I didn't start trying to write large programs. I started writing really small programs. They were things like "enter the time" (the machine didn't have a perm

I didn't start trying to write large programs. I started writing really small programs. They were things like "enter the time" (the machine didn't have a permanent clock) and "enter the alarm time". Then it would sit there and print the clock on screen (a TV) and when the alarm time came, it would make noise for 5-10 seconds. Then it would go to sleep again. I did a bunch of little things like that which seem dumb in retrospect but probably helped me figure things out in the long run. I also wrote a bunch of really bad medium and large programs before getting close to one which was even kind of good.