Almost 50 years ago, I took a course in Fortran IV. Input was a pain, for the options were teletypes or punch cards. The class was interesting, in a puzzle-solv

Almost 50 years ago, I took a course in Fortran IV. Input was a pain, for the options were teletypes or punch cards. The class was interesting, in a puzzle-solving sort of way, and I got through it OK. I think the most interesting task was to create a craps-game simulation. The class was fine, but I was not aiming to be a mathematician, scientist, or casino operator. I lost interest. Then some years later, I found that there was data over here that I needed over there, and that writing a program was going to be a lot more efficient that printing it out and typing it back in. I taught myself assembler, and went on from there.