I bought the first computer I ever wrote a program on | Hacker News Reader

I bought the first computer I ever wrote a program on

lonecpluspluscoder.com

36 pointsingve23 comments

I wrote my first programs for computers I didn't even have. Through magazines and maybe some books I learned BASIC and would write simple programs for the TRS-80. Not that I had access to one.

Later, my brother bought a VIC-20 which is the first I really wrote my own programs for. I might go looking for one of those to wall mount.

Bought my ZX81 direct from the UK after seeing their ad in Pop Sci [i].

Later on, there was a store called Gladstone Electronics in Toronto that sold software and many peripherals for the Sinclair line of micros. [ii]

Even built my own full sized keyboard for the ZX81 and learned Z80 assembler through owning it. Great memories!!

[i] https://i.pinimg.com/originals/9f/ff/45/9fff45a041ec9e798a1c...

[ii] https://archive.org/stream/ElectronicsToday1984-08/#page/n3/...

This ad I found on ebay is awfully tempting: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-ORIGINAL-Sinclair-ZX81-UNAS...

I still own the very first computer I coded on. A ZX Spectrum 128K +2. It was in my parents loft and now has pride of place on a shelf around our stairs. Such a great reminder and piece of history. It’ll be 33 years old this year.

I also got my first computer back from my parents garage this year. It is a Microtan 65, which is about 40 years old now.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tangerine_Microtan_65

A friend of my Dad's replaced a few old capacitors, and it now boots up perfectly into the BASIC prompt.

I got a huge buzz from writing a simple basic program on it. There was definitely something lovely about that era of personal computing.

Yeah it’s one of the reasons I love playing with PICO-8 it hits that nostalgia with all the corners sanded off.

Wow, I didn't know about PICO-8, thanks!

Looks like something my son might enjoy too. He's been trying to get into writing games, but Scratch is too simple, and Unity is too complex. This looks really cool.

Strangely, he really likes retro graphics despite the power of modern machines.

Heh, The TS1000 was also my intro to programming. I still have the manual that came with it, which taught basic programming as well as explaining how the internals were laid out.

I miss having good manuals.

Over the holidays, I was also thinking of buying the first programmable computer I ever used as a kid. For me it would be Elektronika B3-34 programmable calculator [0]. It had 98 bytes of instruction memory and 1-2 instructions per second speed. I remember watching the screen pulsating in the dark at night, as it would go instruction by instruction. I thought it was a blast!

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elektronika_B3-34

It's a familiar course of things. First you encounter the thing, and the grand picture of importance of that encounter will be seen much later. You spend critical time with it, which changes you. Which probably Changes you. Then, as the time period you're in dictates, you're separated, and the thing dissolves into oblivion, and you're up in the world, changed but still in the beginning of the road - which you're among few others see, dimly, but more or less fully ahead. More time passes, you're well ahead on the road, and got lots of stories to tell about trophies under your belt. The thing is firmly in memory, until at some time you realize it's possible to conjure - at least the physical recreation of the thing. You do that, and a smile lightens up your face. Just few others can understand you - those are your tribe in a sense, your brothers in arms. Time can't be returned, but you're somehow more stable, stronger and more confident for that.

"the humongous 16KB RAM expansion that connects on the back" Sigh. Memories.

It was the first computer I wrote a programme for that compiled and ran.

A programme to detect if a number was prime, by brute force.

Memory lane....

I’m jealous that older generations get to say they wrote their first program on iconic hardware. Computers of my time were much faster, but they were very generic.

I started programming in the early 80s, and started programming professionally in 1987. The biggest difference between early micros and PCs was that most early micros had better documentation in the box than the PCs did. For example, a C64 or a TI 99/4a had documentation that would take you from beginner to being able to access hardware features. The PC, on the other hand, you had to buy books from third parties to get that level of documentation. To be fair, the PC had a lot more going to document.

I started in 84 on a PCjr. Had the PCjr Technical Reference manual, which was amazing. It even had the BIOS assembly source in the back of it.

IBM did a great job with their product. The clones on the other hand... well, sometimes you were lucky to get a ziploc bag with 20 page warranty and how to install documentation from each of the parts.

This resonates with me. My first computer was an Acorn Electron. IIRC the user guide included things about IRQs, 6502 assembly language, and even details like using 'two pass assembly' to assemble a program which referred to a something before that thing had been defined.

My first PC came with instructions on how to connect the keyboard, mouse and monitor. I recall thinking it was really strange that something could be sold without instructions on all its functions. Until then every electronic device I'd bought came with instructions that were 'complete' in the sense that everything you could do in normal use was documented.

Yes, I feel a bit robbed by 90s computers when I pick up old manuals or cheap programming books for things like the BBC Micro.

I mean, I'm 32 and I programmed on one of those as a teenager. If you do the math, yes it was 20 years old at the time, but I had a blast anyway.

A lot of the newer Apple products are fairly iconic as well: iPhones, iPads, MacBook Pros, and a lot of people consider some of the iMacs such as G3 or G4 to be iconic as well. So there's still contemporary iconic hardware for someone to write their first program on :)

Archive: https://web.archive.org/web/20210102111334/http://www.lonecp...

How well I remember that, from 1983 or '84. It was my first computer as well, with the 16K RAM pack (though I think the Timex version came with 2K built in...not sure anymore).

It didn't take me too long to move on to a Commodore 64.

Good times indeed.

At least they promised right there in the warranty not to sell your data. Good times.

How convenient that it's a small personal computer, I wrote my first program on HP-UX, I don't think I'll ever buy one of that for collection/closure.

Tomy Tutor, an unusual semi-compatible system based on the TI 99 series. I still have that exact machine, and it still works.

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