Hey new people!

[Carl Gundel]

A bunch of new people have joined this forum in the past several months.

If you are new the this community, welcome to the group!

Please tell us a little bit about yourself and your interest in programming and Liberty BASIC.

Thanks,

-Carl Gundel, author of Liberty BASIC

[joeg]

Hi Carl (and everyone else)!

I'm a retired Director of Information Systems. In my college days, I learned to program using the IBM PC and the Apple IIe. I also learned to program with punch cards using Pascal. The languages I learned are BASIC, Pascal, FORTRAN, and COBOL primarily using personal computers. After graduation, I started my IT career. I slowly increased my knowledge of database applications, spreadsheets, word processors, and more. As a military contractor, I learned about networking by using Novell, 3COM, and Banyan Vines operating systems. I also learned about cabling, routers, bridges, security, and the internet (before it was made public). I learned how to repair PC's as well. Eventually, I was promoted to Support Manager. From there, I earned my MBA on IT. Later, I was promoted to Directors of Information Systems. It was this last promotion where I saw my technical skills surpassed by technology, but my technical thinking has been retained. Now I'm taking some of my old BASIC programs I wrote for past customers and converting them to Liberty Basic in text and windows formats. I also play around with Arduino and Raspberry Pi (as a newbie only for these). I'm intrigued by how small circuits work as well. It's all for fun and peace of mind.

Joe

[Carl Gundel]

Sept 28, 2022 15:01:30 GMT -5 joeg said:

Hi Carl (and everyone else)!

I'm a retired Director of Information Systems. In my college days, I learned to program using the IBM PC and the Apple IIe. I also learned to program with punch cards using Pascal. The languages I learned are BASIC, Pascal, FORTRAN, and COBOL primarily using personal computers. After graduation, I started my IT career. I slowly increased my knowledge of database applications, spreadsheets, word processors, and more. As a military contractor, I learned about networking by using Novell, 3COM, and Banyan Vines operating systems. I also learned about cabling, routers, bridges, security, and the internet (before it was made public). I learned how to repair PC's as well. Eventually, I was promoted to Support Manager. From there, I earned my MBA on IT. Later, I was promoted to Directors of Information Systems. It was this last promotion where I saw my technical skills surpassed by technology, but my technical thinking has been retained. Now I'm taking some of my old BASIC programs I wrote for past customers and converting them to Liberty Basic in text and windows formats. I also play around with Arduino and Raspberry Pi (as a newbie only for these). I'm intrigued by how small circuits work as well. It's all for fun and peace of mind.

Thanks for sharing.  I also got my start on the IBM PC and an Apple II (a plus, not an e), and some other machines.    Back in the day it was common to learn many different things organically as the need arose.  It was an amazing and fun time.

[Rod]

“It's all for fun and peace of mind.” Plus one on that :)

[joeg]

Supplementing what I had already posted about myself, I also programmed in BASIC on the VIC-20 (my first computer I owned), and Commodore 64. Some of my COBOL was done on punch cards as well. Two years ago, I gave away my VIC-20 to a friend that operates a video / pinball arcade locally (Yes, a real video arcade with the classic video games as well as classic and new pinball games). It was a tough decision, but I knew he would take care of the system. During COVID, I bought an Apple IIe complete system on Ebay. I had the power supply upgraded (highly recommended due to age) and added new hardware for the Apple IIe such as cards that use SD cards. Fun to play with again, and to try and remember Apple FORTRAN, Apple PASCAL (UCSD), and general system commands. Smalltalk sounds interesting, but I have enough e-toys for now including Arduino and PI. But it's on my list of things to look at and learn. It's harder to physically move as I age, but my mind is still sharp thanks to constantly challenging my brain (what's left of it!). So computing keeps me young in at least one way.