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   Thomas 🔭🕹️ (thomasfuchs@hachyderm.io)'s status on Friday, 31-Jul-2026 12:54:17 JST Thomas 🔭🕹️

   How did you initially learn programming?

   I did with a bad photocopy of the Tandy Color BASIC manual in German but using GWBASIC on a PC with no graphics or color capability.

   Good but also terrible times!

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     Jeff Miller (orange hatband) (jmeowmeow@hachyderm.io)'s status on Friday, 31-Jul-2026 13:30:15 JST Jeff Miller (orange hatband)

     in reply to

     @thomasfuchs BASIC, using the People's Computer Company games listing, then TRS-80 and IBM PC BASIC. A smart kid around the block showed me how to change the offset for the PC memory mapped character glyphs to animate the typeface. l

     I also learned alongside my stepfather who was doing Z-80 FORTH for instrument control. My first assembly program from his copy of the Peter Norton Guide to the IBM PC was to fix CapsLock to avoid rEVERSE cAPS. Like a typewriter. Isn't that how it should behave?

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     Thijs van der Vossen (tvdv@hachyderm.io)'s status on Friday, 31-Jul-2026 14:45:48 JST Thijs van der Vossen

     in reply to

     @thomasfuchs without a computer. I got programming books from the library, wrote code on paper, and then ran the program in my head. Must have been 7 or 8 at the time.

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     Roger Lipscombe (rogerlipscombe@hachyderm.io)'s status on Friday, 31-Jul-2026 18:56:54 JST Roger Lipscombe

     in reply to

     @thomasfuchs ZX81 BASIC.

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     Thomas 🔭🕹️ (thomasfuchs@hachyderm.io)'s status on Friday, 31-Jul-2026 22:27:32 JST Thomas 🔭🕹️

     in reply to

     • Karl Baron

     @kalleboo amazing cover

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     Karl Baron (kalleboo@bitbang.social)'s status on Friday, 31-Jul-2026 22:27:33 JST Karl Baron

     in reply to

     @thomasfuchs