That is it : I am becoming a programmer.

[Churchill]

Give me a chance, I was 7 when the CPC464 was launched (and not much older when I wrote my first program)

;; A simple program to display "Hello World". This program
;; will work with CP/M 2.1 and C/PM +


;; origin for CP/M programs
org &100
nolist
write"cpmex1.com"

;;---------------------------------------------------------
.bdos equ 5

;;---------------------------------------------------------
;; display message and then return back to the command-line

ld hl,message
call display_message
ret

;;---------------------------------------------------------
;; HL = pointer to null terminated message
.display_message
ld a,(hl)				;; get ASCII character
inc hl					;; increment pointer for next character
or a					;; end of message marker (0)?
ret z					;; quit if end of message marker found.

call display_char		;; send character to console output
jp display_message		;; loop for next char

;;---------------------------------------------------------
;; put character to console
;;
;; A = ASCII character

.display_char
push hl
ld c,2			;; console output function id
ld e,a			;; ASCII character
call bdos		;; call BDOS to execute function
pop hl
ret

;;---------------------------------------------------------
;; the message to display

.message
defb "Hello World!",0

By any chance?

Not my code btw.

[darmstadt]

Real programming:

SR    R15,R15  put zero into register 15 (return code)
BR    R14      branch to the address in register 14 (return to scheduler)

[bogeyman]

Real programming:

SR    R15,R15  put zero into register 15 (return code)
BR    R14      branch to the address in register 14 (return to scheduler)

I really used to hate people who commented linkages.

It's obvious! 'return to scheduler' indeed!

Anyway. Never mind the return. Can you code an entry linkage without a 'begin' macro?

I used to trip up loads of 'expert assembler programmers' with that question at interviews.

[darmstadt]

I really used to hate people who commented linkages.

It's obvious! 'return to scheduler' indeed!

Anyway. Never mind the return. Can you code an entry linkage without a 'begin' macro?

I used to trip up loads of 'expert assembler programmers' with that question at interviews.

Thats actually the code for IEFBR14, the program that does nothing yet everyone uses

[NickFitz]

Hehe

Some people I've worked with started progamming at a time when instead of having a PC on your desk you had an ashtray.
Only the lab guys had physical access to a/the computer

In my first professional programming job we had ashtrays in the lab

[Zippy]

In my first professional programming job we had ashtrays in the lab

Eee, it were all paper tape when I were a lass.

No not really, but for some bizarre reason I had to learn how to read it

[NickFitz]

Eee, it were all paper tape when I were a lass.

No not really, but for some bizarre reason I had to learn how to read it

We used paper tape on the PDP8/e at school, but that was replaced by a couple of SWTPC 6800 systems in 1979.

They each had 64K of RAM. They were bought with the budget that had originally been allocated to upgrade the PDP8/e from 8K to 16K of core

[Platypus]

They were bought with the budget that had originally been allocated to upgrade the PDP8/e from 8K to 16K of core

DEC = licence to print money !

[NickFitz]

DEC = licence to print money !

To be fair, core memory was literally hand-stitched, so it was always going to be more expensive than soldering a few chips to a board

[chef]

I miss BASIC on my ZX spectrum 48k

oh happy days