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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: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 04 2018, @10:29PM (3 children)
I didn't have a computer when I was a boy. All I had were library books to tell me how amazing computers are and how wonderful it would be as soon as I could touch one. I read every book I could find about the Apple IIe, ProDOS, Applesoft Basic, and 6502 assembly language. I learned to program by reading tutorials, and I wrote Basic programs by hand on paper. Mostly I wrote games: craps, blackjack, checkers. When the library finally got a computer, I typed in my handwritten programs and my programs worked.
And three decades later, I still haven't found work as a coder.
Which reminds me...
I didn't have a girlfriend when I was a boy. All I had were underwear catalogs to show me how amazing nude women are and how wonderful it would be as soon as I could touch one.
And three decades later, I'm still a virgin.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Thursday January 04 2018, @10:49PM (1 child)
It's not to late to learn to program. But STAY AWAY from Perl!
Even modern mental health care has difficulty helping people to achieve complete recovery from having programmed in Perl.
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 04 2018, @11:11PM
Too late, I already learned Perl. And PHP, Python, and Ruby. They all suck.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 05 2018, @06:35AM
Hey, after seeing all the problems my married friends got into, rethink your situation.
I never got married either. Came close a couple of times - but issues surfaced that wiggled the cement before it set, and things came loose before the legal bonds were in place.
Loneliness can be hell, but I think being legally bound to someone you no longer have love for nor does she love you, is even worse.
Don't get me wrong. I would love to be in the kind of relationship that TV and movies portray as a happy home. But the real-world evidence I have seen tells me that is rarely the case. I get the strong idea there is no way I could ever live up to her expectations, when she has an endless stream of new suitors, and I am an old toy. I will get thrown out as fast as 5 year old car, even if I am working perfectly. Even my ability to financially support a family is rendered moot by governmental subsidy programs. In the modern frame of things, I feel I am quite useless. Nothing I can do that the government can't do better with their unlimited financial resources. So, for me, its porn.
I guess I take what I can get. I can't afford the lamborghini, but I can have an old van. Take what I can get and be happy with it.
At my age, I grow weary of being a power supply trying to drive a short circuit. Trying to kiss ass. Office politics. All of which require tremendous amounts of my energy yet return nothing useful.
I'll post anon, as I feel I need to state my feelings about this from the heart. And let you know you are not alone. Other people have also taken the path of avoidance rather than put up with all the bullshit that goes with this modern governmental intrusion into family matters.
( If you think the families are having a tough go of dealing with governmental intrusion, look at the teaching profession! Given the liabilities of trying to tutor kids, I would not touch that with a ten foot pole! )