[HN Gopher] I bought the first computer I ever wrote a program on
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I bought the first computer I ever wrote a program on
Author : ingve
Score : 27 points
Date : 2021-01-02 11:10 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (www.lonecpluspluscoder.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.lonecpluspluscoder.com)
| the-dude wrote:
| At least they promised right there in the warranty not to sell
| your data. Good times.
| canada_dry wrote:
| Bought my ZX81 direct from the UK after seeing their ad in Pop
| Sci [i].
|
| Later on, there was a store called Gladstone Electronics in
| Toronto that sold software and many peripherals for the Sinclair
| line of micros. [ii]
|
| Even built my own full sized keyboard for the ZX81 and learned
| Z80 assembler through owning it. Great memories!!
|
| [i]
| https://i.pinimg.com/originals/9f/ff/45/9fff45a041ec9e798a1c...
|
| [ii]
| https://archive.org/stream/ElectronicsToday1984-08/#page/n3/...
|
| This ad I found on ebay is awfully tempting:
| https://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-ORIGINAL-Sinclair-ZX81-UNAS...
| dh303 wrote:
| IDK how you ever used that keyboard... at least with the VIC-20,
| I had a real keyboard (but only 4k of RAM).
| g42gregory wrote:
| Over the holidays, I was also thinking of buying the first
| programmable computer I ever used as a kid. For me it would be
| Elektronika B3-34 programmable calculator [0]. It had 98 bytes of
| instruction memory and 1-2 instructions per second speed. I
| remember watching the screen pulsating in the dark at night, as
| it would go instruction by instruction. I thought it was a blast!
|
| [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elektronika_B3-34
| avmich wrote:
| It's a familiar course of things. First you encounter the
| thing, and the grand picture of importance of that encounter
| will be seen much later. You spend critical time with it, which
| changes you. Which probably Changes you. Then, as the time
| period you're in dictates, you're separated, and the thing
| dissolves into oblivion, and you're up in the world, changed
| but still in the beginning of the road - which you're among few
| others see, dimly, but more or less fully ahead. More time
| passes, you're well ahead on the road, and got lots of stories
| to tell about trophies under your belt. The thing is firmly in
| memory, until at some time you realize it's possible to conjure
| - at least the physical recreation of the thing. You do that,
| and a smile lightens up your face. Just few others can
| understand you - those are your tribe in a sense, your brothers
| in arms. Time can't be returned, but you're somehow more
| stable, stronger and more confident for that.
| meheleventyone wrote:
| I still own the very first computer I coded on. A ZX Spectrum
| 128K +2. It was in my parents loft and now has pride of place on
| a shelf around our stairs. Such a great reminder and piece of
| history. It'll be 33 years old this year.
| MattPalmer1086 wrote:
| I also got my first computer back from my parents garage this
| year. It is a Microtan 65, which is about 40 years old now.
|
| https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tangerine_Microtan_65
|
| A friend of my Dad's replaced a few old capacitors, and it now
| boots up perfectly into the BASIC prompt.
|
| I got a huge buzz from writing a simple basic program on it.
| There was definitely something lovely about that era of
| personal computing.
| meheleventyone wrote:
| Yeah it's one of the reasons I love playing with PICO-8 it
| hits that nostalgia with all the corners sanded off.
| MattPalmer1086 wrote:
| Wow, I didn't know about PICO-8, thanks!
|
| Looks like something my son might enjoy too. He's been
| trying to get into writing games, but Scratch is too
| simple, and Unity is too complex. This looks really cool.
|
| Strangely, he really likes retro graphics despite the power
| of modern machines.
| easton wrote:
| Archive:
| https://web.archive.org/web/20210102111334/http://www.lonecp...
| worik wrote:
| "the humongous 16KB RAM expansion that connects on the back"
| Sigh. Memories.
|
| It was the first computer I wrote a programme for that compiled
| and ran.
|
| A programme to detect if a number was prime, by brute force.
|
| Memory lane....
| spacekitcat wrote:
| I'm jealous that older generations get to say they wrote their
| first program on iconic hardware. Computers of my time were much
| faster, but they were very generic.
| indymike wrote:
| I started programming in the early 80s, and started programming
| professionally in 1987. The biggest difference between early
| micros and PCs was that most early micros had better
| documentation in the box than the PCs did. For example, a C64
| or a TI 99/4a had documentation that would take you from
| beginner to being able to access hardware features. The PC, on
| the other hand, you had to buy books from third parties to get
| that level of documentation. To be fair, the PC had a lot more
| going to document.
| derekp7 wrote:
| I started in 84 on a PCjr. Had the PCjr Technical Reference
| manual, which was amazing. It even had the BIOS assembly
| source in the back of it.
| indymike wrote:
| IBM did a great job with their product. The clones on the
| other hand... well, sometimes you were lucky to get a
| ziploc bag with 20 page warranty and how to install
| documentation from each of the parts.
| paledot wrote:
| I mean, I'm 32 and I programmed on one of those as a teenager.
| If you do the math, yes it was 20 years old at the time, but I
| had a blast anyway.
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