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In the early 80s, when I was 5 or 6, I got Basic for Beginners and Programming Tricks and Skills (along with a couple of other Usborne books which were about video games) from my local K-Mart in rural Australia.

These books kicked off my love affair with programming, and like many of you I was writing out code without even owning a computer! I remember trying to make a computer out of cardboard and graph paper, and was disappointed that it didn't work. The fact that I could comprehend a for loop before the laws of electricity is kind of trippy.

Anyway, these books were my introduction to a lifelong love affair with programming, and I owe my entire career to them.

At the risk of sounding like a greybeard, things were very different then. If you grew up in the Internet age, it may be difficult to grok that there was a time when information was scarce, and that just carrying around books like these gave you immense understanding and potential.




information was scarce indeed, till this day i still feel a little sorry i was not born 10 years later. Since when i learned (gw-)basic from the 3 books our public library had to offer i was full of enthusiasm, but after that my development practically stalled due to lack of information. Until the internet came around, but that was 10 years later and i was already in my early 20s :|




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