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Same here... only it was an Atari 400. I had a few programs written to audio tape that are lost to the ages. Probably taped over with White Lion or Def Leppard 
So I was very computer illiterate - the personal computer at that time would have been maybe a Heathkit that you built from the ground up, but that was not my level of dedication.
First program? I remember staying up late getting my name to march around the screen in different ways. Good times.
Good times *sigh*
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Nice musical references!
Ed Bouras wrote: White Lion or Def Leppard
I did mine on a TI-99/4a. It was great until the cassette interface/modem quit working. I could still write BASIC programs to solve physics and math homework problems...I just couldn't save them...and I couldn't create save points in the Scott Adam's Adventure games. SAV GAM 
Damn good times!
"Go forth into the source" - Neal Morse
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Heh. Of course those was my musically misguided years... before I discovered the awesomeness of Rush!
I think there are a few Canadian CP'ers here who would agree with that assessment 
I think my neighbor had a TI-99 that we used to play Tunnels of DoomClickety[] on. Loved that game!
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Yeah I had NO idea.
PDP-8 at school in the late 70s. I got to "10 print <something awful="" about="" the="" vice="" principal="">\n20 goto 10" pretty quickly.
The big reveal was adding the ';' character to the inside of the string which would suppress the crlf (which, on the wide-carriage screenless terminal really was "carriage return, line feed".
It's all been downhill from there.
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The old VAX eh? THats even before my time!
Sinclair Spectrum and the BBC were the first computers I came across. They were rare beasts before then, very rare.
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The PDP was before the VAX, both by DEC.
The PDP was the processor that gave birth to the C programming language.
When I learned the MACRO-11 Assembler in High School, I did not realize I was learning C.
The best ASSEMBLY EVER.
Even though we had paper terminals. We had 3 "CRTs", which I quickly started using.
Learning that the OS was just a program. That was the moment the light went on.
We used RSTS/E Operating System, and by by the time I graduated High School, I had patched
the OS in numerous ways (Hidden Files, bypassing NOLOGON)
Crazy Times. But I learned how to do so much with that system.
Oh, and in homage to VB programmers everywhere, this OS used BASIC Plus for almost all of the system library programs (Login, Logout). They did this by using a weird concept of Interrupts called System function calls.
A$ = sys( chr$(6)+ "..." )
It took a single string, the first character was like the interrupt jump table byte (which function), and the rest of the string was parsed. So, 6 for system function, then like a 5 for Kill job, then the job number converted to a string. Really cool Radix50.
Wow, that brought back too many memories from 1984-1985...
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That is pretty cool actually. I love this kind of stuff, digging round in the guts of the machine,. its why I write drivers, and why I prefer Linux to Windows, though I have done a lot more on WIndows, you are closer to the real machine.
User mode stuff just makes me angry. All you are dealing with is someone elses rules, someone elses wrapper, and someone elses limitations.
Working down with the hardware, having to take into account electrical states, ,that's where the fun is./
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Very, very, very.
I didn't even see a computer until about six months after I started coding - we used punch cards in those days - being able to use a terminal and even an editor (poor by modern standards as it was) was a brilliant revelation!
"Turning the computer on" had to wait about another year and the 5th computer I used: a PDP8.
And starting that box was a bit harder than today:
Turn key to POWER.
Set all switches to 0
Click on EXTD
Set switches to 0x0018
Click on ADDR
Set switches to 0x0DE3
Click on DEP
Set switches to 0x0A19
Click on DEP
Set switches to 0x0080
Click on ADDR
Click on CLR
Verify HALT and STEP are up
Click on CONT
(I cheated and checked the exact values, but I remembered it pretty well: only one digit error!)
Those who fail to learn history are doomed to repeat it. --- George Santayana (December 16, 1863 – September 26, 1952)
Those who fail to clear history are doomed to explain it. --- OriginalGriff (February 24, 1959 – ∞)
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I am proud to say that i have seen an punch card, never saw the machine (we are not counting the pictures and internet).
OT:
I have whole 2 boxes full of doughnuts from Dunkin Donuts (we have no other choice here for good doughnuts) but still i am very happy :P
Why i am sharing this ? Because when you are sending the lappie sleeve you need to add something extra in good packaging, choco is prefered
Microsoft ... the only place where VARIANT_TRUE != true
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Punched card had big advantages over "Modern" editors and HDDs.
They taught you to write concise, efficient programs.
Otherwise you needed wheels to move your code around! We didn't have "copy'n'paste", we had "drag'n'hernia"! That stuff got heavy quickly 
Those who fail to learn history are doomed to repeat it. --- George Santayana (December 16, 1863 – September 26, 1952)
Those who fail to clear history are doomed to explain it. --- OriginalGriff (February 24, 1959 – ∞)
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You left out "knocking over the card stack of the guy/gal you didn't like". My first program was a COBOL program, punched in, then fed to a 370/115. I was in my first semester of a Business Administration degree, fell in love with coding, transferred to a 2 year state tech, got an AS in coding and never looked back. Fortunately for me I never actually had to work on a Mainframe, PC's & 'Mini' computers were just coming into vogue, so that's what I've always worked on. C first, x86 asm, then C++.
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Using punched cards taught me how to delicately fit a chad back into a mis-punched hole, and keep it in place with sticky tape. And clog up the card reader.
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I started on an ICL 1901, which was also switch operated. I can't remember all the switch combinations, but I seem to recall that to load a program required the use of the index and middle fingers on the left hand, and the index finger on the right hand, followed by pressing the green (I think) button.
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I was quite knowledgeable of computers when I started programming in C++ back around 1999. I had already been writing basic JavaScript, plus I grew up around computers. I didn't "know it all", but I definitely knew how to operate one and how to get around. But then again, I was also intrigued by hacking, though I never pursued it on a malicious level. Once I started programming, I learned so much more about a computer though, I know.
djj55: Nice but may have a permission problem
Pete O'Hanlon: He has my permission to run it.
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I knew nothing of computer when I got my C64 and started to do some basic and assembly (I got a book with)...
I learned side-by-side about how to use and how to program.
I'm not questioning your powers of observation; I'm merely remarking upon the paradox of asking a masked man who he is. (V)
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I still have the book that came with my C64 around here somewhere, probably buried deep in the attic somewhere. Might be time to go treasure hunting
"I've seen more information on a frickin' sticky note!" - Dave Kreskowiak
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Well, I guess thats the benefit of starting coding way before WIndows rolled along. It was a Spectrum I first wrote programs on, just for my own use, and actually really enjoyed it. It wasnt till much later that I startrd a career in programming, and that was on DOS, which again is simple.
Now I write WIndows drivers mostly, as well as LInux, and I am fully aware of the complexity of the OS, and how hard MSFT make it by producing junk code themselves ans almost useless documentation.
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I am sorry, it is not useless. It is fairly easy to get windows message numbers and their meaning if you want to trap them. Oh and applying a processor patch is easier than that if you can get the correct SDK (I almosttypes APK here ).
sarcasm
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d@nish wrote: it is not useless
You might want to revise that opinion after reading the WDK...
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Anymore use of TLA's and I will have head out for a KFC!
- I would love to change the world, but they won’t give me the source code.
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WTF? 
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You missed out on word sarcasm in small font size at the bottom of post, didn't you?
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I did, sorry. Thought it was a sig.
Yes,, glad you agree.
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Mine was in VB copying and pasting a tutorial for a whack a mole game, which I then replaced the mole with my friends head.
As for my computer skills, I think I did the head picture by cutting it out in paint, I knew a tiny bit about ms dos but literally nothing compared to the vast overwhelming knowledge I know now. Which will be literally nothing compared to the vast super overhwelming knowledge I'll know in five years etc etc.
Simon Lee Shugar (Software Developer)
www.simonshugar.co.uk
"If something goes by a false name, would it mean that thing is fake? False by nature?" By Gilbert Durandil
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I had nearly forgotten: My Uni course was a "thin sandwich" - 6 months Uni, 6 months industry - and my first industrial training was this the Atlas Computer Division of the Rutherford Labs, a UK government research institution.
At the end of the training a report on my work was sent to the college: "Was determined to find out 'all about computers' and showed great ingenuity in doing so"
It wasn't a compliment. 
Those who fail to learn history are doomed to repeat it. --- George Santayana (December 16, 1863 – September 26, 1952)
Those who fail to clear history are doomed to explain it. --- OriginalGriff (February 24, 1959 – ∞)
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