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For real work, it was one of these bad boys[^], running the Dataflex 3GL.
For my first computing and program experience, I bout a ZX81[^] kit and got out my soldering iron.
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I'm an optoholic - my glass is always half full of vodka.
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Professionally it was a TI-990 mini computer
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BBC Master Compact, with a naff green screen that made the world look like it had raster lines if you used it for too long...
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Basic on Sinclair ZX-81 in 1982 (it was released a year late).
IK of Ram. Later bought a 16K dongle that kept falling off and losing my work.
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My first professional computer, that I actually got paid to program for, was an HP 1000[^] minicomputer in 1980. I also programmed on an Intel Intellec MDS-80[^] in that same time period.
In 1984 I did a lot of programming on a Zenith Z-100, a predecessor of your 120.
Software Zen: delete this;
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1980, Heathkit 3400 Microprocessor Trainer like this one [^]. Soon the Tandy Color computer would be released - with a Motorola MC68B09E microprocessor beating inside it - only natural I would graduate from the 6800 in the Heathkit to writing code for the CPU in the CoCo 
-- RP
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Kevin Marois wrote: I taught myself GW-Basic on this Zenith 120[^] back in 1985 while in the Marine Corps.
Wow, that takes me back. That was my second professional computer, in the same circumstances as yours, only a year later than you. 
I learned BASIC on a PDP 8 or 11 (I can't remember which) in High School in the late 70s. The first one of my own was an Atari 800; more BASIC. The first professional programming was in COBOL on whatever the Marine Corps was using in Quantico at the time, I think it was the 370, but I couldn't tell you for sure.
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A TI-994A. With a tape recorded for storage... we were never rich enough to shell out for a disk drive. I remember my dad asking if I wanted to get an Atari at Christmas or the TI now... I'm a kid, of course I want it NOW.
So while I never got to play the same cool games that all of my friends had (since EVERYONE else had an Atari), it did give me my first introduction to a real computer. After introducing me to programming, I then continued on with the various TI magazines (can't remember the name of any of them off-hand) and learned a lot about line-code programming.
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Same here on the TI-994a. I still have it, though I haven't started it in over 20 years. When I was in high school, I used to write little programs to do all my math homework. I also spent many hours playing the Scott Adams Adventure games. 
"Go forth into the source" - Neal Morse
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I think that may have been the same one that my Dad had. I remember being blown away by the graphics demo on it (which essentially showed amazing things equivalent to 1990's Windows screen-savers). He had it hooked up a heathkit power-bar kit. My first was a TI-994A right around the same time frame - I was in grade 3 at the time. I eventually moved on to C64.
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I taught myself Assembly Language on an IBM 7040 in 1968 or 1969 by reading the code output of the FORTRAN compiler.
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Wow, this brings back fond memories. My first development machine was a Commodore Vic 20. I wrote a product pricing program on it for the first company I worked for back in the early 1980's. The proof of concept was well received. The company purchased an IBM PC with PFS File and word processing and my IT career was launched.
And yes, the Vic 20 was hooked up to a black and white TV and had a tape recorder for a storage device. Man those were the days!
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The very first, circa 1964 - 1970, was an IBM 360 with Assembler and Fortran IV.
In the PC world, circa 1980 - 1982, it was an IBM PC with dual floppies and 64K RAM using GW-BASIC. Soon after I switched to Borland Turbo Pascal.
Those systems were so limited even when compared to an Android Tablet today.
"Courtesy is the product of a mature, disciplined mind ... ridicule is lack of the same - DPM"
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Wow! All the responses makes me feel really young, my first development computer (the one ever I did something that could be considered development) was a 386 computer owned by my school (don't rememeber brand) that ran the glorious MS-DOS (unknown version), on it I developed some programs on Logo and stored them on these big 5 1/2 floppy disks. Making the turtle move and draw was amazing back then.
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My initial development experiences were with BASIC first,then assembly on a TRS-80 Model 1, complete with 4K of RAM and tape cassette storage. It was a great day when my dad finally buckled under pressure and sprung for the 48K expansion interface.
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I started in 1969 on a PDP 6 with a huge 6K of drum storage (a 3 ft diameter drum with magnetic material on the outside and (about) a 3" read head). Our group was developing analog to digital converters at the time. During the development we upgraded to a PDP 8 with almost twice the processing power and 8K of memory. Fun times!
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I fondly remember many long afternoons in junior high school (late 1970's) on the single Radio Shack TRS-80 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TRS-80[^]. Hey, it was either that or churn through roll after roll of printer paper playing Star Trek on the teletype terminal. Fortuantely for me, not many kids wanted to spend their free time in the computer lab in those days. We saved our spaghetti code to an audio tape cassette drive! Ah, the good old days.
-- Mountain Will
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An HP-2000C via modem using an ASR-33 teletype @ 110 baud in high school. It was available to some schools in the Los Angeles School District if there was an instructor to teach Basic programming (all we had). Programs were created offline on another ASR-33 using paper tape. We couldn't store files, so when done you had to output your program onto paper tape again after making changes or lose them.
My first personal computer was a Commodore Kim-1 (6502) with an S-100 expansion board to add 8K bytes of static RAM. The terminal was a Compucolor 8001 19" color graphics terminal, which was an 8080 computer in its own right. This was in 1974 I believe.
Mike
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A Commodore VIC-20 in 1982 with 4k memory (the other 16k came as expansion and at a price).
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How about a KIM-1. A Single Board computer with a 6502 processor, 2K ROM, 1K Ram (expandable to all of 4K), a 24 key keypad, and a 2 character single line display.
This was in 1978 or so. All assembly language, It could be connected to an ASR-33/KSR-38 Teletype (anyone remember those?).
Still have the KIM-1 somewhere.
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PDP-8/I running TSS-8/I in high school. Used FOCAL-8, BASIC-8, and PALD-8 (Assembler), also IBM S/360 FORTRAN and COBOL when the school finally added a programming class (we spent most of the time teaching the teachers).
Univac 418 Model II for first paid job ($5) FORTRAN and ART418 Assembler
IBM S/370 first salaried programming in Assembler.
Psychosis at 10
Film at 11
Those who do not remember the past, are doomed to repeat it.
Those who do not remember the past, cannot build upon it.
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A PDP-8e with real ferrite core memory. Taught myself Dartmouth Basic from a book my dad had, I wrote the program on paper, he typed it in for me. He had to fix a few typos. It was really stupid.. it printed a picture of an airplane. Later, I'd go into work with him on Saturdays and write Basic on their "mainframe" (an 11/70, I think.. never saw it in person).
We can program with only 1's, but if all you've got are zeros, you've got nothing.
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Very cool  . When was this?
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