And you know what? Programming is awful fun!
Don’t know why it is, but writing some code and seeing a result of your thinking seemed cool. Even today is does.
I remember those days with the double floppy disks. Kids today have no idea what that was. Audio tape? Well, that was before my time on PCs.
The other thing I discovered is that computing became more fun when you had a “practical application” for your coding.
I created a PC-based website management system which I regularly use in my journalist/industry analyst work. In creating that, it forced me to learn more about HTML and CSS.
But then, when I got on Free Republic, I had to go back to the older generation of HTML when you had no style sheets. LOL!
But it was fun trying new things with that. So I guess the human mind enjoys a challenge. Much better use of time than playing cards on-line.
Still to this day I appreciate the programs I wrote and used at work.
I was accomplishing things nobody else was in the day, because my programs were very very helpful.
In Southern California there was nobody doing what I was in my line of work. Folks were asking how I was doing that. LOL
Yes, it was a real pleasure to watch my programs crunch.
I use spread sheets a lot today.
One of the most enjoyable things I ever programmed was an Excel spreadsheet that would take a date a file and re-organize it it.
By hand it would take about 30-45 minutes to do. I wrote a Macro to handle the whole process once per month. It would accomplish the task in about thirty seconds.
Watching the Macro crunch and reformat the information on the screen was one of the most satisfying things I’ve ever created and then watched.
I’d run the program a number of times just to enjoy it again.
LOL