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--- posts:2022:2022.03.26_-_program_like_it_s_1982 [2025/03/30 10:50] – jimc
+++ posts:2022:2022.03.26_-_program_like_it_s_1982 [2025/04/01 07:29] (current) – [The Machine and the Software] jimc
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 ===== The Machine and the Software =====
-By today’s standards, the [[https://www.oldcomputers.net/ti994a.html|TI-99/4A]] is a laughably under-powered machine. But with a 3MHz CPU, 16K of RAM, and display resolution of 32 characters/24 lines (text) and 192×256 16 colors (graphics), it was pretty capable as compared to other machines of the era.
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+By today’s standards, the [[https://www.oldcomputers.net/ti994a.html|TI-99/4A]] is a laughably under-powered machine. But with a 3MHz CPU, 16K of RAM, and display resolution of 32 characters/24 lines (text) and 192×256 16 colors (graphics), it was pretty capable as compared to other machines of the era.
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 The TI had its own flavor of the BASIC programming language baked in: TI-BASIC. (Not to be confused with the language used in Texas Instruments programmable calculators) The language is pretty crude by today’s standards: Lines of code are numbered, and flow control is diverted by referencing the line numbers. No structured code, and certainly nothing even vaguely resembling object-orientation. I thought it was //amazing//.
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 Just as it is today, computer owners of the time engaged in a lot of “my machine’s better than yours” puffery. I still laugh thinking about how Mike derided me for not getting a Commodore machine, and I shot right back, telling and showing him the cool stuff I was creating. I fancied myself a “game developer”, creating lots of simple games, and even a couple of pretty complex ones (“Lunar Drop” and “Turbo Tank”). I had so much fun!