I learned to program in Fortran and Cobol when I was a freshman in college around age 18 or 19. At the time I was a computer data processing college major. I was looking forward at the time to a career as first a computer programmer and then systems analyst. However, after a couple of years in the profession I found I didn't like being in large rooms without window and only fluorescent lights. Also, I was a completely out of doors person so this didn't really work for me as a long term career. I really loved programming and computers but then microcomputers hadn't been invented yet because it was 1966 and I was only 18 or 19. Also, I don't believe the microprocessor was invented until the early 1970s and then I think at first it was only a military application. I bought my first computer, a TRS-80 from Radio Shack which had 4k of Ram in 1978. Since there were no GUI's yet(mouse driven applications) one had to learn Basic language and write ones own programs in order to operate the computer. It had a tape recorder to record ones data and programs on. Though it was very rudimentary, for me it was wonderful to finally have a piece of my personal dream of owning my own computer since all the ones I had worked on were worth more than 1 million dollars per system up until then. So, next Apple brought out their first computer so IBM made their first home and business computer even though they didn't stay in the business of personal computers very strong. And then everyone got into making IBM PC clones until we got here where we are today.
http://bluebones.net/2006/03/evolution-of-programming-languages/
For those of you interested in the evolutions of programming languages, I found this graph originally out on Google images under the heading "computer programming languages". I was amazed to find how all the languages were related to each other. If one starts with Assembly language as one step up from binary then each step up through a language is another level of complexity. Since microsoft is still basically using the original krnl from the XT version of windows, it is great to see Firefox like linux versions springing up like UBUNTU, which is worked on by thousands of volunteer programmers in their spare time worldwide for the most part. It makes open software versions like UBUNTU superior in many ways to any commercially made software. I believe at this point that linux based operating systems that are open software may be the future for most microcomputers(home computers and laptops) that are mostly used by most people on earth now, especially for traveling the internet.
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