8,732
edits
Changes
→Programmer portraits: What have these six men got in common? A TI, for on thing.
Disney has been producing educational films and similar items for 30 years and, Bochanty notes, "we know how to reach and teach kids."
=Programmer portraits: What have these six men got in common? A TI, for on one thing.= Jobs that have been around a long time have stereotyped images attached to them. Even though we all can think of exceptions to them, we have mental images: Policeman-tough-talking; schoolteacher-prim and proper; salesperson-overfriendly and glib. Except, perhaps, for braininess, computer programmers haven't had many common qualities attributed to them by popular culture yet. And interviews with a group of programmers across the country (one in Canada) show them to be as diverse as the programs they write. '''GETTING STARTED''' The decision to become a programmer came after experienceusing a computer for most of thoseinterviewed.For K.E. Vaughn of Vaughn Softwarein Arvada, Colorado, after hebought a computer and found out hewas "pretty good at it," he decided hewould rather sit at a computer thantry a business trade."He says that a field in which it ispossible to see the results immediatelyand apply creativity make programmingsatisfying.Vincent Lannie of Texas SoftwareDesign in Baytown, Texas, says thatsome things I was doing on my ownwould rival anything on the market bya third party operator," and that gothim into programming.Scott Emory, a partner in EB Softwarein Santa Ana, California, says, ''Ijust started reading books about it,then I got onto the computer and Iguess I had an aptitude for it. Itseemed pretty easy to me.''Two of the programmers got theirstart in computer courses. Dr. AllanSwett of Intelpro in Brossard, Quebec,who is also a math professor at a juniorcollege, says he started programmingin 1966 as a student at Penn State ' 'withreally old-fashioned stuff, where you'dgnaw your fingers to the knucklesabout whether you got a comma in theright place.''He continued in the mathematicsfield but has ''become more interestedand motivated in making a going concernout of business."Walt Dollard of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania,who is 19 years old, says hebegan in high school 4½ years agowhen he took a computer course.By contrast, Larry Hughes of Quality99 Software in Washington, D.C.,started programming so as not to takeany further courses. tt1s programmingcareer began 25 years ago."I was in college, a math major," hesays. "To get a job in math you had toget a Ph.D. and I was tired of school."At the suggestion of an instructorwho said that programming lookedlike an upcoming field, he applied atUnivac in Los Angeles."The upshot is, I didn't want to be amathematician so I took an easier jobas a programmer.''Gene Harter, a partner in NotPolyopticsin Woodbridge, Virginia,saw programming as a variation ofwhat he was already doing."I program games," he says. "Foryears before I programmed computersI would design games on boardsand paper and I was always reallyinterested in what a computer coulddo. I even got to the point where Idesigned games on programmablecalculators-that's all I could afford.''In 1980 I got a TI computer for$1,000. I knew what I wanted to do atthat point."WHY TI?Economy was one reason.Vaughn says, "I wasn't sure I'd bevery good at a computer. I picked theTI because it was cheap."Now, he says, "It's like a first love.I'd hate to switch," though "if theybring out the new 64 we may go intothat."Swett says, ''Had I been a fewhundred dollars richer I might havebought an Apple, but TI blows theApple away. I regret that it's not beingmade any more."Emory says, "One, it was availableand not as expensive as the others,plus there was a lot of good software Icould use."Harter cites the price also."Even at $1,000 that was a goodprice at that time."Dollard says the TI "looked interestingwith the color graphics and I sort ofthought I'd give it a try."It's the best," Hughes says flatly.
