I never did assembly on those old machines, just BASIC and Logo in elementary school, and some Turbo C by the time we had a 386.
I had heard of assembly and thought it was inherently "scary" and obtuse. But this PoP code is pretty easy to follow, and I probably should have taken the plunge way earlier.
I recently thought about how I started programming and to my dismay I probably held myself back by 6 years or so by lack of confidence:
1. not having the confidence to talk to the 3 or 4 older kids at school who clearly knew about this stuff. 16 & 17-year olds were terrifying to my 10-year-old self. They of course graduated secondary school soon after, so there was a small window and I missed it.
2. I really wish I hadn't believed any adults claiming this stuff was "hard" or "scary". None of them did any real programming, so how would they know? I should have just pestered my parents to find me an x86 instruction and architecture reference - I'm sure I could have worked everything out from there, after all I had enough spare time. I started with BASICA on an 8088 and eventually was given a 486 after my parents got fed up with me hogging their computer; alas, it took years before I picked up C & C++ and assembly language shortly after. As a 10-year old in rural Austria, my possibilities for obtaining this kind of information myself were pretty limited, and everyone (parents, teachers) was constantly encouraging me to focus on science (physics) instead of programming.
Still, I shouldn't harp on too much about #2. I was into electronics before I heard about programming and was obsessed with wanting to build my own computer, and tried to get hold of information on doing so, only to be told it was "impossible". (a 6502 plus some manuals would almost certainly have done the trick, and in 1993 couldn't have been that expensive - but I guess by that point the "kit" computers were long dead) So clearly being more assertive about wanting programming information would not have helped much either.
I hope I don't fuck this part up if I have kids of my own.
I hope I don't fuck this part up if I have kids of my own.
The hard part is the "thing to learn" may not be computers and programming, it may be something entirely new. That's why your elders seem like they were out of touch- tech was so new and all. It looks like a great choice from 2012, but from 1990 it was more of an unknown, and there will be similar developments in the future in other fields that challenge new parents to allow their kids to explore fledgeling prospects.
Hmm, not sure I believe that. I think anyone with any foresight in 1990 realized that computing was going to change the world. They may not have realized the scale, or the details of it though. I think those of us who's parents acted on that are really blessed with the jumpart we got on the world to come
Yeah, that's my takeaway, too. Offer up a variety of things to try, but encourage whatever they happen to be passionate about, not what I'm passionate about. (and know when I'm out of my depth)
I had heard of assembly and thought it was inherently "scary" and obtuse. But this PoP code is pretty easy to follow, and I probably should have taken the plunge way earlier.
Neat.