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Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!tektronix!tekecs!davidl
From: davidl@tekecs.UUCP (David Levine)
Newsgroups: net.social
Subject: Re: My first time
Message-ID: <1973@tekecs.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 30-Aug-83 13:16:35 EDT
Article-I.D.: tekecs.1973
Posted: Tue Aug 30 13:16:35 1983
Date-Received: Thu, 1-Sep-83 01:44:02 EDT
References: hou5e.754
Lines: 18

I started with computers at the age of 8.  My first computer was a DEC PDP-8L
with about 4K of core and a single (slow, noisy, all-upper-case, yellow paper) 
ASR-33.  Software was stored on paper tape, and I remember the excitement when 
we got our high-speed papertape reader which could read in HORSEY (horse race 
simulator) in only ten minutes! I also remember how everyone was awed by
the fact that a whole computer could fit in a cabinet only the size of a filing
cabinet...

My first programming experience also came on the 8L.  I learned to program in
FOCAL (anybody remember FOCAL?), which was like BASIC except all commands were
single characters (e.g. T 2 + 2 was the FOCAL equivalent of BASIC's PRINT 2+2).
This interpreter fit into 4K of memory and left some space for user programs!

Them was the days, when computers were still mysterious and no programmer could
afford to be without a soldering iron...

  -- David D. Levine   (...decvax!tektronix!tekecs!davidl)      [UUCP]
                       (...tekecs!davidl.tektronix@rand-relay)  [ARPA]