Reply to: That is it : I am becoming a programmer.

[threaded]

BBC BASIC was great because it supported named procedures and functions, and multiline control structures like repeat...until. If you wanted to get your head around Structured Programming (which was still a fairly new concept in the non-computer-scientist realm in those days), it was thoroughly supportive.

Its major failings were that it still used line numbers and didn't support multiline if...then...else... constructs. Still, having to put all your if...then...else... stuff on one line encouraged one to move the action of the then and else clauses into named procedures: another win, if only by dint of working around a limitation, for encouraging the habit of structuring one's code using meaningful names.

And of course, if it hadn't been for BBC BASIC's built-in Assembler, we might never have had Elite, the original version of which was written therewith

I programmed in a language that had loops like a 'begin, while, repeat' . Very useful, and it's often amusing to see how people manage it in other languages.

[NickFitz]

I miss BASIC on my ZX spectrum 48k

oh happy days

BBC BASIC was great because it supported named procedures and functions, and multiline control structures like repeat...until. If you wanted to get your head around Structured Programming (which was still a fairly new concept in the non-computer-scientist realm in those days), it was thoroughly supportive.

Its major failings were that it still used line numbers and didn't support multiline if...then...else... constructs. Still, having to put all your if...then...else... stuff on one line encouraged one to move the action of the then and else clauses into named procedures: another win, if only by dint of working around a limitation, for encouraging the habit of structuring one's code using meaningful names.

And of course, if it hadn't been for BBC BASIC's built-in Assembler, we might never have had Elite, the original version of which was written therewith

[Sysman]

DEC = licence to print money !

It was at one time. I came across more than one company who made a lot of money out of competing with their sky high prices.

[chef]

I miss BASIC on my ZX spectrum 48k

oh happy days

[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

[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]

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

[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]

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

[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

[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]

Real programming:

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

[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.

[Spacecadet]

3 years too late.

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

[Churchill]

Ah, a 6502 man.