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In 1983 I was 6 and already starting to write code daily, using BASIC. But because the lack of something like Internet I was so culturally detached from real wo
by antirez 4y ago
In 1983 I was 6 and already starting to write code daily, using BASIC. But because the lack of something like Internet I was so culturally detached from real world IT that I learned C only in 1997: 14 years later.
- dleslie 4y agoI was in a similar situation; though I'm roughly a decade younger. I grew up in the BBS era, and experienced the internet first as gopher and ftp access (archie!) through the local schoolsnet. I bought "Using Linux" by Sams in 1995 solely to get access to GCC, because a C compiler was extremely difficult to come by. And yet, within a year they became commonly available, for DOS and Windows even, thanks to DJGPP. The local schoolsnet added SLIP support, and we could access Delorie's website. While Microsoft and Borland were still charging an arm and a leg, and GNU couldn't be bothered to support non-free systems, it was Delorie who created that bridge to common users and opened the world of C programming to us.
- antirez 4y agoSorry I totally got the math wrong! I was 6 in '83. Anyway very similar story to mine. Also for me Slackware 1.2.3 gave me access to GCC...
- tomcam 4y agoWhat BASIC dialects did you use for that 14-year period?
- twoodfin 4y agoSimilarly, I only learned about C via the Microsoft QuickC manual, included with the Gateway 2000 ‘486 “Programmer Pack” option (also: Visual Basic 1.0!) in 1992.