Early Programming Experiences

Started my programming in 1975 on a pdp using fortran 4 - used punched cards for storing and running significant programs. Used something called I* to edit binary files. A fluorescent light with "crash" in big letters on it came on from time to time. Could play a few games including moon lander and some star trek game. Then it was RTFM and only a few people were knowledgeable and the run debug cycle was slow - 1 day per iteration - errors printed out on big sheets of paper. Everything

Back in the day you wrote your program on paper and sent it to the punch operators

This was pretty common back then. I don't recall the post you are talking about but I wrote a little about my own experience here: https://blog.jgc.org/2013/04/how-i-coded-in-1985.html

The first computer I experienced was the Programma 101. Later, learned FORTRAN using punched cards to program, and then paper tape (still remember painful finger cuts). You kids and your fancy LLM-enriched toolset have it so easy. With respect to programming, getting older has been things getting so much better.

I remember when computers were programmable :(.

Every programming class I ever had was using logo on an Apple II, where mostly you just sat around making making the little puck fly off the side of the screen at warp 9.9. Most of the personal computers in the 80s came with a basic interpreter built in and they were largely compatible with each other aside from some syntax differences and the extended screen characters being vastly different. Typing in programs from magazines and writing my own did far more for me then any course I ever took. I

This is blatantly misleading. computer programming was mostly typewriting back then.

None of them. Mine was a 24 bit mainframe (Elliott 4130) in 1967, where my job was debugging them so I had to learn to code. In ASM. On paper tape. In the snow backwards uphill both ways etc etc etc.

My first programming experience was with BASIC running on a GE time-sharing system in 1971. We worked on teletype machines and used paper tape to store and load programs. I remember that the user manual was fairly small and reasonably helpful. Performance wasn't too bad late at night when the folks who used the GE machine had gone home.

Wow. Memories. That was exactly the first "real" computer i worked on... Writing C code for engravers. 1989 or so??