[Coco] OT: background

[Wayne Campbell]

I want to provide a better background picture of my life in programming.
First, I was attracted to all things science. This included technology, as
applied science, and fiction, as technology to come.

My first access to a "real" computer was 10th grade (1970). It was a
combination of machines that filled a small room. It included:

* keypunch machine
* card sorter
* card reader (the actual cpu)
* printer

As I was already spoiled by Star Trek (stos), I wanted a screen to see, a
keyboard to type, a drive to save data to, and future expandability. That
system, to me, was not good enough. I passed. Hindsight: bad move. I could
have opened doors.

When Radio Shack began advance promotion of the new TRS-80 Model I, I read
everything I could get. I was able to occasionally read a TRS-80 BASIC
book, or one of the manuals to a software package. Mostly BASIC manuals and
books. I could not afford any of it, but I dreamed.

1988: My best friend (now deceased) gave me his Korean CoCo2, Multi-Pak and
dual half-height FD-502 floppy drives.

Another friend, Paul Pollock, provided me with a copy of OS-9 Level 1 and a
copy of Basic09, and I was off. Finally able to practice some of that which
I had previously only verbalized, I typed in every sample program I could
find. Listings in old issues of Rainbow helped, but I lacked a clear
project. Creating RITW (ReInvent The Wheel) utilities taught me a few
things, but not enough to say I had a clue about programming.

Back in 1981 I took a prereq course at Richardson Community College in
Dallas. It was called Computer 101, and provided a small lab (that wasn't
part of the course I signed up for. That one cost more. My prof decided we
needed the lab and threw it in.)  It taught us to write a minimum program
in MS-BASIC (wasn't called that) on a networked computer. We weren't
allowed access to the format command, as they feared what might happen, and
they formatted our disks for us.

Enter bad habits. I don't make backups (disks cost money and I can't buy
many). I don't keep good notes. I don't write good code (not enough room
for all the comments, and brief is something I wore).

The fact the CoCo2 is limited to 64K of RAM didn't help either. It always
bothered me that we only had 10% of the memory of a PC.

In 1989 I bought my first computer, a 512K CoCo3, new in the box. I also
acquired a Tandy 2000 a local RS was getting rid of. That netted me 2
half-height 80-track DSDD floppies and an external 20-Meg hard drive.

Actually, I bought the upgrade and my friend Paul helped me install it, and
a fan over the power supply. He also helped me install the Multi-Pak mod so
it worked with the CoCo3.

It was then that I began the task of unravelling I-Code. I named the
program DCom, for DeCompiler. Basic09 is a compiler, just not to object
code, to interpreted I-Code.

Alan Sheltra (ZOG,ZOGSTER) of Animajik Productions, agreed to act as a
sales outlet for the program, and in 1992 or 93 he went to one of the last
Atlanta CoCoFests with a booth. He sold 9 copies of DCom v3.1. Because he
lost money on the whole venture, I didn't ask for any money. I still
supported the program, keeping Alan updated with new updates through v3.5.
So far as I know, no one received a copy of 3.5.

This post is getting long. I will continue in a separate post.

Wayne