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  3. Your First Development Machine?

Your First Development Machine?

Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved The Lounge
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  • K Kevin Marois

    I taught myself GW-Basic on this Zenith 120[^] back in 1985 while in the Marine Corps. I still have the book

    If it's not broken, fix it until it is

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    enhzflep
    wrote on last edited by
    #10

    386dx-33, in 92/93. It even had a Tseng Labs 24-bit svga adapter. Still got the book for DR-DOS 6.0 somewhere. Tried Turbo Pascal 6.0 for a few months before giving up in disgust and moving onto TASM. A slowish machine (as compared to machines available in 93), low memory-4mb, 64kb segmented memory and no floating point unit all helped one to hone a comprehensive understanding of the architecture. Though I never did get around to bank-switching the vga card to make use of any video modes needing more than 64k of memory. Directly programming the OPL registers in the sound-card was some fun too - none of this protected memory stuff. Just raw, naked access to the hardware. Yeah baby! Extremely limited vectors for catching virii tend to make one happy to have access to all memory at once. Video Mode 0x13h - oh how I remember thee!

    char *screenPtr = 0xA0000;
    screenPtr[x + y*320] = color;

    "Science adjusts its views based on what's observed. Faith is the denial of observation, so that belief can be preserved." - Tim Minchin

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    • K Kevin Marois

      I taught myself GW-Basic on this Zenith 120[^] back in 1985 while in the Marine Corps. I still have the book

      If it's not broken, fix it until it is

      D Offline
      D Offline
      Dan Neely
      wrote on last edited by
      #11

      I started puttering around with drawing shapes in ascii using tandy basic on Trash-80 color 2 with 4k of ram in the late 80's. Depending on if you counted the schools computer or my parents, my first real programming was turbo pascal on a 386 with 1(?)mb ram (theirs) on a 486-25 with 4mb in '96. I first got paid to develop on a D600 with a PM-1600 and either 2 or 4 GB of ram in 2005.

      Did you ever see history portrayed as an old man with a wise brow and pulseless heart, waging all things in the balance of reason? Is not rather the genius of history like an eternal, imploring maiden, full of fire, with a burning heart and flaming soul, humanly warm and humanly beautiful? --Zachris Topelius Training a telescope on one’s own belly button will only reveal lint. You like that? You go right on staring at it. I prefer looking at galaxies. -- Sarah Hoyt

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      • K Kevin Marois

        I taught myself GW-Basic on this Zenith 120[^] back in 1985 while in the Marine Corps. I still have the book

        If it's not broken, fix it until it is

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        R Offline
        Rage
        wrote on last edited by
        #12

        Amstrad CPC 6128+[^] with floppy disk !

        ~RaGE();

        I think words like 'destiny' are a way of trying to find order where none exists. - Christian Graus Do not feed the troll ! - Common proverb

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        • K Kevin Marois

          I taught myself GW-Basic on this Zenith 120[^] back in 1985 while in the Marine Corps. I still have the book

          If it's not broken, fix it until it is

          R Offline
          R Offline
          R Giskard Reventlov
          wrote on last edited by
          #13

          One of these: Commodore 64[^].

          "If you think it's expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur." Red Adair. Those who seek perfection will only find imperfection nils illegitimus carborundum me, me, me me, in pictures

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          • R R Giskard Reventlov

            One of these: Commodore 64[^].

            "If you think it's expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur." Red Adair. Those who seek perfection will only find imperfection nils illegitimus carborundum me, me, me me, in pictures

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            Lost User
            wrote on last edited by
            #14

            Ditto

            Government is not reason; it is not eloquent; it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master. ~ George Washington

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            • K Kevin Marois

              I taught myself GW-Basic on this Zenith 120[^] back in 1985 while in the Marine Corps. I still have the book

              If it's not broken, fix it until it is

              R Offline
              R Offline
              Ravi Bhavnani
              wrote on last edited by
              #15

              IBM-PC AT (80286, 6MHz), 512K RAM, 20 MB hard disk, 2x floppy drives (5.25" 260K, 5.25" 1.2M), Hercules CGA video card, Princeton Graphics System color monitor, Okidata 192 Microline dot matrix printer, Rockwell 300 baud modem, MS-DOS 3.0, Lattice-C compiler.  Also 1985. /ravi

              My new year resolution: 2048 x 1536 Home | Articles | My .NET bits | Freeware ravib(at)ravib(dot)com

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              • L Lost User

                Ditto

                Government is not reason; it is not eloquent; it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master. ~ George Washington

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                R Giskard Reventlov
                wrote on last edited by
                #16

                Mike Mullikin wrote:

                Ditto

                I've never heard of a 'Ditto'. Was that a special model? :-)

                "If you think it's expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur." Red Adair. Those who seek perfection will only find imperfection nils illegitimus carborundum me, me, me me, in pictures

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                • R R Giskard Reventlov

                  Mike Mullikin wrote:

                  Ditto

                  I've never heard of a 'Ditto'. Was that a special model? :-)

                  "If you think it's expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur." Red Adair. Those who seek perfection will only find imperfection nils illegitimus carborundum me, me, me me, in pictures

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                  Lost User
                  wrote on last edited by
                  #17

                  Yep, came with a cassette drive. Slow and buggy as hell! ;P

                  Government is not reason; it is not eloquent; it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master. ~ George Washington

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                  • K Kevin Marois

                    I taught myself GW-Basic on this Zenith 120[^] back in 1985 while in the Marine Corps. I still have the book

                    If it's not broken, fix it until it is

                    T Offline
                    T Offline
                    Tim Carmichael
                    wrote on last edited by
                    #18

                    In high school, Commodore PET with 16K of memory. Learned Commodore BASIC in class; self taught on Assembler.

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                    • R Ravi Bhavnani

                      IBM-PC AT (80286, 6MHz), 512K RAM, 20 MB hard disk, 2x floppy drives (5.25" 260K, 5.25" 1.2M), Hercules CGA video card, Princeton Graphics System color monitor, Okidata 192 Microline dot matrix printer, Rockwell 300 baud modem, MS-DOS 3.0, Lattice-C compiler.  Also 1985. /ravi

                      My new year resolution: 2048 x 1536 Home | Articles | My .NET bits | Freeware ravib(at)ravib(dot)com

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                      enhzflep
                      wrote on last edited by
                      #19

                      :thumbsup: Somehow Ravi, your post has reminded me of a particular scene from the Futurama series. The one where Bender is getting all hot and bothered at seeing the circuit diagrams of old robots.

                      "Science adjusts its views based on what's observed. Faith is the denial of observation, so that belief can be preserved." - Tim Minchin

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                      • K Kevin Marois

                        I taught myself GW-Basic on this Zenith 120[^] back in 1985 while in the Marine Corps. I still have the book

                        If it's not broken, fix it until it is

                        R Offline
                        R Offline
                        Roger Wright
                        wrote on last edited by
                        #20

                        This one[^] :-D

                        Will Rogers never met me.

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                        • E enhzflep

                          :thumbsup: Somehow Ravi, your post has reminded me of a particular scene from the Futurama series. The one where Bender is getting all hot and bothered at seeing the circuit diagrams of old robots.

                          "Science adjusts its views based on what's observed. Faith is the denial of observation, so that belief can be preserved." - Tim Minchin

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                          Ravi Bhavnani
                          wrote on last edited by
                          #21

                          I had to Wikipedia Futurama and Bender. :) /ravi

                          My new year resolution: 2048 x 1536 Home | Articles | My .NET bits | Freeware ravib(at)ravib(dot)com

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                          • K Kevin Marois

                            I taught myself GW-Basic on this Zenith 120[^] back in 1985 while in the Marine Corps. I still have the book

                            If it's not broken, fix it until it is

                            W Offline
                            W Offline
                            W Balboos GHB
                            wrote on last edited by
                            #22

                            Depending upon how you define development, it's either

                            • FORTRAN on an IBM 1800
                            • FORTRAN and Assembler on a VAX/VMS Cluster
                            • FORTRAN/C/Assembler on IBM PC/AT 12 MHz/1 wait state/40MB HDD w/PC DOS 3.1

                            For those who know: FEED -> REGISTER -> RELEASE

                            "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein

                            "As far as we know, our computer has never had an undetected error." - Weisert

                            "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010

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                            • K Kevin Marois

                              I taught myself GW-Basic on this Zenith 120[^] back in 1985 while in the Marine Corps. I still have the book

                              If it's not broken, fix it until it is

                              M Offline
                              M Offline
                              Matt T Heffron
                              wrote on last edited by
                              #23

                              At Caltech (Fall 1974) it was a DECsystem KA-10 (all discrete logic, no integrated circuits, core memory, 1usec cycle-time) timesharing system. Programming in Basic, FORTRAN and assembly! First employment: summer 1976, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Univac 1108, FORTRAN. Analyzing fuel consumption of the attitude control system of the Viking Mars Orbiter.

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                              • K Kevin Marois

                                I taught myself GW-Basic on this Zenith 120[^] back in 1985 while in the Marine Corps. I still have the book

                                If it's not broken, fix it until it is

                                R Offline
                                R Offline
                                Ron Anders
                                wrote on last edited by
                                #24

                                PDP 11/23 running RT-11 K&R C Compiler

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                                • K Kevin Marois

                                  I taught myself GW-Basic on this Zenith 120[^] back in 1985 while in the Marine Corps. I still have the book

                                  If it's not broken, fix it until it is

                                  G Offline
                                  G Offline
                                  GuyThiebaut
                                  wrote on last edited by
                                  #25

                                  Mine was a ZX Spectrum 48k which I received as a pre-Christmas present back in 1983. I spent most of that night up playing Flight Simulator[^]. My only real piece of coding on it was a database engine, I wrote, that could save 12 records.

                                  “That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.”

                                  ― Christopher Hitchens

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                                  • K Kevin Marois

                                    I taught myself GW-Basic on this Zenith 120[^] back in 1985 while in the Marine Corps. I still have the book

                                    If it's not broken, fix it until it is

                                    M Offline
                                    M Offline
                                    mikepwilson
                                    wrote on last edited by
                                    #26

                                    Our school had a PDP-11 I started on in the mid 70s. First one I had was a Franklin Ace 1000 a couple years later.

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                                    • K Kevin Marois

                                      I taught myself GW-Basic on this Zenith 120[^] back in 1985 while in the Marine Corps. I still have the book

                                      If it's not broken, fix it until it is

                                      M Offline
                                      M Offline
                                      Mike Hankey
                                      wrote on last edited by
                                      #27

                                      That looks like a luggable that my boss made me tote to Mexico when I was working down there. It was a Compaq[^] and weighted a freakin ton, 2 tons if you where in a hurry to catch a place at the other side of the airp0ort and had to be there in 5 mins.. Semper Fi

                                      VS2010/Atmel Studio 6.1 ToDo Manager Extension The problem with the gene pool is that there is no lifeguard. -Steven Wright

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                                      • K Kevin Marois

                                        I taught myself GW-Basic on this Zenith 120[^] back in 1985 while in the Marine Corps. I still have the book

                                        If it's not broken, fix it until it is

                                        J Offline
                                        J Offline
                                        Jason Gleim
                                        wrote on last edited by
                                        #28

                                        I got selected to learn programming in 4th grade on an Apple II+ by my elementary school teacher. (1982-83) Our district got enough machines to put a half dozen in each school but there was no formal curriculum at the time so it was all pretty unofficial and ad-hoc. When I got to high school in 87, our computer teacher was awarded one of IBM's first Teacher of the year awards for his program "reach out and byte someone" (1988) which taught students how to use dial-up resources like CompuServe to help with research projects. Big Blue donated an entire lab full of PS2's networked to a server all running Netware. It was amazing at the time and really put some fire to the districts' computer cirriculum. I started learning Pascal on that network in '89. Gave me a big leg-up when I got to college.

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                                        • K Kevin Marois

                                          I taught myself GW-Basic on this Zenith 120[^] back in 1985 while in the Marine Corps. I still have the book

                                          If it's not broken, fix it until it is

                                          G Offline
                                          G Offline
                                          gggustafson
                                          wrote on last edited by
                                          #29

                                          IBM 1410[^], 1965

                                          Gus Gustafson

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