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honey the codewitch10-Sep-19 5:47

10-Sep-19 5:47

i remember typing in machine code from those old mags. I ended up learning 6502 bytecode with those things. I used to have my friend read them off to me while I'd type them in and vice versa so we'd get it right. It was a whole lot easier than trying to go back and forth and remembering where you were. Smile | :)

When I was growin' up, I was the smartest kid I knew. Maybe that was just because I didn't know that many kids. All I know is now I feel the opposite.

MikeTheFid10-Sep-19 5:50

MikeTheFid

10-Sep-19 5:50

Part 1 - Obligation
3rd year of college (Electrical Engineering) 1978 brought two assignments:

1) Make the electro-mechanical guts of an adding machine print "1234567890" using wires, solder, and a Motorola 6800.

2) Full year thesis project. I saw an article in Byte magazine analyzing how the crew of the Enterprise (ST:TOS) interacted with the ship's computer. That got me thinking seriously about voice recognition. So I designed a set of 4 audio band pass filters and counted zero crossings in each band. I interfaced that with a PDP-12 Laboratory Instrumentation Computer and wrote the code that ran on the DIAL operating system. It had a paper tape reader to load, but it also had two small magnetic tape drives.

Part 2 - Curiosity
After that, having been hired by "I've Been Moved" in 1979, I wrote a program to help the hardware service reps submit JCL to MVS for obtaining targeted and summary hardware diagnostic data.

Finally, in 1985, when I was an instructor at the Ed Centre, I created an interactive questionnaire facility (IQF) that ran on VM to create and administer quizes as well as instructor and course evaluations to the students.

Part 3 - Love
Creating IQF really caused me a lot of personal angst. While writing it, I fell in love with programming. I mean hard. I was doing it in my head at the Christmas dinner table. I couldn't stop. Yet I was I was part of an Accelerated Development Program that had me moved from department to department and firmly headed to management. The further I got away from programming the more angst I felt.

In spring 1987 I took the plunge and began making my living doing VAX and embedded programming for a fire alarm manufacturer's Engineering department.

The rest is history.

Thanks for the inspiration to take this trip down memory lane and get in touch again with the spark that ignited the flame.

Cheers,
Mike Fidler

"I intend to live forever - so far, so good." Steven Wright
"I almost had a psychic girlfriend but she left me before we met." Also Steven Wright
"I'm addicted to placebos. I could quit, but it wouldn't matter." Steven Wright yet again.

honey the codewitch10-Sep-19 5:53

10-Sep-19 5:53

Wow I wonder how many VAX programmers are here? Can't be many, I'd imagine. How cool! VAX/VMS inspired some of NT - it's a real piece of history. I usually mean that facetiously when it comes to computers, but here I'm being sincere.

Neat! Smile | :)

When I was growin' up, I was the smartest kid I knew. Maybe that was just because I didn't know that many kids. All I know is now I feel the opposite.

PIEBALDconsult10-Sep-19 6:31

PIEBALDconsult

10-Sep-19 6:31

I'm originally from Massachusetts, so all my education (1983 - 1992) and early career (1989 - 2002) was on DEC systems.

I'm now "just" an OpenVMS hobbyist... with four systems at home. MicroVAX, Alpha (2), and Itanium.

honey the codewitch10-Sep-19 6:33

10-Sep-19 6:33

They all run VMS? it's kind of a weird OS these days, with everything either (quasi)POSIX or windows usually

When I was growin' up, I was the smartest kid I knew. Maybe that was just because I didn't know that many kids. All I know is now I feel the opposite.

PIEBALDconsult10-Sep-19 6:57

PIEBALDconsult

10-Sep-19 6:57

Yes, all running OpenVMS to keep (me) from getting too rusty.

I installed VAX BASIC on the MicroVAX because it has immediate mode -- like the PDP-11 I started on.

dannette10-Sep-19 6:54

dannette

10-Sep-19 6:54

I was in 10th grade (1970) and they started a new class called Computer Math. We learned Basic. We would write our code and then type it on a teletype. Then we would call into a computer in Washington D.C. and sign in. Then feed the ticker-tape through and wait like forever for our answers.

Didn't really do anymore after that until early 2000s when I decided to go back to school. Had a class in Visual Basic, ASP (legacy), C++, Cold Fusion, Java, JavaScript, PHP. Now I do web development front and back end with PHP mostly.

sasadler10-Sep-19 7:01

sasadler

10-Sep-19 7:01

I was in college working for a EE degree and started reading about these new things called microprocessors. I read about the IMSAI 8080 computer and thought that I could probably build one of those. I started designing boards (s100 bus) and then wire wrapped the memory board (4K RAM), a dual port serial board, the CPU board. I did purchase a 16 line by 64 character terminal board (connects to a TV). I finished the day after my last final senior year. All I did for the next 3 weeks (before I started my job) was play/learn how to program the CPU by the numbers. All I had for programming was the Zapple monitor program (kind of like DOS Debug). All I could do with it was dump memory to the screen, peek and poke memory, set break points and start running from a memory location. I eventually learned most of the z80 instruction set by the numbers.

After I start my job, they found out I had a computer at home and said that they were working on a microprocessor controlled smoke detector tester/calibrator. They asked me if I'd like to work on it and I said yes of course. I then spent the next 40+ years (just retired this year) writing embedded code for a multitude of devices. I just love the low level stuff, writing RTOSes, embedded languages for industrial controllers, DSP algorythms, etc.

honey the codewitch10-Sep-19 7:06

Which was the first tech "start-up"?

10-Sep-19 7:06

I always loved that stuff too. My interest in computers started after an interest in circuit building and i like hardware hacking, but alas I'm extremely creative but not very rigorous in how i approach the world, including my code.

What i learned managing teams is virtually every shop has someone like I am in that way, but too many derail a project. One or two is good to keep the creativity going in the shop.

But bank software, mission critical embedded (though I've done a little bit of embedded) that sort of thing, I don't really touch. It's not my wheelhouse and I'd blow up the project without a test team behind me.

When I was growin' up, I was the smartest kid I knew. Maybe that was just because I didn't know that many kids. All I know is now I feel the opposite.

Nand328-Sep-19 23:51

Nand32

8-Sep-19 23:51

That brought the idea of Agile/Scrum and all the new age task-master rituals. When did that fateful event happen? It truly spoiled the scrub* that we were enjoying at the Waterfall Roll eyes | :rolleyes:

*Courtesy - RickZealand. Thumbs Up | :thumbsup:

modified 9-Sep-19 7:04am.

glennPattonWork39-Sep-19 0:10

glennPattonWork3

9-Sep-19 0:10

If there was Karmic justice the firm would have fallen (hard!)...and then the escapees could have spread there true message to all us Waterfall dwellers... Sigh | :sigh:

RickZeeland9-Sep-19 0:23

RickZeeland

9-Sep-19 0:23

Scrub would have been nicer under the waterfall $Shucks | :-\$

Nand329-Sep-19 1:05

Nand32

9-Sep-19 1:05

check my OP now.

Johnny J.9-Sep-19 0:40

Johnny J.

9-Sep-19 0:40

Yeah, who the heck needs sissy programming like that.

I still remember changing classic asp code directly in prod using notepad. No silly intellisense or precompilation. Not even checks to see if you've spelled the variable names correctly or not... D'Oh! | :doh:

Anything that is unrelated to elephants is irrelephant
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lopatir9-Sep-19 0:49

lopatir

9-Sep-19 0:49

Johnny J. wrote:
Not even checks to see if you've spelled the variable names correctly or not...

hard to misspell 'a' 'b' and 'x'
just gotta watch for 'i' and 'l'

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ZurdoDev9-Sep-19 1:01

ZurdoDev

9-Sep-19 1:01

Johnny J. wrote:
Not even checks to see if you've spelled the variable names correctly or not

I always checked. I used the F5 key to check and make sure the variables were typed correctly. Big Grin | :-D

Social Media - A platform that makes it easier for the crazies to find each other.

Everyone is born right handed. Only the strongest overcome it.
Fight for left-handed rights and hand equality.

Johnny J.9-Sep-19 1:03

Johnny J.

9-Sep-19 1:03

Yes, that was when User Acceptance Test was exactly that... Laugh | :laugh:

honey the codewitch9-Sep-19 1:14

9-Sep-19 1:14

you mean you don't use notepad anymore?

xkcd: Real Programmers[^]

When I was growin' up, I was the smartest kid I knew. Maybe that was just because I didn't know that many kids. All I know is now I feel the opposite.

honey the codewitch9-Sep-19 1:11

9-Sep-19 1:11

i was the first tech upstart. Big Grin | :-D

When I was growin' up, I was the smartest kid I knew. Maybe that was just because I didn't know that many kids. All I know is now I feel the opposite.

glennPattonWork39-Sep-19 1:18

glennPattonWork3

9-Sep-19 1:18

I have the feeling you weren't, I think there were plenty of upstarts before you and I and will plenty after us...

honey the codewitch9-Sep-19 1:25

9-Sep-19 1:25

but they don't count, because they're not me Laugh | :laugh:

/upstart

When I was growin' up, I was the smartest kid I knew. Maybe that was just because I didn't know that many kids. All I know is now I feel the opposite.