The timeline seems to match my experience, but the fumbling does not; I started reading books and magazines before I had access to computers in begin 80s. Those

The timeline seems to match my experience, but the fumbling does not; I started reading books and magazines before I had access to computers in begin 80s. Those where mostly Basic but some asm (esp for the c64 and spectrum the basic code had fair amounts of data which was asm). When I had access to computers after that, I wrote monsters of Basic programs. I remember writing a music composition program for the MSX which, after I got it all typed in on a PC (I had only partly access to an MSX and part PC), it was too large for the MSX memory. It was too slow too, so I started replacing parts with z80 asm typed in hex. I still remember most opcodes in hex: it was much faster and more efficient to type than assembler. I guess I was lucky to have access to the books: I went to a (monthly?) Philips ‘old crap’ sale. If I remember it was in the bottom of the PSV stadium and they had old electronics and mags and books for sale for cheap. It was so lovely; we took a car full of old circuitboards to get components off, books, printed papers etc home and spent the next month working on them (this was summervacation usually as it was close to my grandparents).