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From the first line of code to transitioning from an Auto Mechanic to a professional Software Developer.
1977 (ish): Writing Basic code on a Bally Entertainment System, wrote a simple Multi-Die + Adjustments dice rolling routine for D&D. Had to load and save via cassette tape.
Late 1977: Followed shortly thereafter by an Apple II+ that my dad received for his office. Wrote several D&D applications where I could run a random campaign pretty easily. Unfortunately, it was at his office most of the time.
1982: A KayPro II luggable continuously borrowed from a neighbor who didn't care to use it (it was supplied through his emplyer). I finally had something I could use on a regular basis. Ported all of my D&D code from the Apple II+ to the KayPro and wrote even more stuff for our D&D campaigning. 
1983: Life happened... Didn't touch a computer for 5 years.
1988: Discovered BBS's via a friend of mine who ran one. Rented to own an 10Mhz IBM XT clone, taught myself QuickBasic and Pascal. Quickly acquired 2 80286 machines. Taught myself C. Picked up an 80386 machine. Ran a BBS of my own, wrote BBS Doors, other utilities.
1990: I was hired as a programmer writing billing and management code for a company (now defunct) in Carrollton Tx. The journey begins!
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IBM 709 in Machine Language then assembler then FORTRAN in early 1961. Still writing code but in higher level languages.
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The first actual programming I did was on a Apple II sometime in the early 80's. I programmed generating and storing character sheets for D & D. I programmed in Apple Basic, but I THINK the actual Basic program code was written by Micro-Soft, if I remember correctly.
What got me interested in programs themselves was my first computer, a TRS-80, from 1978. I had a game called Pursuit of the Graf Spee. You had to load it from a cassette tape using a standard player connected to the computer by an audio patch cable. I discovered if you hit the Break characters (don't remember if it was Cntrl-C or not) the program would stop, you could see the code that made up the game, and you could alter the ship's performance.
You alternated sitting at the keyboard/screen. The German Player would enter his move/speed, then the British would enter theirs. The British had more ships, but the fast ones were out-gunned by the Spee and the big gun Rodney was too slow to catch it in a race. Unless like me you hit the Program Break and altered the code before starting the game for real. You could change it so that you had incredible amounts of fuel, travel at 99 knots and have a ridiculous number of guns and armor. You could only have 2 digit numbers for turrets, armor and guns per turret on the ship, but that let you put 99 turrets, with 99 guns each. And 99 inches of armor.
It was a fun trick to play once on someone, but the game alterations weren't saved so you had to alter the code each time, and you had to do it without the other player knowing you did it. But it was fun looking through the code and figuring out what commands/code did what, and how they set up the situation and what percentages they assigned different actions and what they did to keep track of the 5 or 6 ships the 2 players controlled.
When I went to school the beginner languages taught was Fortran and Pascal, with C being what was pushed for advanced language. COBOL still was taught but it was an optional class.
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1969 assembly language on a Varian Associates 620i 16 bit computer with 4k of core memory. Teletype punch paper tape to load program, after manually entering bootstrap program from front panel switches. System used to control and record data from a Farrington Electronics OCR page reader.
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I would have been four in 1960, OP. Still interested in magnets, toads, bicycles and bunnies. I could already read comic books by then, so my fate was sealed. First real was Fortran and BASIC in whatever year Reagan was elected President. I think Windows 1.0 was still about seven years away?
Reading all the replies, I have to say it's nice to have someone my own age to play with.
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No punch card machine at the high school I attended; our 'punch' cards had to be filled in by hand using Sharpies, sent out 2x a week to the one high school in the area that had a computer we could get some processing time on, and we got to do a field trip every two weeks to that school so that we got a total of 5-6 tries maybe in a 2 week period to get our FORTRAN programs correct.
That inspired me though, so over the next summer I spent my babysitting money on a COSMAC Elf (RCA 1802) kit, taught myself assembly language and eventually abandoned my plans to become a veterinarian even though the state university I attended starting that fall didn't quite have such a thing as a degree in computer anything.
~ janet
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Fortran 4 in high school in 1972. 026 keypunch. Lame IBM "programmed learning" course. IBM 360 at the Seattle Public Schools central office, approximately three week (!!) turnaround via US Mail round trip. Favorite error message "Expecting operator but , before J was found"
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First professional experience was PL/I on IBM 360/95 modeling heat flow through a nuclear reactor core section and Assembly language on a HP 2116 at Argonne National Laboratory in 1968 for data collection.
Then went to work for GTE after Nixon got elected and axed R&D budgets where I was programming the IBM 1800 in Assembly and a touch of Fortran II. Modified the be-dickens out of the 1800 MPX operating system including writing a printer spooling system, developing support for the 2314 disk drives, bi-sync communications to IBM 370/158 and 168, and developing real time multi-programming/multi-tasking OS'es including assemblers for Data General Nova and GTE Tempo II computer, all while going to night school at IIT and studying languages such as Lisp and Univac 1108 assembly language.
Managed to get married, buy and remodel a house and have 3 kids. I'm not sure if I ever slept.
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Please don't repost if your message doesn't appear immediately: all three got sent to moderation by the automated system and required a human to check and approve them. And then follow you around and clear up the spares ... 
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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Sorry about that. We've been having ISP problems with intermittent outages. I thought maybe that was causing the delay in seeing the post.
Thanks.
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Not trying to top you all but in 1963 I went to work at the University of B.C. as an operator on an IBM1620. I learned to program in assembler and FORTRAN 1a. FORTRAN was a 2 pass compiler. you would load pass 1 by cards followed by your program followed by pass 2 followed by your program again. I also monitored the ALWAC III a machine with mercury delay memory. We finally upgraded to an IBM7040 with mag tapes and a disk drive the size of a commercial refrigerator. By then I was a systems programmer. I've been through many languages such as algol, B, Basic(several), C, C++, COBOL, JAVA, Lisp, Pascal, PL1, and many assemblers. Worked with various machines from IBM, Honeywell, Intel(Microsoft et al), Digital Equipment, RCA, CDC. I'm now retired and write in C for my own pleasure for windows, Raspberry Pi, arduino. Fortran was the most fun.
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A PC games magazine published readers' games on the pack-in-CD. Some of them were written in QBasic with the QBasic interpreter attached. That got me started (and I even got a creation of mine published).
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Now that's scary! From prolific poster to nada in what, weeks now?
[edit]Never mind, I must be blind.[/edit]
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It's Halloween - he's not allowed out until after dark.
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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Ssh, let sleeping persons lie.
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She died in a tragic accident when a house fell on her during a tornado.
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Don't you think this is a bit of bad taste?
Forget it... OG had to make me see the relationship to "Oz". My apologies. I stand corrected
M.D.V. 
If something has a solution... Why do we have to worry about?. If it has no solution... For what reason do we have to worry about?
Help me to understand what I'm saying, and I'll explain it better to you
Rating helpful answers is nice, but saying thanks can be even nicer.
modified 31-Oct-19 9:18am.
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No, they saved her shoes.
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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Ok... I now get the joke.
M.D.V.
If something has a solution... Why do we have to worry about?. If it has no solution... For what reason do we have to worry about?
Help me to understand what I'm saying, and I'll explain it better to you
Rating helpful answers is nice, but saying thanks can be even nicer.
modified 31-Oct-19 9:23am.
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Waiting for a Window... so can't post with freezing fingers...
"The only place where Success comes before Work is in the dictionary." Vidal Sassoon, 1928 - 2012
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The same place that all manic-depressive trolls, with gender issues, desperate for attention, go 
«One day it will have to be officially admitted that what we have christened reality is an even greater illusion than the world of dreams.» Salvador Dali
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The oldest reported member is theoldfool, with 85 years of experience...
The youngest reported member is maze3, with 17 (and a half) years of hunger...
Purely based on the posts the majority is over 40... Which is interesting for an area with reputation of 'for young only'...
(maybe that reputation was built by hr related, who knows nothing of the value of experience and the development of learning abilities with age)
"The only place where Success comes before Work is in the dictionary." Vidal Sassoon, 1928 - 2012
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Kornfeld Eliyahu Peter wrote: Purely based on the posts the majority is over 40... Which is interesting for an area with reputation of 'for young only'...
(maybe that reputation was built by hr related, who knows nothing of the value of experience and the development of learning abilities with age)
Or the area still is mostly for "only young" people, but only the older ones post in the lounge :P
M.D.V.
If something has a solution... Why do we have to worry about?. If it has no solution... For what reason do we have to worry about?
Help me to understand what I'm saying, and I'll explain it better to you
Rating helpful answers is nice, but saying thanks can be even nicer.
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Or maybe the youngsters are still in the phase of 'self'...
"The only place where Success comes before Work is in the dictionary." Vidal Sassoon, 1928 - 2012
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Nelek wrote: but only the older ones post in the lounge
You can find younger ones posting in the QA. 
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