[BozemanLUG] Local kids' computing ?

[David Boreham]

On 11/15/2012 5:46 PM, gary hildebrand wrote:
> I'm partial to 8 bit computers, and my beloved VIC-20 and C=64.  Too 
> bad they're not readily available -- IMHO that is a great way to get 
> started, especially in ML (assembly language).
Back in my day, we didn't even have an assembler. We had to compute 
negative branch offsets in hex in our heads.
(The computing version of : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xe1a1wHxTyo)

I had a similar old school notion for my son learning programming but I 
figured the right epoch for him would be circa 1985 big iron.
So I bought a VAX off eBay shortly after he was born (actually two, to 
have a spare), and a VT-220.
And the book "VAX Assembly Language Programming"
Spent a bunch of time installing VMS and getting it all working nicely.

The whole lot is sitting in a closet and he is 10 years old and happy 
playing games on the 3DS...

I did get a chance to take my two boys to the Computer History Museum 
last weekend (on a road trip to do some machine upgrades at our 
colocations).  Well worth a visit if you're in the area --- 
http://www.computerhistory.org/
They have a KIM-1 on display -- one of the first machines I programmed, 
and a chunk of a Ferranti Mk1 which my Dad says he probably built in 
1950 when he worked there..