What was the first computer you wrote code for? What country were you in? When was this?

Me: Luxor ABC-802, Finland, 1984

@liw 286, UK, not sure of the year but probably around 1994

@liw 386SX-16, France, ~1994

Hold on. Is this some advanced phishing to get to my secret questions?

@liw Respect, elder sibling. I didn't start until 1985. It was either a Honeywell mainframe running Multics or a Commodore 64, in Canada.

@liw Commodore 64, Finland, 1987

@liw HP 2000 Access Basic, Finland, 1978.

@liw

Sinclair ZX-80, Italy: 1980, IIRC.

@liw Sinclair Research ZX-80, UK, 1981 (or thereabouts)

@liw
TR 440 (https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/TR_440) in Germany, programming in Fortran IV, 1982.

We started with punch cards until we were allowed to have access to the terminals.

@liw

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Research_Machines_380Z , around 1980.

UK.

I wrote a program to print the time. I got it wrong. It printed my name over and over again. It was fate.

ooh - another one - does this count as programming?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Trak

@liw 486DX/33MHz, 4 or 8MB RAM (can't recall exactly), <200MB HDD, MS-DOS 5; Australia, ~1994.

I think my first programs were in QBasic and involved solely the PRINT and PLAY statements.

@liw Smaky 365, around 1998

@liw
Luxor ABC80, autumn 1981, Sweden

@liw Grundy Newbrain, England, ca. 1985 (though I was typing code in from a book before then)

@liw ASL: platform: Amiga 500, language: Common Lisp, year 1995?sh, Finland.

@liw
Vic 20, 1986-1988 somewhere, Sweden

@liw TI99/4A, Exteded-BASIC, Austria, 1984

@liw Amiga 500, UK, early 90s.

@liw Probably Commodore 128D, Sweden, in 1986. I might’ve done some basic on a ZX Spectrum before that, but I can’t remember.

@liw Tandy TRS-80, UK, 1978

@liw @mve Sinclair Spectrum, Finland, when it was released 😀

@liw PET UK guessing 1980

@liw Atari 130XE, USA, 1986

@liw Commodore 64, Finland, ~1990

@liw 386SX/BASIC, Finland, ~1992

@liw something similar to an Imsai (I've forgotten the name) with a teletype terminal with a punch paper reader.

Sweden, probably 1975-76

@liw
Technically speaking, probably some C64 basic, in the general vicinity of 1986.

First more serious attempt was Atari 520ST, still basic, around 1988-89.

I don't think I properly got started (and actually continued) until shortly before I started university in 1996, with C on PC (dos).

All in Sweden.

@liw handed down radioshack tsr-80, Argentina, ???

I have no exact date, my memories are dateless. By 1990 I was already doing DOS 3.3 and QBASIC at the school's computer lab, so between then and maybe '85, most probably later.

@liw BBC Micro, India, 1992

It was in an after-hours extra class in school. We were to be given a certificate after writing a program in LOGO to draw some kind of scene with a balloon. I failed because I missed the class during which the teacher dictated(!) the code that he wanted everyone to submit, but I didn't know, and I submitted something I wrote myself.

P.S. I also got in trouble for trying to use BASIC on these computers.

@liw OK, after reading https://flipping.rocks/@amenonsen/117048592887573517, I remember taking such class while I was still in primary school, and it has to be before I got the TSR-80, but again, dateless memories :(

Talent MSX, Argentina, ???

RT: https://flipping.rocks/users/amenonsen/statuses/117048592887573517

@liw

1978 and whatever computer was on the other end of the teletype/acoustic coupler, USA. Probably later the same year, Radio Schack TRS-80 Model 1 is the first one I know what it was, also USA.

@liw Sharp MZ-700, .se, ≈1987

@liw Radioshack (Tandy in UK) TRS-80, UK, 1982.

@liw TRS-80, US, 1983

@liw Issue 3 48K ZX Spectrum, around 1985 or 85, I guess? UK and India.

Then C, Perl, Bash on Linux on PC hardware in 1993/94. UK.

@liw hmmmm.

i think either a DEC laptop of a model i don't quite remember, or a texas instruments calculator - probably a TI-81 or TI-85, circa maybe 1993? (edit: midwestern united states.) i remember finding a BASIC listing in a math textbook and typing it in, but i don't remember if i found the TI basic tools or qbasic first.

@liw

A danish computer from Regnecentralen, programmed in Comal, a kind of structured basic.

8" floppies, as the computer had no other storage.

Early 81 or 82.

Edit: trying to find the computer online, it was probably a RC701.

@liw
Massive remote OU mainframe (we weren't properly introduced), England, 1977

@liw Atari 65XE, Poland, 1987

@liw Robotron Z9001, East Germany, 1985.

@liw Apple ii, 1982?, USA

I was given a worksheet to design a 40x48 low res graphic and write out the basic listing to create it. I suspect an adult helped. I don't remember the result.

@liw If I get to choose the precision level of the parameters, Mac Plus (#Hypercard for the win), the Show-Me State, Land Of The Free Etc (that being Missouri), mid-ish 80s.

Conversely, if some lame-o square doesn't consider Hypercard programming, then it's probably something a lot more boring, like Pascal on Windows NT, the Lone Star State (==Texas, same land re: free & whatnot ), very early 90s. But followed shortly by returning to the fun stuff. (And we have to fight the lame-o square, ofc.)

@liw Tandy-1000, U$, ~92?

@liw My first programs were written on paper, because we couldn't afford a computer at the time. I was following a generalized BASIC tutorial from a magazine.

@liw Elliott 803, Finland, 1968

@liw a vic-20 in Canada, some time in the 1980s, but it doesn't count since i was just copying from a book. real programming started some time after 1984 on a Mac Plus in Hypercard. details in https://anarc.at/blog/2012-11-01-my-short-computing-history/

@liw TI 99/4A, Germany, ~1982, BASIC

@liw
Ti 57.

@liw Nascom 1, South Africa, 1978

@liw Sinclair ZX81, UK, 1981. A teacher brought one in and we did some very basic BASIC on it, I got to type my program in, after writing it on paper first.

My first real exposure was a couple of years later on friends' Commodores, one had a VIC-20 and a second had a C64.

First actual computer was a Commodore 64 circa 1984. Did lots of BASIC, Basic Lightening and 6502 assembly.

@liw Probably a BBC Model A, UK, 1982?

@liw Sinclair ZX81, UK, 1981/1982

@liw Commodore Plus/4, Hungary, 1986

@liw
1984, north england, unknown home computer, basic
1984 ff., austria, apple ][e, basic & logo etc.
1985 (?) ff., austria, sinclair zx spectrum, basic
1987, austria, 286, dos …

@liw Amiga 500, Finland … 1988ish, not sure about the year

@liw
HP 33E and HP 97, West Germany, around 1978.

@liw Apple iMac, US, ~2012

@liw A Columbia Data Products PC clone (likely an MPC 1600), US, 1989

@liw IBM 8088 (The O.G. IBM PC), Canada, 1992

@liw @algernon HT-1080Z, hungary, 1983

@liw Atari 400, Germany, 1983

@liw Atari 800 XE, 1990, Czechoslovakia

@liw Commodore Vic 20, Norway, in 1981 or 1982.

@liw BASIC on a ZX Spectrum 48k back in 1982

@liw Commodore 16, UK, 1983