I started with BASIC on Commodore 16 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodore_16) and shortly after MOS 6502 assembler back in the mid 80s when I was in my early teens. Commodore 16 had a monitor program build in, all you had to do is type MONITOR and you were able to edit memory directly in machine/assembler code, save it, run it etc (http://www.commodore16.com/php/images/books/downloads/Tedmon...).

Later, I got Commodore 64, then 128, then Amiga 500 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amiga_500) which was such a joy to program. This is where I got my first exposure to C programming (Aztec C http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aztec_C) and VIM. VIM was in fact first developed for Amiga where it was known as VI iMitation (hece VIM), and later back ported to UNIX. In the 90s went to university to study math and computer science and that's where I got introduced to "big iron" UNIX (HPUX). In late 90s I did some Windows C++ development, but I now program for all kinds of platforms from Solaris, to AIX to HPUX to Linux to Windows and Mac OS X and in dozens of languages. We even make our own VI, awk compiler, Perl interpreter, std C lib for all kinds of platforms, POSIX APIs port to Windows and others, port of UNIX tools and shells to Windows and a multi million LOC ALM application suite.

But today's computing really can't be compared to the experience in the 80s, when you as a kid could master your CPU and know its complete instruction set, its registers and important memory locations and feel completely in control. I shudder when I see where general computing is headed with kids dreaming of owning iPads.