About

I’ve been programming for a living since 1976. I expect to be programming for a very long time, because that’s just what I do. I started way back in 1974 with programmable Hewlett-Packard calculators. Then I learned Miditran at University (a cutdown version of Fortran). I learnt BASIC at a quick course at the local Teachers College in 1975. Learned some assembler and wrote accounting systems on Burroughs L series accounting machines. Taught myself COBOL and wrote accounting systems for Burroughs B80 systems. Taught myself Pascal and wrote accounting systems in UCSD Pascal on Apple IIs. Wrote accounting systems in dBase and FoxBase on PCs. Upgraded to Borland’s Turbo Pascal and ended up in Turbo Pascal 5.5 (object oriented Pascal). Loved the OO stuff. Moved to Sydney in 1988, worked in Microsoft Pascal for a while. Taught myself C in 1992. Taught myself Perl a few years later. Learned C++ during a Computer Science degree between 1994 and 1999. I didn’t care for C++ much. Moved to the USA, kept working in C and Perl, taught myself PHP, then learned Python and Ruby. Now I work in C, Perl, PHP, Python and Ruby. And I’m currently learning Objective-C so I can program Macs and iPhones.

With platforms, I started a long time ago with an Exidy Sorceror. Then I got an Apple ][+. Had an Apple ][e, and then an Apple ][c. Tried the first Macs but really did not like them. Moved to PCs. Kept getting generic PCs, with DOS. Tried Windows 2, saw no point. Tried Windows 3.0, then 3.1 and 3.11. Quite liked them.

In 1994, I tried Yggdrasil Linux and could not get it to install. Tried Slackware. Installed it, removed it. Installed it, tried it for a month, removed it. Came back again and installed it. Kept it there and kept learning and fiddling with it. Installed Windows 95. But soon after, for some reason, I made the decision to abandon the Windows line and go with Linux, especially Slackware.

From then on, at home, it was Linux all the way. Occasionally I had to use Windows at work, and that was irritating, but hey, you do what you have to do when you're at work. I moved to the USA in 1999. Had to use Windows at work for the first few years, but then I was given freedom and it was Linux at home and Linux at work.

When Apple moved their Macs to a Unix back end, I came back and looked at the Macs. I bought one Mac Mini. Then I bought 4 or 5 used ones and a couple of Mac laptops. They let me easily do the few things that I can't easily do with Linux. This was me taking the easy way out.

So today, I use Linux (Slackware) for my daily tasks, for my software development, for most things. I use Macs for games, for video editing, DVD creation, getting music onto my iPods, and sometimes just for fun.

I'm also into gadgets. Used to be Palm Pilots, now it's iPods and an iPod Touch. Digital cameras, DSLR cameras. Asus EEE PCs. I avoid cell phones. Cell phones are a leash around the neck, so I have one for work and don't use it much.

And I have strong opinions about all this, and this blog is my outlet.