Strange Code

INTRODUCTION

My first exposure to programming came in the summer of 1980. It involved an Apple II+ computer. As principal of the local high school, my father was able to bring it home for us to play with over the summer. It was the only personal computer in the school. I already knew about video games and had an Atari 2600 game console. But the idea of being able to make the machine do whatever I wanted it to was amazing and seductive.

The Apple II+ included a version of unstructured BASIC in ROM called Applesoft. As far as BASIC programming languages go, it was somewhat limited. However, it opened a new world to me, and I ran with it, writing ...