Journal Journal: A beginning
I got started back when you didn't take "computer programming" classes, you took "data processing", and the real cool thing was to write a cobol program that would print a Snoopy or Enterprise on greenbar paper. The first serious program I wrote was on a Wang programmable calculater in 1978. It was written by punching out the instruction code on a card by hand. The card was placed in a reader that looked like a vertical waffle iron and closed. The variables and whatnot were entered into a terminal that looked like a big calculator with a Nixie tube display. The program calculated the pH of a solution given the concentration of the ions and their ionization constant. This was an important program for me because the calculation involves solving the quadratic, which gives a real and an imaginary answer. The answers had to be tested to see which one was the valid one - I had to learn branching in programming.
The first computer I owned was a KIM-1 6502-based single-board microcomputer. Actually it was two boards because I had a memory and I/O expansion board. I learned a lot programming in machine language (and the value of coffee!).
My main interests now are hardware related, although you need an understanding of software and operating systems to be able to interface and control the hardware.
