[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":212},["ShallowReactive",2],{"blog-/blog/i-am-not-a-programmer":3},{"id":4,"title":5,"author":6,"body":7,"date":197,"description":198,"extension":199,"meta":200,"navigation":201,"path":202,"seo":203,"stem":204,"tags":205,"thumbnail":209,"wordCount":210,"__hash__":211},"blog/blog/I-am-not-a-programmer.md","I Guess I Am A Programmer Now","Stefano Rebulla",{"type":8,"value":9,"toc":187},"minimark",[10,14,19,22,35,38,42,59,79,94,98,118,127,136,139,143,146,149,153,162,165,172,176,179],[11,12,13],"p",{},"I am very fortunate to have had the opportunity to use and learn about computers from a very young age, but \"being a programmer\" was never on my mind until I had to hit \"Plan B\" in my professional life. Please read on to learn how my life came to evolve around computers, and how this made me eventually choose my new career as a developer.",[15,16,18],"h2",{"id":17},"the-early-years","The Early Years",[11,20,21],{},"My first encounter with a computer was when I was about eight years old. One of my father's work colleagues, and a lady who would become a life-long family friend, decided to gift me a Commodore VIC-20. Of course, this new machine sparked a profound curiosity in me, mainly about the possible video games I could play on it, but later also about how computers could be programmed by the user to, you know, \"do stuff\". 😁",[11,23,24,25,29,30,34],{},"The box the computer came in also had, as was usual at the time, a number of ring-bound manuals for setup and first use, but also about how to write programs in BASIC you would save on a cassette tape. One thing I distinctly remember about these manuals is that they were certainly not dry and factual, but were often funny and made a point in a light way. Though I did not realize this until years later, this moment is when I probably learned that programmers are people who don't take life too seriously, and like to have fun just like anyone, though in a specific way. If you ever were ever able to uncover an ",[26,27,28],"em",{},"\"easter egg\""," in a software program -- and before lawyers mostly took this pleasure away -- this is why. If you've seen the movie \"Ready Player One\", you know what I'm talking about. If you haven't seen it, ",[31,32,33],"strong",{},"go do it now","!",[11,36,37],{},"Many years later, I managed to ask her why she insisted so much to give me this computer, and she replied that, not having kids of her own, she had read about the upcoming \"information age\" in the newspaper, and wanted me to learn as much as I could, as soon as possible. She is no longer with us, but I thank her so much for convincing my parents that this was a good thing to do.",[15,39,41],{"id":40},"hello-apple-nice-to-meet-you","Hello Apple, Nice To Meet You!",[11,43,44,45,52,53,58],{},"At one point I switched school, and my new school had extra-curricular computer classes, to be held in the school's lab, filled with Apple ][es. This is where I discovered that programming could also be fun: We were taught programming skills through the then new and revolutionary ",[46,47,51],"a",{"href":48,"rel":49},"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logo_(programming_language)",[50],"nofollow","Apple Logo //",", and the lab even had one real, proper \"",[46,54,57],{"href":55,"rel":56},"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turtle_(robot)",[50],"turtle","\", which could produce wonderful images on paper sheets on the floor.",[11,60,61,62,67,68,72,73,78],{},"This was also the time when Apple introduced the ",[46,63,66],{"href":64,"rel":65},"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_IIc",[50],"Apple //c",", and my parents thought I could practice with my new skills at home, and bought me one. So, here I am, writing this today on my ",[69,70,71],"del",{},"Windows laptop"," MacBook, and this is how things start falling into place. I remember that there had been a brief discussion at home about the also-new ",[46,74,77],{"href":75,"rel":76},"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_PCjr",[50],"IBM PCjr",", but... yeah. That platform did not do very well, let's say.",[11,80,81,82,87,88,93],{},"In a time when the best access to \"new\" software was through magazines, where the BASIC listings of programs and games were printed over several pages in almost every monthly issue, I spent many an afternoon after school tediously copying, and getting frustrated with the bugs, of these programs. But ",[46,83,86],{"href":84,"rel":85},"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Times_They_Are_a-Changin%27_(song)",[50],"times were a-changin'",", and the Apple ][ platform was lagging behind, despite Apple introducing the ",[46,89,92],{"href":90,"rel":91},"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_IIGS",[50],"IIgs",", which I desperately wanted, but was not feasible.",[15,95,97],{"id":96},"ibm-you-windows","IBM, You... Win(dows)?",[11,99,100,101,106,107,111,112,117],{},"Instead, my next step in computers was an IBM 386 clone. Microsoft had just published ",[46,102,105],{"href":103,"rel":104},"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_3.0",[50],"Windows 3.0",", and some of my classmates had one at home already. Of course, we traded games and programs, but this also marked my evolution towards becoming a user, and no longer a programmer. Windows became 3.11, and I got quite proficient in optimizing my MS-DOS 6 knowledge to use as much ",[108,109,110],"code",{},"HIMEM"," as possible to, of course, load games, or load the cool demos that were exchanged with my schoolmates. Of course I read all about Steve Jobs' new ",[46,113,116],{"href":114,"rel":115},"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NeXT",[50],"NeXT computer",", and the ever-evolving Amigas and Atari STs, but I would stay in this \"neck of the woods\" for many years more.",[11,119,120,121,126],{},"Several years later, now a fairly experienced PC user, I had access to another computer lab while studying at university. At the time, computers were still not very common in universities in Europe, and usually they were only accessible to senior students, and also mainly used for ",[46,122,125],{"href":123,"rel":124},"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LaTeX",[50],"LaTeX",", since this was a technical university after all. But, turns out, people know people, and I was introduced to a very stern-looking \"lab manager\", whom I asked if I could get access, despite me being a junior. He asked me several questions, and I guess I passed the test, because he gave me access credentials right after our interview, and I could enter the lab whenever I wanted from there.",[11,128,129,130,135],{},"It was in this room that I met an assistant professor in the physics department over coffee, and he told me they were looking for a programmer to write a new access program for a \"radio-goniometer\" (which is a complicated machine that is able to measure the structure of metal alloys by bouncing off radiation on a sample in a test bed). I passed the interview, and now had my first side job as a programmer! In ",[46,131,134],{"href":132,"rel":133},"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visual_Basic_(classic)",[50],"Visual Basic",". But from this point I had a renewed interest in program logic and algorithms, and a couple of the assistant professors in the department were very kind to coach me whenever time allowed, mostly over coffee in the break room, about program structures and algorithms, though not much about Visual Basic itself, since it was still quite new. My program was ultimately approved, and used going forward, at least until another student rewrote it in C about a year later, mainly to address the speed of my code. To be fair, my code was indeed slow, but this was, in my view, purely because of Visual Basic itself, and not for other reasons. The radio-goniometer I was working with had a 9600bps serial interface, and the 486 PC it was connected to was already way too fast for this speed, meaning I even had to implement code to avoid overloading the interface. But the program's windows could be sluggish, and its logic was not very refined, so fair enough I guess.",[11,137,138],{},"With my new \"computer programmer\" prowess, I had the idea at some point, with a fellow colleague, to use MS Excel 4 to calculate all the variables in an engineering assignment we got. The idea was to create a spreadsheet with all the calculations needed by our assignment, and enable us to play out different scenarios with just a few keystrokes, instead of having to punch in endless formulas into our calculators over and over, so that we could present the perfect result in our papers... It did not go well, partly because we did not sufficiently understand Excel's advanced math capabilities, and learning and setting it all up would have taken us time we did not have. Students, right...? 😁",[15,140,142],{"id":141},"modern-life","Modern Life",[11,144,145],{},"Fast forward another couple of years, and I began to play around with the Internet: this was 1995. At some point, I became an expert in assembling PCs for myself and for others, and would be called for advice to help them solve their computing issues. Eventually, while on my military duty, I was asked to have a look at a random old DOS PC in a colonel's staff's office after work, and installed Windows 95 on it, so that his staff could use it to write their reports, instead of using the aging electric typewriter they had been struggling with. After this, I got a job at a store selling PCs and mobile phones, and managed to make a name for myself in providing technical PC assistance, again after work. I definitely had fun doing this, and I could tell many stories about this time, but let's just say one should never, ever, joke with an elderly person about having wiped their entire hard drive by mistake, and expect them not to almost have a heart attack... True story! 😁 One thing I did learn was that I asked for way less money than I should have, considering the time and distances I had to drive sometimes, but it is something that taught me how to deal with people who have a problem they care about.",[11,147,148],{},"After working for an IT distributor (i.e. a company selling IT equipment to other companies and to the stores a consumer would buy their IT from), my next job was in back office for another IT company, where I got along very well with my boss, and our pinnacle was achieved when we created a system of Excel files to present our local office's reporting to our HQ. Our data would always be strictly based on the truth (note: no quotes here!), but be a \"bit\" (quotes intentional) convoluted to fully unravel if you did not take the time. Suffice it to say... we had a good run of approvals! 😄",[15,150,152],{"id":151},"where-was-i","Where Was I...?",[11,154,155,156,161],{},"At one point, my mother had finally taken my advice to get a new computer for herself, and I advocated for an ",[46,157,160],{"href":158,"rel":159},"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PowerBook_G4",[50],"Apple PowerBook G4",", because I was convinced that Apple's operating system was the best choice for ease of use for someone like her. She had used Windows 3.11 and Windows 95 PCs until then, but had often struggled with them, as was common for simple users at the time. Side note: my father has been using a Mac for many years now, and he is definitely happy with his choice. Right, Dad...? 😉",[11,163,164],{},"Eventually, though, my mother was aging and didn't care about using her PowerBook much anymore, so she offered it to me, which I thankfully accepted. Besides using it as my main machine for emails and social media in my first years here in Switzerland, this is when I also stumbled across Apple's Xcode app, and so began playing with it to see if I could make anything of it. However, after only a few months, I abandoned the idea, because my job was leaving me little free time.",[11,166,167,168,171],{},"I eventually sold that PowerBook G4 to a good friend so that I could buy a new Intel MacBook Pro, and he kept and used it ",[26,169,170],{},"way"," after it became unsupported, but he always kept me informed about how he, and later his daughters, were getting work done on it. They had never used a Mac until then, and their reaction was always \"everything is so simple and straightforward!\" That's how I like to see computers being used: they get a first, and then a second life, but also, sometimes, a third and fourth life after that. In our modern western economy, we tend to want to dismiss older technology as \"nobody could want this anymore\", but any piece of technology can still be useful for someone, if, of course, it is still in working order. I have bought and sold many items online over the years, and I guess this is where the saying \"one person's trash is another person's treasure\" comes from.",[15,173,175],{"id":174},"well-how-does-this-end","Well, How Does This End!?",[11,177,178],{},"After moving to sales roles, I still spent quite some time reading up on current IT news and events, and the one or other programming topic came up. I had played around with C in university in that computer lab, but never took the learning process too seriously to make anything of it. By this point in my life, I could create killer Excel worksheets that would almost fry my Pentium 4 laptop when recalculating, and had a good grasp of MS Access as a DB system for a couple of test projects I created as a learning experience. This is probably the time when people (and I, of course) started getting more \"fun\" out of the new apps and whatever the internet was throwing at you, but it all starts from here for me!",[180,181,184],"callout",{"title":182,"type":183},"Let Me Be Clear","info",[11,185,186],{},"I realize that I am indeed very fortunate to have had the opportunities around computers I had, and not only those. My family has a white-collar background, so I had access to more tools and schools than many others. I certainly do not wish to belittle or downplay anyone.",{"title":188,"searchDepth":189,"depth":189,"links":190},"",2,[191,192,193,194,195,196],{"id":17,"depth":189,"text":18},{"id":40,"depth":189,"text":41},{"id":96,"depth":189,"text":97},{"id":141,"depth":189,"text":142},{"id":151,"depth":189,"text":152},{"id":174,"depth":189,"text":175},"2025-05-01T07:41:00.000Z","But how did I get here...?","md",{},true,"/blog/i-am-not-a-programmer",{"title":5,"description":198},"blog/I-am-not-a-programmer",[206,207,208],"Programming","Growing Up","Evolution","/img/VIC_20_Splash_Screen_Screenshot.gif",2150,"VLyjDow9_3hyM2jZ7cRmqHBIrWaXW1bzBkOZ4fBTsjc",1754110129427]