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In December, 1963, I graduated from Siena College with a BS degree in Physics. I had planned to continue my education with the intent of preparing myself for a career as a nuclear experimental physicist. However, because my grades were not good enough (note I graduated in December, not June), I decided to enter the military. I joined the US Coast Guard in January 1964 as a Seaman Recruit. I was stationed at the Reserve Training Center in Yorktown, VA. There, I underwent training at the Officer Candidate School. In June 1964, I was commissioned an Ensign.
My first assignment was the US Coast Guard Third District Office in New York. My duties involved ordinance and readiness. A good deal of time was spent writing various war plans for the District's ships and stations. Because I had been trained as a physicist, I was well adapted to understanding the effects of nuclear weapons. I don't think that many things have scared me more than researching these effects.
In October, one of the Yeomen told me that he would be out of the office for three months working on a Civil Defense report for the US Army. The task involved cross adding the numbers of personnel available for Civil Defense activities. He told me that the difficulty was to make the numbers cross add so that the totals of the rows equaled the total of the columns. I reluctantly released him to perform the task.
Shortly after, the Third District Office moved from the US Customs House in New York to Governor's Island in New York harbor. I was told that I was required to move to the Bachelor's Officers Quarters (BOQ) on the island. I was a night person. A large percentage of my duties involved riding cutters and small craft, observing day to day operations of various units. Riding small boats meant being on the water at night. (It has always amazed me how many accidents or rescues occur during darkness.) So I tended to wander Governor's Island at night, either to or from a small boat.
One evening, on return from a visit to a local station, I saw lights on in a building that I thought shouldn't have lights on. On entering the building, I found the lights coming through a door that had been left open. Entering the room, I found box upon box of gray and blue - what turned out to be a large IBM 1410 mainframe. I asked the operator just what this machine was and he told me "a computer." Not quite knowing what a computer was, I asked some questions, gradually coming to the conclusion that this machine could add columns and rows. When I pressed the operator, he told me that I should see the Chief. The next morning I did just that.
The Chief was a radar operator who was performing duty ashore.(Most radarmen seldom see the shore; in those days they were almost exclusively assigned to ships.) I explained the problem of the Civil Defense report and asked if the computer could perform and report the necessary calculations. When the Chief replied affirmatively, I asked how I could arrange to have the task performed. "Simply" the Chief replied. I had to do the programming. He gave me two books: the Principles of Operations and the RPG Language Reference. He told me that everything I needed was in these books.
I took the books to my room in the BOQ and spent a week reading them. I was clueless when I finished. I returned to the Chief and told him that I read the volumes but wasn't sure that I understood how to solve my problem. He asked how many times I had read the books and I replied once. The Chief said that I needed to read them at least three times. I returned to the BOQ and started reading them again. Slowly, more and more concepts became clear until, finally, I realized how to do the job.
I told the Chief that I was ready and asked for a pad of coding sheets and a pad of printer layout forms.
The layout that I had chosen for the report required that I prepare a printer control tape, a loop of paper that was punched with holes in any of twelve columns. The printer could be instructed to sense these holes, moving the paper tape (and thus positioning the page) until the desired hole was sensed. Today, of course, I would not use a control tape but this was my first program. I decided that I needed a top of form punch. The top of form punch was usually placed in column one of the control tape. Following that would come a page heading, followed by the data and results of the calculations. Between the heading and the data, I decided to use another punch, this time in column two. I designed an input format and then wrote the RPG program. I pored over it, finding and correcting errors until I was satisfied with the program. I then used a keypunch machine to construct the deck of "IBM" cards that would be fed to the computer. The Chief helped me with the job control cards. Finally, I was ready. I scheduled time on the machine at two AM the following morning.
Upon arriving, I told the operator that I needed the printer control tape installed. He took the tape and replaced the standard tape with the one I provided. The cards were loaded into the card reader and the machine was booted to read the program and data. In about ten seconds all the cards had been read. The machine started flashing its panel lights and then paused. The operator said that the program was about to execute. And execute it did! Suddenly the printer started spewing paper out. I'm surprised if we didn't waste half a box before the operator could stop the printer. There was nothing on the paper. I was crest fallen. I collected my cards, my printer control tape, and my program listings and returned to the BOQ.
For two days I pored over the listings. I couldn't see anything wrong. I desk checked the code over and over. Still nothing. Finally, I rescheduled time on the machine. This time I met another operator, one who I hadn't met before. We went through the same setup and started the job. I hadn't told the operator that I hadn't made any changes so, after the machine panel lights stopped flickering, I was next to the printer ready to press the stop button. But the printer just started printing the results of its computations. The US Army Civil Defense report was finished in about six seconds.
I was baffled. What had changed? I knew I was dealing with a different operator. That was the only variable. So what could an operator do to cause the printer to spew out paper? Unfortunately, I was unaware that the standard printer control tape was doubly punched for top of form: one punch in column one, the other in column twelve. I had only punched column one. And of course, as Murphy's Law would have it, the first operator installed the printer control tape reversed. Because there was no punch in column twelve, the paper just kept moving, continuously seeking a punch that wasn't there.
I learned two lessons that day: don't trust operators and always double punch the control tape.
But something bad also happened. The program ran without a flaw. I thus missed the opportunity to learn how to debug a computer program - a skill I was required to learn on my second program.
We used the program for three years. I was then assigned to a Coast Guard cutter; then to Vietnam; and finally to Coast Guard headquarters. In 1971, I received a call from the Third District asking what this cabinet full of punched cards was for. I told them what they were for and how to use them. But they decided to destroy them. I guess they liked adding columns and rows by hand.
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Great story! Have a 5. 
/ravi
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I enjoyed that  +5
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Thanks for telling your story. That is fascinating.
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I was first introduced to computer when i was in class V. i started professional programming in 2004
"Opinions are neither right nor wrong. I cannot change your opinion. I can, however, change what influences your opinion." - David Crow
Never mind - my own stupidity is the source of every "problem" - Mixture
cheers,
Alok Gupta
VC Forum Q&A :- I/ IV
Support CRY- Child Relief and You
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Hi Alok,
Humm I was watching you since 2006 ...
When I was fresher, I read your 45 day series article. The concept was really cool
I believe in LOVE AT FIRST SITE...
Bcoz I have loved my Mother...
even since I opened my eyes...(ICAN)
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Shilpi Boosar wrote: When I was fresher, I read your 45 day series article. The concept was really cool
thanks  .... me too liked the concept... but never able to find much time to write more
"Opinions are neither right nor wrong. I cannot change your opinion. I can, however, change what influences your opinion." - David Crow
Never mind - my own stupidity is the source of every "problem" - Mixture
cheers,
Alok Gupta
VC Forum Q&A :- I/ IV
Support CRY- Child Relief and You
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I no longer program so my cumulative years ended a few years back. Unless you consider the occasional scripts programming, which I don't since they're not what I'm paid to do.
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The original survey had the greatest number of developers, 30%, having worked 2-5 years... 7 years later, in the early results to this survey, the bulge is at 30% having worked over 20 years. What's up? Did the old-timers discover CodeProject.com sometime between then and now?
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Perhaps it's because this survey clarifies that "working" means "getting paid". I have a little over 5 years of actual work, dating back to my first job about 8 years ago, though I have been programming in school (some consider that "work") for about 11 years (maybe 13 or so if you count that turtle-based "programming language" where the turtle could only turn in one direction).
I put 5-10 years since I've only been paid to work for just over 5 years of my life.
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I guess so, I joined 2.5 years ago.
while (e) { Coyote(); }
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That's easy, just bill your client 2.5 hours for every hour you work. 
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It could also be different people voting. It's only 1k out of 7.5 million.
Jeremy Falcon
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Sometimes, I think I've been doing this for too long - since early eighties - but then I look back and see how far we have moved.
Not just in hardware (though that is an enormous improvement on what we had when I started), or just languages (ditto), or tools (ditto with HUGE knobs on), but mostly in technique, and focus. Then it was "heads down, concentrate on the task in hand". Now, it is much, much more planning for the future, and trying to design re-use into modules from day one. This actually produces better results, even when we never reuse the code.
I may have been in the same industry for a long time, but it isn't the industry it was when I started, I'm glad to say. It's changed, and so have I.
Now, the "hobby" element is nearly eliminated from the workplace, and a good degree of professionalism is coming in to replace it. No bad thing, that.
Real men don't use instructions. They are only the manufacturers opinion on how to put the thing together.
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I wrote first computer code in 1980, but took software development as a profession over a decade later. Many professions involve writing computer code to some extent.
Best,
Jun
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... Now that I have your attention, since 1998
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The first computer I programmed (in 1959) was a Stantec Zebra, a paper tape based machine.
The last computer I programmed (in 2011) is an Apple iPad for which I am developing an app to display Sharepoint data.
There is no reason why computing should be a young man's occupation because it relatively easy and inexpensive to acquire the latest H/W and S/W to keep up with the latest technology. I believe that it is every professional developers obligation to keep up to date. Once you've learned some of the basics such as how hardware works, operating systems, and compilers, it becomes easy to see new things in a context that you already understand.
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There is no reason why computing should be a young man's occupation
true..
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You are the best example for young man.  
<b>Today is a gift, that's why we call it present</b>
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Absolutely agree. It worries me sometimes today to see young hotshot degree-holding developers who appear to have no real understanding of what is actually going on underneath what they are doing, i.e. at the lower levels. I know there's an argument that that is not necessary, but it's one that I don't subscribe to. Worse, these "young lions" are usually paid a heap more than me 
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I agree - and it is difficult to see where this is going to lead. You know and I know that the lowest levels haven't changed significantly, but that layer after layer has been built on top of them.
Should a new paradigm evolve - organic computing say - how will the latest generation cope with replacing the creaking tower to reach the levels they are at now? As the old generation are squeezed out of the industry (by design, by death, or by default) can the "young blood" fill in the gaps? Not too likely on current showing. 
Real men don't use instructions. They are only the manufacturers opinion on how to put the thing together.
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baw wrote: The first computer I programmed (in 1959) was a Stantec Zebra, a paper tape based machine.
The last computer I programmed (in 2011) is an Apple iPad for which I am developing an app to display Sharepoint data.
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I started developing (writing my first C code and never stopped then) in 1999.
I professionally started developing software and working with Professional companies in 2005.
With 5+ experience, i see many more people like me, with this survey results.
Current survey results comparison to 7 years back results:
- more people do not work as developer now
- there are more people who have just entered in coding now (w.r.t. compare count then)
- there are more senior developers and developers (not beginners) now
- very less developers now, who have very high experience
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