[onetom]

I've also spent breaks between classes in primary school, at age 6-7, by writing BASIC programs on graph paper. Within a year or 2 I've transitioned to writing in Forth for XZ Spectrum. I used a Roland DX 80 plotter to "print" my source code. I've even sold plotted images from AutoCAD 1.0 for DOS.

I've also learnt Z80 assembly at the same time, coz the "4th Forth by Fébert Csaba for ZX Spectrum" had built-in assembly too.

I've seen my father designing and building a ZX Spectrum clone from scratch. He did explain the process too, so I got to know how a CPU+ALU+RAM+BUS+IO made up a computer.

So I very much consider those years part of my programming career, because they were very much formative and it was a continuum as programming became my career.

Also, don't forget, that all this was cutting edge shit, because there wasn't anything better available for affordable prices for everyday ppl!

even access to the ZX Spectrum was only possible for me, because my father could bring it home from work for the weekends and I could use it a little bit after school, at the University he worked at. my classmates never even saw any kind of computer up close, other than LCD wrist watches...