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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: 2) by janrinok on Friday January 05 2018, @12:30PM
I used to be keen on building electronic devices as a hobby. However, having to continually buy components meant the cost of my hobby was climbing all the time. So I convinced myself that a computer - which could easily be reprogrammed to do something entirely different without having to buy new components was the solution. So I bought a Nascom 1 in the early 1980s. 4K ram, half of which was required for the display, 4K ROM, and I had to use a tape recorder for storage. The computer had to be built from components, 1000s of soldered joints for the IC sockets, transistors, resistors etc. But I taught myself how to write Z80 assembly language.
A few years later and I had the opportunity to move into software professionally, as an Air Force officer providing support for the software in a military aircraft. I had to learn Fortran, then Algol, followed by CORAL66 and various proprietary languages used by the various manufacturers. Several years later I had the role of providing computer assisted training to officers undergoing their specialist training.
My career path then changed, but I have always kept at least a couple of computers around the home. Currently I have 8 desktops (7 x linux, 1 x Win7), 3 Raspberry Pi, 2 of which are permanently on, one as a server and the other provide aircraft tracking data for a radius of approximately 200 miles around my home, and I still write software both as OS to support others and in Python which is my current favourite.
Oh, and I've started interfacing my computers with homemade hardware again - so perhaps that early dream of reducing the costs of my hobby were just that - a dream.