Comments on: What was your first program? http://www.chrisfinke.com/2008/08/21/what-was-your-first-program/ Christopher Finke is a software engineer. He is available for birthday parties and bar mitzvahs. Mon, 15 Mar 2010 13:29:16 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9 hourly 1 By: Bielawski http://www.chrisfinke.com/2008/08/21/what-was-your-first-program/#comment-97083 Bielawski Wed, 29 Oct 2008 23:11:13 +0000 http://www.chrisfinke.com/?p=832#comment-97083 My first was an MS-DOS batch file that pretended to format all your drives. My first was an MS-DOS batch file that pretended to format all your drives.

]]> By: Bouba http://www.chrisfinke.com/2008/08/21/what-was-your-first-program/#comment-93120 Bouba Wed, 08 Oct 2008 13:46:03 +0000 http://www.chrisfinke.com/?p=832#comment-93120 1st program ever ? a loop. 10 FOR I = 1 to 100 20 PRINT I 30 NEXT I It was a kind of benchmark test for me. I started with a Texas Instrument TI99/4A which turned out to be the slowest computer on the market despite its 16bit CPU. VIC20 and TRS-80 Mod I were way faster... If you're nostalgic too, take a look at the multi-emulator MESS (www.mess.org) and this museum: oldcomputers.net Cheers and thanks for RSS Ticker! 1st program ever ? a loop.

10 FOR I = 1 to 100
20 PRINT I
30 NEXT I

It was a kind of benchmark test for me.
I started with a Texas Instrument TI99/4A which turned out to be the slowest computer on the market despite its 16bit CPU. VIC20 and TRS-80 Mod I were way faster...
If you're nostalgic too, take a look at the multi-emulator MESS (www.mess.org) and this museum: oldcomputers.net

Cheers and thanks for RSS Ticker!

]]> By: Alexander Baldwin http://www.chrisfinke.com/2008/08/21/what-was-your-first-program/#comment-88370 Alexander Baldwin Wed, 17 Sep 2008 11:46:55 +0000 http://www.chrisfinke.com/?p=832#comment-88370 My first program was <code>echo "Hello World!";</code> mainly because a book told me to. It was ages before I realised you could do much more fun things if you actually learnt the language! My first program was echo "Hello World!"; mainly because a book told me to. It was ages before I realised you could do much more fun things if you actually learnt the language!

]]> By: Alex http://www.chrisfinke.com/2008/08/21/what-was-your-first-program/#comment-87182 Alex Tue, 09 Sep 2008 11:12:16 +0000 http://www.chrisfinke.com/?p=832#comment-87182 I remember that my first program was written in batch code on xp (state of the art at that time - 2001). I was 12yo and intrested in hacking ( lol ), so i made a virus that consisted in : @echo off echo "THIS IS A VIRUSE!" PAUSE I never understood why it didn't spread ... I remember that my first program was written in batch code on xp (state of the art at that time - 2001). I was 12yo and intrested in hacking ( lol ), so i made a virus that consisted in :

@echo off
echo "THIS IS A VIRUSE!"
PAUSE

I never understood why it didn't spread ...

]]> By: POSTer http://www.chrisfinke.com/2008/08/21/what-was-your-first-program/#comment-85983 POSTer Thu, 04 Sep 2008 07:45:26 +0000 http://www.chrisfinke.com/?p=832#comment-85983 Remind me of 20 goto 10 ^^ Remind me of 20 goto 10 ^^

]]> By: xander lih http://www.chrisfinke.com/2008/08/21/what-was-your-first-program/#comment-85859 xander lih Wed, 03 Sep 2008 16:23:33 +0000 http://www.chrisfinke.com/?p=832#comment-85859 There was a basic program on the C-64 I remember that would scroll random "/" and "\" to make a maze, but I don't think I wrote it. There was a show on "Chaos Theory" and they described the Sierpinski Triangle [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sierpinski_triangle ], and it was simple enough in rules for me to create one in basic. No imaginary numbers. I think it was my first real, not from a magazine or variation of a standard, program. There was a basic program on the C-64 I remember that would scroll random "/" and "\" to make a maze, but I don't think I wrote it.

There was a show on "Chaos Theory" and they described the Sierpinski Triangle [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sierpinski_triangle ], and it was simple enough in rules for me to create one in basic. No imaginary numbers. I think it was my first real, not from a magazine or variation of a standard, program.

]]> By: Glyph Lefkowitz http://www.chrisfinke.com/2008/08/21/what-was-your-first-program/#comment-84535 Glyph Lefkowitz Wed, 27 Aug 2008 01:18:05 +0000 http://www.chrisfinke.com/?p=832#comment-84535 Sorry, I forget that unicode doesn't work on the interwubs. The assignment operator was not question mark, it is supposed to be U+2910, "LEFTWARDS ARROW". Sorry, I forget that unicode doesn't work on the interwubs. The assignment operator was not question mark, it is supposed to be U+2910, "LEFTWARDS ARROW".

]]> By: Glyph Lefkowitz http://www.chrisfinke.com/2008/08/21/what-was-your-first-program/#comment-84534 Glyph Lefkowitz Wed, 27 Aug 2008 01:13:59 +0000 http://www.chrisfinke.com/?p=832#comment-84534 It was an APL program on an Atari 1000. I was about 8 years old, and already a big fan of Infocom adventure games. My father taught me the assignment operator - "?" - and I wrote a program that looked like this: WEST?'YOU ARE IN A FOREST. THERE ARE SOME TREES HERE.' EAST?'YOU ARE IN A HOUSE. ON THE FLOOR THERE IS A SWORD.' "APL 68K", as I believe it was called, for the Amiga, had an interactive interpreter, so I entered these programs at a prompt, and then delighted in typing: > WEST YOU ARE IN A FOREST. THERE ARE SOME TREES HERE. repeatedly. At the time, I don't believe it occurred to me that there was anything else involved in writing a program; I spent the better part of a week trying to figure out what you could possibly assign to WEST to have it know that the *second* time that you typed it, you wanted to go west *again*. Needless to say this was an exercise in frustration. It was two years before I tried to write a program again, the next time in HyperCard. But it was weeks before I realized I was writing a program. It was an APL program on an Atari 1000. I was about 8 years old, and already a big fan of Infocom adventure games. My father taught me the assignment operator - "?" - and I wrote a program that looked like this:

WEST?'YOU ARE IN A FOREST. THERE ARE SOME TREES HERE.'
EAST?'YOU ARE IN A HOUSE. ON THE FLOOR THERE IS A SWORD.'

"APL 68K", as I believe it was called, for the Amiga, had an interactive interpreter, so I entered these programs at a prompt, and then delighted in typing:

> WEST
YOU ARE IN A FOREST. THERE ARE SOME TREES HERE.

repeatedly.

At the time, I don't believe it occurred to me that there was anything else involved in writing a program; I spent the better part of a week trying to figure out what you could possibly assign to WEST to have it know that the *second* time that you typed it, you wanted to go west *again*. Needless to say this was an exercise in frustration.

It was two years before I tried to write a program again, the next time in HyperCard. But it was weeks before I realized I was writing a program.

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