I hadn’t really thought of myself as one of the earliest members of the IAP, and on looking back I was surprised to realise 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!
Mike Shallcross MIAP
