Fun fact about my programming career:
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Eventually I figure out that DOS is supposed to have a program for running basic code: GWBASIC or QBASIC.
I don't have that program.
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We got our Packard Bell used, and the previous owner was some kind of power user who needed every last kilobyte of their hard drive, so they deleted those files.
And forgot to give us the DOS installation disks with the PC, so I couldn't reinstall it.
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I think I only got access to a BASIC interpreter when I bought (with my own allowance) the DOS 6.22 upgrade.
I think I'd tried to get the files from my grandma, but there was some issue. Maybe the floppies I copied the files onto went bad? I know that happened a few times... I once excitedly used my grandparents' company's internet connection to download the Duke Nukem 3D shareware (4-5 disks!) and then i waited until we drove home to play it, but it turned out one of the disks died
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Anyway I finally got QBASIC, did a bunch of BASIC coding on that, then switched to Visual Basic 5 after a random stranger sent it to me over ICQ, and around 2000 I learnt C/C++ and started doing more serious programming.
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But I honestly think it was that initial period of hyperfixation that turned me into a programmer. I spent months trying to crack the code (no pun intended) and figure out how to program, and all that effort got me stuck on this path.
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If I'd had access to BASIC from the beginning, I can easily imagine my interest just being a passing thing. I spent an afternoon or two typing in simple BASIC code in from the book, then return it to the library and go back to reading their whole sci-fi section
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But the initial roadblock of "all the books are in BASIC, and you don't have a BASIC interpreter" was such a problem that it forced me to learn a lot about programming and computers and BASIC before I could get any satisfaction from successfully programming.
And by then I was hooked. I knew too much about programming and computers to NOT make this my life's work.
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Foone🏳️⚧️replied to Foone🏳️⚧️ last edited by [email protected]
Going back in time and handing an Apple II to 1994!Foone and when I come back, modern!foone is an author who writes on a typewriter because she can't stand word processors.
She mainly writes "non-fiction" about Bigfoot
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@voxel oh me too
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@MidniteLibrary nah, I've never done much handwriting.
Computers were also a big thing for me because I can't write by hand for shit, but I can type like a motherfucker -
@stilescrisis correct!
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@foone yooooo! Holy shit! Exact same early programming experience
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Chrisshy Keygenreplied to Chrisshy Keygen last edited by
@foone I didn't start "seriously" programming until I got a hand-me-down TI-83 and the manual for it.
I immediately started making and selling games to other students during math class
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@foone Huh. My grandma was also the computer expert of the family, and my first code projects were also in DOS batch script. Wild!
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@foone That's how I spent my time around 1979.
I borrowed David Ahl's 100 Basic Computer Games and typed them into my neighbour's Apple ][+ (or europlus, as it had PAL, not NTSC)
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@lykso are we cousins? It'd explain a lot
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Oh I remembered something about my first program:
Batch got a "choose" command in DOS 6, which let you do interactive prompts, and dynamically GOTO different labels.
I didn't have that. I had DOS 5.
So the game worked by having multiple batch files. It'd drop you to the DOS prompt after telling you what options you had, and when you typed in a command, you were really running a second batch script named COMMAND.bat -
So it'd be like:
Which way do you want to go? East or west?
C:\FOONEGAM> west
You head west, the cave narrows, and you hear bats. Go back? (type YES or NO)
C:\FOONEGAM> no
You head deeper into the cave, and eventually it opens back up, and you see light in the distance. You're free! -
And you'd be running WEST.BAT and YES.BAT out of that folder, since I couldn't do choices.
But the fun part is the randomization. How do you think that worked if I couldn't do choices and gotos?
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Simple: I wrote a SHUFFLE.BAT that would rotate the ending files. So YES.BAT became EAST.BAT, the old EAST.BAT became WEST.BAT, and the old WEST.BAT became YES.BAT.
You'd type SHUFFLE at the prompt, then spam F3 (to recall the previous command) and Enter to run it a bunch of times.