Foone🏳️⚧️
Fun fact about my programming career:
My first program ever written was around age 10 and it was a port of a game from one language to another.
Not first "completed game" or even "first serious program": the very first code I ever wrote was me reading a BASIC game out of a book, then reading the DOS 5 manual enough to figure out how to port the game to a DOS batch file.
Foone🏳️⚧️
If I'd had access to BASIC from the beginning, I can easily imagine my interest just being a passing thing. I spent an afternoon or two typing in simple BASIC code in from the book, then return it to the library and go back to reading their whole sci-fi section
Foone🏳️⚧️
But the initial roadblock of "all the books are in BASIC, and you don't have a BASIC interpreter" was such a problem that it forced me to learn a lot about programming and computers and BASIC before I could get any satisfaction from successfully programming.
And by then I was hooked. I knew too much about programming and computers to NOT make this my life's work.
Foone🏳️⚧️
But I honestly think it was that initial period of hyperfixation that turned me into a programmer. I spent months trying to crack the code (no pun intended) and figure out how to program, and all that effort got me stuck on this path.
Foone🏳️⚧️
I think I only got access to a BASIC interpreter when I bought (with my own allowance) the DOS 6.22 upgrade.
I think I'd tried to get the files from my grandma, but there was some issue. Maybe the floppies I copied the files onto went bad? I know that happened a few times... I once excitedly used my grandparents' company's internet connection to download the Duke Nukem 3D shareware (4-5 disks!) and then i waited until we drove home to play it, but it turned out one of the disks died
Foone🏳️⚧️
Anyway I finally got QBASIC, did a bunch of BASIC coding on that, then switched to Visual Basic 5 after a random stranger sent it to me over ICQ, and around 2000 I learnt C/C++ and started doing more serious programming.
Foone🏳️⚧️
We got our Packard Bell used, and the previous owner was some kind of power user who needed every last kilobyte of their hard drive, so they deleted those files.
And forgot to give us the DOS installation disks with the PC, so I couldn't reinstall it.
Foone🏳️⚧️
At one point I try to start reverse engineering windows 3.1 EXE files in order to find out how they're written... This without any knowledge of x86 assembly, or having a hex editor.
I don't get far, but I'm still proud of baby!foone for trying.
Foone🏳️⚧️
Eventually I figure out that DOS is supposed to have a program for running basic code: GWBASIC or QBASIC.
I don't have that program.
Foone🏳️⚧️
I go to the library and read ALL their computer books. I learn a lot about BASIC without being able to run it.
I read all the manuals, and now I know a lot about DOS and Windows 3.1.
I start experimenting with my computer, trying to find some way to program it.
Foone🏳️⚧️
So they were all "to program a computer, just turn it on and type in these basic commands!"
And I go home and turn on the Packard Bell 486 and type in some code!
C:\> 10 PRINT "HELLO WORLD!"
BAD COMMAND OR FILE NAME
Foone🏳️⚧️
So, facing an obstacle with no one who could help (my parents didn't know anything about computers, and my grandma who does only visits every few months), I had to Get Serious.
Foone🏳️⚧️
See around 1994 or so I was like "I WANT TO PROGRAM COMPUTERS" (because of Bigfoot and UFOs, but that's a different story) but my local library didn't have a very up to date computer section.
So all the books were from the 80s, and expected you to have an 8-bit micro that of course booted to BASIC
Foone🏳️⚧️
I think fundamentally I'm a programmer because my local library failed me
Foone🏳️⚧️
There's an alternate universe where I got given real programming language environments and wrote "hello world" as my first program.
That universe's foone is probably a lot more normal than this one's
Foone🏳️⚧️
My family didn't have a computer at the time. I had to wait until we visited my grandparents (who lived about 2 hours away) to write any code.
GreenSkyOverMe (Monika)
@foone OMG
GreenSkyOverMe (Monika)
@foone LOL 😂
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