Subj : GWBASIC
To   : MIKE POWELL
From : Rob Mccart
Date : Tue Nov 11 2025 09:46:21

RM> Let's see, since this was DOS (for a PC) it was probably in 1987.
  > Prior to that I had built 2 Apple II+ clones using Apple software.

MP>The PC that I have that came with DOS 3.3 and GWBASIC was also purchased in
  >late 1987, so that time frame is correct.  Unfortunately, it did not come wit
  >a DOS manual.  I figured out how a lot of the utilities worked via trial and
  >error -- a few of those errors required a restore!  :O  :D

Ha.. As I said, I started out on Apple Clones and one of the first things
I bought before assembling my first computer was a college course book
for programming in Apple Soft Basic. That gave me a good idea of how
Basic worked so I just had to learn the differences in how Apple and
IBM systems did the same things.

I also bought some books with simple programs and games you write
yourself, and I took great satisfaction in copying those programs
out and getting them working and then finding ways to make them
work better than the originals..   B)

One of the first big programs I wrote for a place I was working
was a database program that was something like 60 typed pages
of code which I then drastically modified to work exactly the way
that workplace needed it to work, rather than as a general program.

I also wrote a spreadsheet inventory control program for them.

I added a production program where you could put in the name and
weight of the product you wanted (ceramics and pigments) and the
program would write out the formula with the amounts of all the
ingredients for a batch that size and print off 3 copies - for the
Lab, Office and Plant to use..

Ironically that last one I threw in as an afterthought, I didn't
really even charge extra for it. I left there soon after but I
stopped in to visit a few years later and the other programs had
both been updated/replaced but they were still using that one.

Not something MS Office could replace I guess...   B)

---
 * SLMR Rob  * Captain Please!.. Not in front of the Klingons
 * Origin: capitolcityonline.net * Telnet/SSH:2022/HTTP (1:2320/105)

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