The IAP at 50. Reflections from Mike Shallcross MIAP.

I hadn’t really thought of myself as one of the earliest members of the IAP but on looking back I was surprised to see I’ve been a member for more than 36 years!

I’m not sure how much I can comment on the development of the industry as my route into programming wasn’t via room-filling mainframe computers. I started off with programmable calculators and a program to check VAT registration numbers, which was published in Your Computer in 1982 (program 1 in the attached scan). I then moved on to programs (in BASIC) for Sharp pocket computers, and only later started programming (in C and Assembler) for what was then called the IBM PC.

Obviously the developments in technology over the past 50 years have been mind-boggling (Moore’s Law etc.). However, as others have pointed out, even back in 1982 it’s amazing how much functionality could be packed into (and extracted from) a tiny machine like the Sharp PC-1251 pocket computer, with just 4KB RAM!

That’s probably about all I can say. In any case, many thanks to the IAP for all the work it has done over the past 50 years, and very best wishes for the next 50!