I like this piece. In part 2 the author talks about the really small limited information space. Never really thought about it that way, but yeah. We all had a space of sorts and it varied widely.
My own was bit larher than the one described in the work here. Basically, I did end up with a well known programmer, school teachers, and in a bus ride away, the University library and copy machines! Hoo boy! The first time I snagged a 6502 instruction set, complete with programming model and cycle counts, detailed diagrams...
The answers to all my BASIC questions were in those pages!! But it was cryptic! A good friend and I started reading the ROM listing and were gathering any new info as quickly as we could.
The most surprising one turned out to be books and magazines from the grocery store! While Mom would shop, I would read bits here and there hoping for insight, often finding it.
It sounds like you were in a much richer information landscape than the one I found myself in, indeed! At some point I got access to a book about Z80 assembly and it had that kind of material in it, but I didn't have the ability to interpret it. And the grocery store definitely had absolutely nothing relevant to my computing interests.
I hope you do not mind this meta chat about your series.
Two things:
One is you had that friend! I had a few. Some had multiple computers, others just the one and maybe it was the same machine you had! Where that happened, it really helped get into computing!
And the other thought:
Your revelation! YES! Everyone who ends up understanding assembly language has some form of what you wrote happen to them, and it often means how one sees computing is never the same
We, and by that I mean my peer group and I through a lot of discussion, often near blackboards...
Blackboard you say? Indeed! Those boards one would use with chalk. None of this whiteboard rubbish thank you very much!
...that resulted in a new understanding.
Computers really only do a few things; namely, add numbers, copy numbers, and perform bit or logic operations on numbers.
All of it comes down to that!
You subtract by adding, for example. And those two mean one can multiply and divide, and so it goes, until it sinks in. Adds per second. They are not much, but a few hundred thousand of them happening per second can make magic happen!
And that kind of thing happened for you. Someone shared it and you began to internalize it.
There is one more magic conversation that tends to close the circle, and that is assembly language is all about the [redacted]. And that may have happened, but we won't know until you write that part, will we?
I have some stuff to say, but won't because that would not be appropriate in this context. And I am selfish hoping to read your experiences and enjoy them proper.
Yes. I agree. The grocery store had, Creative Computing, COMPUTE, BYTE, and many other magazines that featured articles on the various systems, assembly language programs, BASIC programs and memory addresses and chips.
That stuff was a big help. Interpreting other material, such as CPU datasheets became possible.
I got my first disassembler, for example, out of COMPUTE magazine as a BASIC language type in listing!
The Apple 2 contained a mini assembler, and the two got several of us writing our own stuff.
And there are multiple parts to this. Our peers and maybe mentors can really matter.
My "Google” was the Worlds Largest Bookstore in downtown Toronto. It had all the great computer magazines you mentioned and tons and tons of computer books. I would buy Dr. Dobbs (DDJ) for C and Turbo Pascal on the IBM PC, Antic and Analog Computing for game programming on the Atari. The book section always had interesting stuff - Mostly I bought Microsoft Press stuff in the 80s and 90s when I was in University.
It always seemed unfair to teenage me that the C$ price was 20-40% more than the USD price.
Yeah you got the raw deal on that exchange rate for sure!
Otherwise, same. Or Powells tech books! That store was amazing! Technical books of all kinds and on any topic for the reading or buying. I did a lot of reading in that store.
It all depends on where you live. Before the internet you would get information by happenstance. I remember the good fortune of traveling to Scott’s valley and 15 year old me fan boy visited Borlands offices on a walk in whim I told them I was from Canada and that I was a huge fan and I programmed in turbo pascal. Hearing my story , thr receptionist gave me a patch disk for the compiler that I never would have had if I hadn’t been there ..
Just wild. I of course copied the disk to numerous friends with the gloat. “Look what I got”. Childish. Yes. But man I was NERD cool. :-)
"Light Blue on Black", otherwise known as a black and WHITE display!
I too noted the blue tint, and on some devices, it was a green tint, but not actually grey as intended.
Reading this brought a flash of memories related to older television and computer monitor displays. The amazing details our young minds latch on to make this hobby of retro computing so darn fun!
Bonus for what appear to be great people more than not.
Did they really call it black and white? I know in the early 90s there was a whole "paperwhite" screen thing, but I didn't realize they had tried to sell light blue as white earlier. Hm, perhaps I did hear a reference to "grey" in this context, but I'm not sure.
Yes I had a Samsung paper white, for a time. It was essentially a Hercules monochrome display that has white phosphor instead of amber. Depending on the app you could go with black text on a bright white background to make it look like paper. MS word for dos worked ok , but code worked best in “dark mode” of course. White text in black background. I only had it a few months as I was able to get a “bad box” NEC mutiisync for a huge discount
I never could afford a fancy dedicated monitor. For years, I just used televisions. I got very good at fixing them up and tweaking / modifying them to perform better.
My first real monitor was during the 386 era and I was able to break the 640x400 ceiling for the first time!
My own was bit larher than the one described in the work here. Basically, I did end up with a well known programmer, school teachers, and in a bus ride away, the University library and copy machines! Hoo boy! The first time I snagged a 6502 instruction set, complete with programming model and cycle counts, detailed diagrams...
The answers to all my BASIC questions were in those pages!! But it was cryptic! A good friend and I started reading the ROM listing and were gathering any new info as quickly as we could.
The most surprising one turned out to be books and magazines from the grocery store! While Mom would shop, I would read bits here and there hoping for insight, often finding it.
Great times!
But assembly is the next installment.
https://blog.startifact.com/posts/teenage-programmer-call-of.../
Two things:
One is you had that friend! I had a few. Some had multiple computers, others just the one and maybe it was the same machine you had! Where that happened, it really helped get into computing!
And the other thought:
Your revelation! YES! Everyone who ends up understanding assembly language has some form of what you wrote happen to them, and it often means how one sees computing is never the same
We, and by that I mean my peer group and I through a lot of discussion, often near blackboards...
Blackboard you say? Indeed! Those boards one would use with chalk. None of this whiteboard rubbish thank you very much!
...that resulted in a new understanding.
Computers really only do a few things; namely, add numbers, copy numbers, and perform bit or logic operations on numbers.
All of it comes down to that!
You subtract by adding, for example. And those two mean one can multiply and divide, and so it goes, until it sinks in. Adds per second. They are not much, but a few hundred thousand of them happening per second can make magic happen!
And that kind of thing happened for you. Someone shared it and you began to internalize it.
There is one more magic conversation that tends to close the circle, and that is assembly language is all about the [redacted]. And that may have happened, but we won't know until you write that part, will we?
I have some stuff to say, but won't because that would not be appropriate in this context. And I am selfish hoping to read your experiences and enjoy them proper.
:)
That stuff was a big help. Interpreting other material, such as CPU datasheets became possible.
I got my first disassembler, for example, out of COMPUTE magazine as a BASIC language type in listing!
The Apple 2 contained a mini assembler, and the two got several of us writing our own stuff.
And there are multiple parts to this. Our peers and maybe mentors can really matter.
It always seemed unfair to teenage me that the C$ price was 20-40% more than the USD price.
Otherwise, same. Or Powells tech books! That store was amazing! Technical books of all kinds and on any topic for the reading or buying. I did a lot of reading in that store.
Just wild. I of course copied the disk to numerous friends with the gloat. “Look what I got”. Childish. Yes. But man I was NERD cool. :-)
I too noted the blue tint, and on some devices, it was a green tint, but not actually grey as intended.
Reading this brought a flash of memories related to older television and computer monitor displays. The amazing details our young minds latch on to make this hobby of retro computing so darn fun!
Bonus for what appear to be great people more than not.
My first real monitor was during the 386 era and I was able to break the 640x400 ceiling for the first time!
Yeah, interlaced 1024x768 baby!