSTRUCTIONS.
It said:
SYNTAX ERROR
So then I cried because the machine had rejected me, harmed my self esteem, and ruined my chance for a good career.
No, wait, that wasn't it. I looked down, saw I had a penis, and decided I didn't care what the computer thought of me. I went to a computer store and tried out various machines and books until it started making sense. Then I bought one, and spent the next X years writing my own printer and modem drivers, because it came with damn near nothing.
Decades later, it still helps to know how things really work under all those layers of abstraction.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 04 2018, @09:36PM
Lame attempt at humor is lame, here's a dull axe think you can get that polished up for me by tomorrow?
(Score: 5, Funny) by krishnoid on Thursday January 04 2018, @09:45PM
This sounds suspicious. Whose penis?