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[Osprey]

Started with 6800 then 6809 assembler, then largely isolated from the O/S by UCSD p-System for a year or three.  (Sirius & Apricot  :-? )

Switched to DOS/Windows/C when it emerged as an industry standard. Couldn’t believe that MS would hitch its fortunes to the 80xxx processors that couldn’t even address memory in any sane way.  Anyone remember fun and games with thunks  MakeProcInstance  (where's the vomit smiley when you need it!)

Talk about held together with chewing gum and string!

[Kevin Wood]

Started with 6800 then 6809 assembler, then largely isolated from the O/S by UCSD p-System for a year or three.  (Sirius & Apricot  :-? )

Switched to DOS/Windows/C when it emerged as an industry standard. Couldn’t believe that MS would hitch its fortunes to the 80xxx processors that couldn’t even address memory in any sane way.  Anyone remember fun and games with thunks  MakeProcInstance  (where's the vomit smiley when you need it!)

Talk about held together with chewing gum and string!

6809 was a nice CPU, only available in sh!te computers (Tandy and Dragon IIRC) so I built my own 6809 machine. Then I started playing with 68000s. Tedious wiring up all those address and data lines, but programming it in assembler...8-)

I used UCSD P-system at university. It taught me a great deal. Just when I thought no operating system could have a shell as cr@p as MS-DOS...

[rbrueford]

Spectrum 48k was my first 'computer'. Then my parents upgraded to an Amstrad cpc 464 (if i remember it correctly haha) Endless waiting for games to load then getting the load error come up. Oh, the good old days lol (and im only 35 haha)

[aaronjb]

8080, and the compatible Z80 was my first foray into assembly.  Thinking about it, Z80 based was the first computer I ever used (RM 380Z, probably never available outside UK), if you ignore the teletype that dialled into the Bucks County Computer via a 110 baud acoustic modem.

When I was at school we still had an RM380Z sitting in the computer lab (which was, aside from that, entirely filled with BBC Model Bs) .. I think that dates my schools computer equipment, rather, considering our relative age difference!

I was also a child of the Z80, though, starting with the Spectrum 48k (then +3, Acorn Electron, Amiga 500+ and finally 386SX 25MHz.. at one point I think I was running a two-line BBS on a 486SX under Desq/View - better task switching than Windows at the time - then OS/2 Warp. Ah, those were the days.)

[Bionic]

Thanx for reminding me how long I had been messing about with computers! 30 years Remember? I wish I could go back to those days. At 63 I may now be considered a bit out of step but at least then PC's did as they were told and we all knew that the mistakes in computing were down to the operators of them, not the pc's themselves which is the usual excuse pandered out today by companies.

[TheBoy]

8080, and the compatible Z80 was my first foray into assembly.  Thinking about it, Z80 based was the first computer I ever used (RM 380Z, probably never available outside UK), if you ignore the teletype that dialled into the Bucks County Computer via a 110 baud acoustic modem.

When I was at school we still had an RM380Z sitting in the computer lab (which was, aside from that, entirely filled with BBC Model Bs) .. I think that dates my schools computer equipment, rather, considering our relative age difference!

I was also a child of the Z80, though, starting with the Spectrum 48k (then +3, Acorn Electron, Amiga 500+ and finally 386SX 25MHz.. at one point I think I was running a two-line BBS on a 486SX under Desq/View - better task switching than Windows at the time - then OS/2 Warp. Ah, those were the days.)

I used to run my Wildcat! BBS under OS/2 v2, then later, Warp 3. With Warp 3, there was a kludge to allow telnet (as the internet had just started to take off by then, and the 0800 dialups weren't limited then )

[TheBoy]

8080, and the compatible Z80 was my first foray into assembly.  Thinking about it, Z80 based was the first computer I ever used (RM 380Z, probably never available outside UK), if you ignore the teletype that dialled into the Bucks County Computer via a 110 baud acoustic modem.

When I was at school we still had an RM380Z sitting in the computer lab (which was, aside from that, entirely filled with BBC Model Bs) .. I think that dates my schools computer equipment, rather, considering our relative age difference!

I was also a child of the Z80, though, starting with the Spectrum 48k (then +3, Acorn Electron, Amiga 500+ and finally 386SX 25MHz.. at one point I think I was running a two-line BBS on a 486SX under Desq/View - better task switching than Windows at the time - then OS/2 Warp. Ah, those were the days.)

I used to run my Wildcat! BBS under OS/2 v2, then later, Warp 3. With Warp 3, there was a kludge to allow telnet (as the internet had just started to take off by then, and the 0800 dialups weren't limited then )

Which reminds me, all my internet was via a permenently connected () ISDN line via 0800 number, all controlled from a Cisco 1600. I had an earlier Cisco before that, but stuffed if I can remember the model. Big, noisy beast, but not that capable.

[zirk]

Which reminds me, all my internet was via a permenently connected () ISDN line via 0800 number, all controlled from a Cisco 1600. I had an earlier Cisco before that, but stuffed if I can remember the model. Big, noisy beast, but not that capable.

I remember having ISDN2 in the house many moons ago, I forgot to pay the bill at one point and got disconnected, when I got round to paying the bill they couldn't re connect me because somebody else had nicked my route to the exchange. took them nearly 2 months to sort it out and BT had to dig up half the street to upgrade the cabling.

Bonus for me was I got something like £5.75 a day as compensation, from which I cancelled my services with BT when it was completed. I received a nice big cheque  form BT for my troubles.

 

[Marks DTM Calib]

ZX80 was my first dabble, followed by a Spectrum (48K then 128+).

Cut my machine code (yes, MACHINE CODE) on a 6800 and then assembler on a 68000.

I also did some occam work on C40 and C80 transputers!

[pscocoa]

I recall a Commodore Pet from the late 1970s and something which was in my shed for years from DEC - a PDP or something, plus the BBC B of course

[Jimbob]

Ahh yes, learning machine code on 'emma' happy days

http://www.anf.nildram.co.uk/beebcontrol/arms/atlas/emma.html

 

[aaronjb]

8080, and the compatible Z80 was my first foray into assembly.  Thinking about it, Z80 based was the first computer I ever used (RM 380Z, probably never available outside UK), if you ignore the teletype that dialled into the Bucks County Computer via a 110 baud acoustic modem.

When I was at school we still had an RM380Z sitting in the computer lab (which was, aside from that, entirely filled with BBC Model Bs) .. I think that dates my schools computer equipment, rather, considering our relative age difference!

I was also a child of the Z80, though, starting with the Spectrum 48k (then +3, Acorn Electron, Amiga 500+ and finally 386SX 25MHz.. at one point I think I was running a two-line BBS on a 486SX under Desq/View - better task switching than Windows at the time - then OS/2 Warp. Ah, those were the days.)

I used to run my Wildcat! BBS under OS/2 v2, then later, Warp 3. With Warp 3, there was a kludge to allow telnet (as the internet had just started to take off by then, and the 0800 dialups weren't limited then )

Which reminds me, all my internet was via a permenently connected () ISDN line via 0800 number, all controlled from a Cisco 1600. I had an earlier Cisco before that, but stuffed if I can remember the model. Big, noisy beast, but not that capable.

Mine ran on PCBoard for a time, and then migrated off to various 'scene' BBS systems for their 'leet' ANSI graphics. Yeah, I was one of those guys.

I was stuck with ISDN for years after I moved out of home, too - even quite a few years into the DSL takeup, until BT removed the hard 60dB distance limit.. Well, HomeHighway I think BT called it, which was just a slightly crippled ISDN line.

[Marks DTM Calib]

6800 D2 kit for me....In a plywood box with the hottest linear power supply on the plant driving it!

http://www.computermuseumgroningen.nl/motorola/mek6800d2.html

[Osprey]

Plywood box - you were lookeh!  We had it tough!

Yes, though, thats the one I cut my machine code teeth on.  If I remember rightly one project was a simple kick-sorter accumulating radioactive decay stats. 

Not the friendliest user interface in the world but a chuckleworthy memory all the same - thanks!

[Rods2]

Domesdos 30 years old, how time flies, personally I always preferred CP/M. 

Started off on 6800 ASM on a Motorola Exormacs system with a Texas Instruments VDU with dual tape system.

Next I used CP/M based AMD Z80 based 2900 bit-slice development system, used for writing micro-code for the development of a MIL-STD-1750 military computer, this included writing lots of MIL-STD-1750 ASM.

Next I bought a ZX81 which was the beginning of a complete change to my life. I developed and we sold a hi-res graphics pack for it, while my boss wrote a game which we got into W H Smiths and sold lots of copies.

Next it was on to the ZX Spectrum which was when our computer games company really took off.  For development we used a dual 8088 / Z80 CP/M PC development system running and using a MASM assembler for the Z80 code and Wordstar as our editor. I developed a serial port and debugger hardware that plugged into the back of the Spectrum, so we could download from the PC to the Spectrum and interrupt and debug the code, setting breakpoints, single stepping etc. Later we used IBM PC clones with a Z80 board.

Next it was onto 68000 ASM on the Atari ST and finally on to the PC although I always avoided 8086 ASM as it's architecture and instruction set were a complete abortion after using MIL-STD-1750 and 68000 ASM. So I have only used C and some C++ on this.

These days I do web development using PHP, Javascript, HTML and CSS using Linux servers.

IMHO Microsoft has not yet produced a 'fit for purpose' OS, with Windows NT probably being the closest. Linux / Unix is the only proper mass market OS, which of course what the Mac is based on.

It is ironic that IBM designed the PC as a dead end product, to show the world that they should really be using proper computers ie IBM main frames. We are still suffering from the legacy of this including a slow, memory intensive, disfunctional OS.

Why do the American always buy and make mass market the VHS version of something instead of the Betamax?