Your first ever development machine at work
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Hi, I remember my very first development machine at work was, Pentium 233 MMX, 32 MB RAM, 3.2 GB HDD, 1 MB VGA card, 14" SVGA monitor. [BTW: it was a very good configuration at that time ;P ] VC4.0 used to fly on that machine and it really rocked when my employer doubled the RAM :) What was yours? Farhan Noor Qureshi :)
Officially it was an IBM RS6000 running AIX (3.2?). Before that it was an XT (8MHz with a turbo button!) and a VAX/VMS. What about the biggest machine? I had the pleasure of spending a year using a 4-head CRAY YMP C90 as a word processor. Sweet! :) cheers, Chris Maunder
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Hi, I remember my very first development machine at work was, Pentium 233 MMX, 32 MB RAM, 3.2 GB HDD, 1 MB VGA card, 14" SVGA monitor. [BTW: it was a very good configuration at that time ;P ] VC4.0 used to fly on that machine and it really rocked when my employer doubled the RAM :) What was yours? Farhan Noor Qureshi :)
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Hi, I remember my very first development machine at work was, Pentium 233 MMX, 32 MB RAM, 3.2 GB HDD, 1 MB VGA card, 14" SVGA monitor. [BTW: it was a very good configuration at that time ;P ] VC4.0 used to fly on that machine and it really rocked when my employer doubled the RAM :) What was yours? Farhan Noor Qureshi :)
Depends on how you define 'work'. Borrowing from the present day tendencies of resume writing: (i) It was an unfathomable giant I spared myself of having to witness in person in 1982, as an undergraduate student. (What are friends for? I, on my part, was, of course, all ears for the stories of how just one punch had missed the goal.) (ii) It was a PDP/1170, in 1983. My First Paying Job. Lots of cables. (iii) It was an (ordered) IBM System 370, in 1983. My First Paying Job. I had scored an A+ in programming aptitude, in a crash course in COBOL (yes!), in competition with B. Tech. (yes!) IITians, and helped design the room layout for the air-conditioner of the computer installation. (The reader should not be surprised why I *can* write voluminous emails akin to essays.) (iv) It was a PC-clone AT, 1987. I used Word-Star Mail-Merge for development of commercial letters. I conjecture it had less than 1 MB because, later on, boss recommended upgrading it to accomodate EMS/XMS (forgot which one stands for what thing beyond that 640 KB limit, and that lotus, etc. industry-wide specification). I still sometimes miss those green letters made up of distinct horizontal dashes, starkly staring at you from a black background. The thick glass screen curved a lot, asking you inconvenient questions such as whether it was a concave or convex surface. The dumbish letters had had a way of telling me that I was doing something important. (v) It was a 486 DX2. I used BC 4.5. I still love its nifty yellow letters on a dark blue background. (I know, I know, you can customize VC 6.... err... what's the latest SP #?... to suit your colour tastes. But you have to change the entire system colors to make the Workspace background less offensive. Microsoft does learn in time, it would seem...). (vi) It was a 466 DX2. I was told that I was lucky to get a chance to use VC 1.51, and that it would look great on my resume in the (?) future. When I was primed, the same as*hol*s deliberately delayed my experience-letter, later on, for my planned green-card processing.... Colors of life.... Sometimes engineered; other times assembled and layered.... On the whole, unprecedented. Anything else? Nothing? OK. I have been going without a contract job since early-January 2001. Any takers? Apply in confidence. *That* will not be wasted. ------- Nature, to be commanded, must be obeyed. (Francis Bacon) Nature, to be apprehended, must be obeyed. (Ayn Rand)
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Hi, I remember my very first development machine at work was, Pentium 233 MMX, 32 MB RAM, 3.2 GB HDD, 1 MB VGA card, 14" SVGA monitor. [BTW: it was a very good configuration at that time ;P ] VC4.0 used to fly on that machine and it really rocked when my employer doubled the RAM :) What was yours? Farhan Noor Qureshi :)
z80 based zx-81 with 16k ram add-on pack it was great for winter programming cos it got real warm :) --- "every year we invent better idiot proof systems and every year they invent better idiots"
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Hi, I remember my very first development machine at work was, Pentium 233 MMX, 32 MB RAM, 3.2 GB HDD, 1 MB VGA card, 14" SVGA monitor. [BTW: it was a very good configuration at that time ;P ] VC4.0 used to fly on that machine and it really rocked when my employer doubled the RAM :) What was yours? Farhan Noor Qureshi :)
A Signetics 2650 with 8K EROM OS and 16K RAM, 5 1/4" floppy. Moving up to 48K RAM was a real big deal. Writing in Assembler. Then various CP/M Machines, including a Cromemco machine with a 20 Slot S100 Bus and a huge power supply, and dual double sided 8" drives. Writing in C and Assembler and some PL/I. Then an IBM PC with 5 1/4 floppy and 640K? RAM, but still no hard disk. I've got a 10M Hard Disk from an IBM AT working very well as a Door stop. Showing my age I know. That said, its has been an great ride, and one I wouldn't want to change in a hurry. Learning how to write efficient, tight code is something which stays with you forever. Neville Franks, Author of ED for Windows www.getsoft.com
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Hi, I remember my very first development machine at work was, Pentium 233 MMX, 32 MB RAM, 3.2 GB HDD, 1 MB VGA card, 14" SVGA monitor. [BTW: it was a very good configuration at that time ;P ] VC4.0 used to fly on that machine and it really rocked when my employer doubled the RAM :) What was yours? Farhan Noor Qureshi :)
We had 4 8088 machines with 640kB or RAM. All of them were sharing a 40MB HD which was partitioned into 4 separate 10MB logical drives. If any two computers accessed the same logical drive at the same time it would trash the drive and we've need to re-format it and re-install all the apps & data. :-( Steve
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A TRS-80 Model III, 2mhz I think, with a snazzy set of dual 180K 5.25" floppy drives, that I custom ordered from a company called, I think, PerTec. We were writing an accounting program for a company that made paper plates and plastic cups, and about 1/2 way through the project (6 months as I remember), we decided to break the bank and buy a 5MB Hard disk drive, for $3500, that came in a case that was 1 foot wide x 2 feet deep and 6 inches high. :) The client may still be using that system.... I should look them up and find out. Found this on Google: http://www.trs-80.com/trs80-3.htm David
David having a problem figuring this out. In a previous thread you said you were 34, which is 2 years older than me. From memory the TRS-80 was from the very early 80's when you and I were in high school. :) (Gee I loved being 17, physically old enough to do everything, including getting into pubs, but not legally responsible for my actions). Were you some sort of programming prodigy that started work early or does high school finish at an earlier age in Canada? Michael Martin Pegasystems Pty Ltd Australia martm@pegasystems.com +61 413-004-018
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Hi, I remember my very first development machine at work was, Pentium 233 MMX, 32 MB RAM, 3.2 GB HDD, 1 MB VGA card, 14" SVGA monitor. [BTW: it was a very good configuration at that time ;P ] VC4.0 used to fly on that machine and it really rocked when my employer doubled the RAM :) What was yours? Farhan Noor Qureshi :)
You're making me feel REALLY OLD. My first "work" machine was a 286-25 with 4 megs of memory, an EGA card, and a 13" monitor. Again, state of the art for its time. Brad
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Hi, I remember my very first development machine at work was, Pentium 233 MMX, 32 MB RAM, 3.2 GB HDD, 1 MB VGA card, 14" SVGA monitor. [BTW: it was a very good configuration at that time ;P ] VC4.0 used to fly on that machine and it really rocked when my employer doubled the RAM :) What was yours? Farhan Noor Qureshi :)
I think I can beat everyone (so far) for age. My first system was an Intel MDS80. 8080 (8-bit for those too young to know) processor, 32k of RAM, 110 baud teletpye terminal. After a little while we ran to a dizzy 300cps "High Speed" paper tape reader but we were stuck with the 10 cps teletype to edit, print and punch. Development cycle was: 1. Load the editor program from tape. 2. Write code or load previous version from tape and edit. (Character-based editing commands, you usually edit 'blind' because it takes too long to print the code you're working on.) 3. Punch out the resulting source tape. 4. Load the assembler program. 5. Run three passes of the source tape to create an object tape. 6. Run another pass of the source if you want a printed listing. 7. Load the In Circuit Emulator program. 8. Load the object tape. 9. Debug. At this point your options are to patch the program in machine code when you find errors OR go back to step 1 and start all over again. You soon get pretty good at machine code! In reality you usually have a crash, tape break, mechanical failure of the teletype or life-threatening fatigue at least once during the sequence and find yourself older, wiser and back at step 1. I don't regret a moment of it. You learn to hold program structure and detail in your head, and you certainly learn to program efficiently. 1k of program was not only a HUGE achievement but also took several tens of minutes in all the tape loading stages -- writing smaller code really brought benefits! Young developers now don't know they're born... :) Phil J Pearson. (much older than I look!)
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Hi, I remember my very first development machine at work was, Pentium 233 MMX, 32 MB RAM, 3.2 GB HDD, 1 MB VGA card, 14" SVGA monitor. [BTW: it was a very good configuration at that time ;P ] VC4.0 used to fly on that machine and it really rocked when my employer doubled the RAM :) What was yours? Farhan Noor Qureshi :)
My first work machine was a Sinclair ZX Spectrum clone, with 48k RAM. The contract was the passenger timetable for the local railroad station. Lots of cables, 2 hot-swappable machines, lots of Z80 assembly, custom fonts... It was fun :) The sigs are useful and important.
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Hi, I remember my very first development machine at work was, Pentium 233 MMX, 32 MB RAM, 3.2 GB HDD, 1 MB VGA card, 14" SVGA monitor. [BTW: it was a very good configuration at that time ;P ] VC4.0 used to fly on that machine and it really rocked when my employer doubled the RAM :) What was yours? Farhan Noor Qureshi :)
Hardware: - IBM-AT (the cool 8MHz version, not the 6MHz one!) - 512k RAM - Seagate 5" (full height) 20Mb hard disk - 360k and 1.2M 5.25: floppy drives - CGI (640 x 320, 16 color) Hercules color card - Everex 300 bps modem - Okidata Microline 192 dot matrix printer - PGS color monitor Software: MS DOS 3.22 Lattice C, Microsoft C 3.0 PC-Write text editor (QuickSoft) My God, I can't believe I remember all this! The year was 1984. Anyone out there who used to hang around the Capitol BBS shareware boards? How times have changed... :-) /ravi "There is always one more bug..." http://www.ravib.com ravib@ravib.com
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David having a problem figuring this out. In a previous thread you said you were 34, which is 2 years older than me. From memory the TRS-80 was from the very early 80's when you and I were in high school. :) (Gee I loved being 17, physically old enough to do everything, including getting into pubs, but not legally responsible for my actions). Were you some sort of programming prodigy that started work early or does high school finish at an earlier age in Canada? Michael Martin Pegasystems Pty Ltd Australia martm@pegasystems.com +61 413-004-018
A buddy and I started a computer company in high school, he was the sales-guy and I was the tech/programmer. It was the whole deal, couple "adults" who worked at the store during the day, and we'd check messages at lunch and after school. I was pretty heavily involved until I found a new passion and bowed out: Girls. :) It took my buddy about 4 years to really forgive me. My first for-pay programming job was actually a few years before that. I talked a prof at the local Uni to allow me to audit an introductory programming course (Apple ]['s, a VAX, etc.) at age 12, but he insisted that a) I couldn't get a credit, and b) my Dad had to come with me. I think I got the 2nd highest mark in the class. A year later I was trying to debug my greatest programming achievement to that point, a Star Trek game that absolutely filled the 16K memory of the TRS-80 Model I I had. I went to the local Radio Shack store, and asked the resident computer consultant guy if I could load my program and print it out so I could debug it. He was a little skeptical, but allowed me to do it, looked at the program as it printed out, and then we talked for about an hour. He offered me a 10 hour a week job helping him write programs, which I did for about 3 years. The big project I worked on with him was an application to manage rental rates and charges for the local mall. 120 tenants, all kinds of funky add-on charges, % of revenue calculations, etc. It's funny when I think about it now, because it sounds crazy but it was a blast and it certainly didn't keep me from having what I consider to be an outstanding childhood. Lots of friends, lots of parties, lots of girlfriends that made my friends jealous :) etc. I suppose the time that others would spend playing soccer or football, I spent hobnobbing with the local business community. It does sound weird when I think about it now ... Anyway, that's me. D
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Hardware: - IBM-AT (the cool 8MHz version, not the 6MHz one!) - 512k RAM - Seagate 5" (full height) 20Mb hard disk - 360k and 1.2M 5.25: floppy drives - CGI (640 x 320, 16 color) Hercules color card - Everex 300 bps modem - Okidata Microline 192 dot matrix printer - PGS color monitor Software: MS DOS 3.22 Lattice C, Microsoft C 3.0 PC-Write text editor (QuickSoft) My God, I can't believe I remember all this! The year was 1984. Anyone out there who used to hang around the Capitol BBS shareware boards? How times have changed... :-) /ravi "There is always one more bug..." http://www.ravib.com ravib@ravib.com
>>My God, I can't believe I remember all this! I think that's the curse of being bright. You emasse an absolute head full of ridiculous technical details like this. Sometimes I'd like to be able to toss some of what's in my brain into the recycle bin :) For example: How to jumper a Lantastic Network card to extend the segement length to 300m, from 185. How to hand make a centronics printer cable for an Epson FX-80 printer. How exactly to punch a second whole on a 180K floppy disk so you can flip it over and record on the opposite side. all the command line parameters for himem.sys and emm386.exe The specific drivers required for a Kaypro luggable computer to work properly with IBM's version of PC-DOS The combination to my locker in highschool. Every phone number my family ever had. Ug. My head hurts.
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>>My God, I can't believe I remember all this! I think that's the curse of being bright. You emasse an absolute head full of ridiculous technical details like this. Sometimes I'd like to be able to toss some of what's in my brain into the recycle bin :) For example: How to jumper a Lantastic Network card to extend the segement length to 300m, from 185. How to hand make a centronics printer cable for an Epson FX-80 printer. How exactly to punch a second whole on a 180K floppy disk so you can flip it over and record on the opposite side. all the command line parameters for himem.sys and emm386.exe The specific drivers required for a Kaypro luggable computer to work properly with IBM's version of PC-DOS The combination to my locker in highschool. Every phone number my family ever had. Ug. My head hurts.
Re: How exactly to punch a second whole on a 180K floppy disk so you can flip it over and record on the opposite site. Dave, do you remember they used to *sell* hole punchers for this sort of thing! Man, are we old or what? :-) Btw, hope to meet ChrisM and you in Boston when you tour! /ravi "There is always one more bug..." http://www.ravib.com ravib@ravib.com
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Hi, I remember my very first development machine at work was, Pentium 233 MMX, 32 MB RAM, 3.2 GB HDD, 1 MB VGA card, 14" SVGA monitor. [BTW: it was a very good configuration at that time ;P ] VC4.0 used to fly on that machine and it really rocked when my employer doubled the RAM :) What was yours? Farhan Noor Qureshi :)
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>>My God, I can't believe I remember all this! I think that's the curse of being bright. You emasse an absolute head full of ridiculous technical details like this. Sometimes I'd like to be able to toss some of what's in my brain into the recycle bin :) For example: How to jumper a Lantastic Network card to extend the segement length to 300m, from 185. How to hand make a centronics printer cable for an Epson FX-80 printer. How exactly to punch a second whole on a 180K floppy disk so you can flip it over and record on the opposite side. all the command line parameters for himem.sys and emm386.exe The specific drivers required for a Kaypro luggable computer to work properly with IBM's version of PC-DOS The combination to my locker in highschool. Every phone number my family ever had. Ug. My head hurts.
Ug. My head hurts. :-D ------- Nature, to be commanded, must be obeyed. (Francis Bacon) Nature, to be apprehended, must be obeyed. (Ayn Rand)
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Hi, I remember my very first development machine at work was, Pentium 233 MMX, 32 MB RAM, 3.2 GB HDD, 1 MB VGA card, 14" SVGA monitor. [BTW: it was a very good configuration at that time ;P ] VC4.0 used to fly on that machine and it really rocked when my employer doubled the RAM :) What was yours? Farhan Noor Qureshi :)
Well if you define 'work' as making money rather than strictly as a full-time job .... then it would be: A VIC20 (along with a Toshiba 14" TV) - 5K of RAM (however only 4k was available at any one time) - .9MHZ (yes the number does start with the decimal point, its not a typo) I wrote video games back then. They were about a sophisticated as 'Pong', but back then 'Pong' rocked :)
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Hi, I remember my very first development machine at work was, Pentium 233 MMX, 32 MB RAM, 3.2 GB HDD, 1 MB VGA card, 14" SVGA monitor. [BTW: it was a very good configuration at that time ;P ] VC4.0 used to fly on that machine and it really rocked when my employer doubled the RAM :) What was yours? Farhan Noor Qureshi :)
A 1 MHz 6809 machine, which was kind of a rough clone of one of Motorola's 6809 development systems named Excorciser. This machine hat 48KB RAM and two 8 inch floppy drives with about 400KB capacity. We had two different OS versions running on this pretty slick piece of hardware, something named MDOS (I presume that's what Motorola used) and TSC FLEX 09. Software development then was done in pure Assembler on a text terminal. Ours were made in Canada by a company named Cybernex, model MDL110. This was in the late 80s, so even back then this hardware was slightly outdated. I was a pure beginner then, and I had to write 6809 assembly code, so nobody thought of giving me one of the brand new 286-10 machines. I have to admit that my current machine (pIII-600 / 256MB with a SGI 1600sw display) is somewhat more advanced ...
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Hi, I remember my very first development machine at work was, Pentium 233 MMX, 32 MB RAM, 3.2 GB HDD, 1 MB VGA card, 14" SVGA monitor. [BTW: it was a very good configuration at that time ;P ] VC4.0 used to fly on that machine and it really rocked when my employer doubled the RAM :) What was yours? Farhan Noor Qureshi :)
It was a rocket: 486-33 Mhz with 32 megs or RAM and 500 megs of disk (SCSI). Back then (1992) 4 megs of RAM was the norm and Windows 3.1 actually ran OK with it. So 32 Megs of RAM was impressive. 500 MB or disk? "I'll never fill that", I thought. Then Windows NT 3.1 came out and the machine just didn't seem so impressive any more.