I learned to program on an Atari 130XE, which came with a manual that covered basic operation and a full ATARI BASIC reference. As a ten-year-old armed with th

I learned to program on an Atari 130XE, which came with a manual that covered basic operation and a full ATARI BASIC reference. As a ten-year-old armed with thousands of hours of spare time, I devoured this manual in pursuit of making games and drawing pretty pictures. I don't even really remember many details of the process; I just know that I spent a lot of time engaged in trial and error (guided by the manual, without which I would not have even tried).