My first experience with computers was when I was at college and we could run programs remotely on the University of Manchester mainframe by feeding punched cards into teletypes in our computer “lab”. The language was CESIL (Computer Education in Schools Instruction Language). Whilst at college I was also fortunate to get invited on a regional Maths Camp where we encountered the Commodore PET programming in BASIC.
From there I studied Electronics & Computer Engineering at the University of Birmingham, and programmed in C and Algol 68 on the big University computer systems, and 6800/6502/8080 on microprocessor systems like the MEK6800D2, KIM-1 and TK-80. At the same time I bought a Microtan 65 for myself and programmed in 6502 hex, assembler, then Microsoft BASIC.
On graduation I worked for Lucas Research developing engine management systems for cars using 6805 and 6809 microprocessors, whilst at home I bought a 6502-based Acorn BBC Model B using the amazing BBC BASIC, then a BBC Master with 80186 co-processor running GEM.
Having joined the Royal Navy, at RNEC Manadon I found myself doing some programming in ADA and Modula-2 and also did a project creating a digital radar display simulator using an 8080 SBC.
Eventually I moved onto my first PC a few years later. Since then I have built many Microsoft Windows machines, but in 2012 moved across to MacOS and started building Hackintosh computers.
I have kept my hand in programming ever since, mainly in Pascal (originally Borland Delphi but nowadays Lazarus and Free Pascal), but also used a little C when I started making things with Arduino and ESP8266 WiFi capable micro-controllers. Mostly I do it for fun, rather than any particular application.
References / Resources
- Files on Titan:
/Archive_Jekyll/files/computer/…_Borland Delphi (old stuff): Delphi Informant magazine and other items_Raspberry Pi: a bunch of books and MagPi magazines (full set)cpu-6502: programming books & emulatorscpu-6800: programming bookscpu-8080: programming bookscpu-z80: programming booksmachine-bbc-micro: lots of items related to the BBC Micro, including emulators & magazinesmachine-microtan-65: manuals & programming booksmachine-space-invaders: didactic emulatorretro-arcade: various files associated with playing classic arcade games, etctitan-docs: manuals, parts & cost XLS, etc