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Note that half the time, you'd make typos and it wouldn't run. So it sounds nostalgic, but not so much. However, debugging it helped to learn the language. :)
by redis_mlc 5y ago
Note that half the time, you'd make typos and it wouldn't run. So it sounds nostalgic, but not so much.
However, debugging it helped to learn the language. :)
Dr. Dobbs Journal was probably the king of source code listings in magazine format.
Pre-Internet, there were some remarkable mass-distribution Unix magazines with significant source code for utilities: Unix Review and Unix World. Even today, the back issues would be useful.
I remember lusting over the AT&T 3B Unix machines advertised in those, but never could afford one. So I waited until VAX Unix in uni (the arts dept. had an unused one), then SCO and Linux.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AT%26T_UNIX_PC https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AT%26T_UNIX_PC
- bananabat 5y agoSo I can see how you can debug BASIC when you're doing the magazine thing and it doesn't run. But what about hex...how did people even find where they made had typos?
- redis_mlc 5y agoMost probably gave up on the hex listings if there were typos, but I never typed that in - it was all ASM or BASIC. I think it's important to realize that there was a golden age of early personal computing, but for most people it wasn't the first couple of years of toggle switches, very limited RAM and hex. Unlike Raspberry Pi's, the early PC was a standalone device that needed a usable UI before it had widespread appeal.