User:WardXmodem~enwikibooks

Hi, Ward Christensen here, inventor of Xmodem; and, w/Randy Suess (HW), BBSs (Bulletin Board Systems)

The worlds first BBS was done by me in about 20,000 lines of 8080 assembler.

I say that to succinctly say WHY I like assembler - I have written hundreds of thousands of lines of code.

I also had to (1) teach my self digital electronics; (2) design; and (3) build, my own circuit boards, then -- when CP/M came out - write the appropriate BIOS routines to support hardware, specifically a selectric typewriter, and a whopping 256K (yes K) flying head disk drive, called DynaStor.

SO NOW I'm more interested in PICs, from MicroChip, because they combine my interest in electronics, with my interest in programming, in a novel way.

I kind of burned myself out on 8080 programming, so faded by the time the PC came out, but now am interested in writing windowed programs in "some language" that would be portable between Windows and Linux.

I've worked for IBM since 1968. I suggested, in approximately 1977, that IBM come out with a personal computer (I probably said "microcomputer" at the time) and was told they (we) didn't see a market for such a device. (sigh). So I went on on my own with my 8080 until a bit into the PC revolution, THEN I became a very tecchie user, but did not get into programming or hardware design or implementation.