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Where did you start programming?

Posted: Sat Mar 13, 2004 12:06 pm
by Num3
Just wondering...

I know many have programmed in all, but i just want to know where you started at!

Posted: Sat Mar 13, 2004 12:10 pm
by freedimension
Where did you start programming?
At Home :twisted:

Posted: Sat Mar 13, 2004 12:23 pm
by dmoc
Fortran punch cards were my first intro to programming but I didn't actual use them (thankfully). My math's teacher had done a correspondance course to learn programming and passed them on to me. Yeah, she use to punch the cards, mail them off, get a "bug report" several weeks later and the whole process begun again, imagine! Next was a HP luggable around 1978/79 that was doing a tour of UK schools. It was programmable with BASIC, had a single strip of alpha-numeric LED's and an integrated printer. Thinking back it was pretty advanced for it's time (HP had the future in their hands and didn't even realise it, losers!). Within a few months the school had bought a Commodore PET, very space age looking but give me blisters on the tips of my fingers! About a year after that I got my very own first computer, an Acorn 6502, programmed using opcodes on hex keypad. No case, just two "eurocard" style boards connected with a ribbon cable. Eventually it was (and still is) held together with spacers and elastic bands :P

Posted: Sat Mar 13, 2004 1:06 pm
by merendo
Some years ago, when i was about 12 yrs old, i thought about learning C++ but soon found it's too hard for me. Then a friend of mine told me about BlitzBasic and it's easiness especially for beginners. Then i read a tutorial for BlitzBasic, and all started. Before that, i also coded in HTML, but i don't think you can call HTML a coding language. Then, on BlitzBasic's website i read: BB get's a brother: PureBasic. I downloaded the demo and about two month later i bought the full version. So far... that's it.

Posted: Sat Mar 13, 2004 2:04 pm
by Dare2
FAS,PLAN for ICL 1500,1900 and NEAT/3 for NCR Century.
Punch card and paper tape input. Magnetic tape and cram cards and removable hard disks for storage. 600 lpm barrel printers.
Flashing Lights and on/off switches to read/set memory!
Room as big as a warehouse filled with units big as fridges and washing machings, 3 shifts a day with 3 operators per shift to run the whole EDP thing.
8k memory.
Maintenance goons standing by with machine guns and grenades in case it went feral.

Posted: Sat Mar 13, 2004 2:49 pm
by GedB
I can still remember the day. It was a rainy sunday afternoon and I was stuck in the house bored.

The ZX81 was broken, and would load or save games. I had nothing else to do but sit down and work through the manual.

I was about 9 years old, and I haven't looked back since.

Posted: Sat Mar 13, 2004 3:58 pm
by TronDoc
TTY terminal at my high school in '74
it was connected to some mainframe
a couple hundred miles away
at a state university..
..paper tape input and output
and BASIC!!!!

Joe

Posted: Sat Mar 13, 2004 4:40 pm
by Kale
[1998] Javascript --> HTML --> Perl --> Python --> C/C++ --> DarkBasic/Pro --> PureBasic [2004]

...and thats basically it. 8O

Re: Where did you start programming?

Posted: Sat Mar 13, 2004 5:28 pm
by NoahPhense
Num3 wrote:Just wondering...

I know many have programmed in all, but i just want to know where you started at!
Apple II or Apple IIc in elementary school. Wrote my first POS application
at age 7.

The project was to create a colored clown face. I don't even remember the
syntax any more. But it was something like;

Code: Select all

color (10,20)
plot(x,y)
I said, "The hell with the clown, I'm writing a pos app."

Then oddly enough, my first computer was an Atari 800XL.
http://web.wt.net/~damoore/oldcomp/atar ... 800xl.html
Used a tape drive to store my basic apps.. ;) processor: 1.79 Mhz (lol)

Then I bought the Atari 520ST: (512 ram)
http://www.atarimuseum.com/computers/16 ... tarist.htm


Then the 1040ST (1 mb ram) ;)
http://www.aceadvanced.org/computers/atari/1040st.htm
woot 8mhz .. i was screamin

And before the Mega4 ST was released, I was one of VERY few people
in the US to have added another MB of memory to the main board. (soldered)

Giving me 2 MB's of RAM.. in a 1040ST

This was way before the Mega4 ST came out (4mb's)..

But before I could get into the Mega4, this was a shocker, I got handed
an 8088 IBM, no hard drive, 1 5in floppy drive, green screen monitor.
Finally got a 10mb hdd ;).. MFM then a 20mb.. woot

from there I went through the stages of 286, 386, 486, Pentium1, 2, 3,
and well 4 is where I am at now..

As far as programming, well it's been basic most of the time. From
QBasic, to QBasic 4.5 the compiler version, straight to Visual Basic 3.0,
then 4.0, 5.0 Enterprise Edition, 6 Enterprise Edition, I refused to go
to .NET ..

I don't use VB anymore. Not unless I'm entering a contest for,
"Who can make the biggest bulkiest EXE, that requires the largest
DLL known to man."


I still use (or make use of):
PureBasic
IBasic Professional
MASM32, FASM, BASM
PellesC
TurboPascal 7

(sorry for the large post)

- john

Posted: Sat Mar 13, 2004 5:59 pm
by Uncle B
Started coding on a commodore 64 as a kid. that computer was allready far out of date back then. actually saw one in a small science museum at the time!! think i'll buy one when i see it. just a few more years and the price of it will raise again :wink:

Posted: Sat Mar 13, 2004 7:03 pm
by ricardo
My first attempt was with an old texas instrument that works with BASIC.

But i start thinking more in programming when i discover (and get inlove) with .bat files!! :oops:

Yes, i know it may sound stupid, but i feel that i have some power to control my PC and my girl friend (today is my wife) admires me because my .bat files.

I develope a small bat compiler because i want it to be a .com or .exe to feel i was a real programmer... (status that i dont have yet now!!).

When i first encode a wav to mp3 file with my small bat file, i feel the most genius in the world.

Posted: Sat Mar 13, 2004 9:47 pm
by scurrier
I was about 12 when i started.
I started on a TRS-80 COCO2 Color Extended Basic by Microsoft
then a TI/994A that was a kick Butt computer for it's day
Next Basic on a very old MAC again Basic from Microsoft
GWBasic - DOS base
Qbasic - DOS Base
Basic 7.1 PDS - DOS base
Pascal - this was supose to replace basic where is pascal now?
C - useless
Ansi C - not as bad as C++
C++ - pain in the butt
DarkBasic - what a joke
PowerBasic - what a rip off
and now
PureBasic the best of all the rest


Sean

Re: Where did you start programming?

Posted: Sun Mar 14, 2004 4:41 am
by PB
> i just want to know where you started at

I started with the VIC-20, but got serious with the Commodore 64. :)

Posted: Sun Mar 14, 2004 12:37 pm
by Uncle B
Just wondering,
how many registered PB users are there at this moment? :?:

Posted: Sun Mar 14, 2004 2:44 pm
by traumatic
scurrier wrote: then a TI/994A that was a kick Butt computer for it's day
YEEEEEESSSS!! :D