My first Computer Class

I took my first computer class at FDR high school in 1987. The computers were IBM, with about 64Kb of memory and used 5.25 floppy disks. The font on the screens were green.






Since there were not enough computers, everyone had to share their computer with one other person. During the class, we learned how to use BASIC.


Here's an example of BASIC:



10 INPUT "What is your name: "; U$
20 PRINT "Hello "; U$
30 REM
40 INPUT "How many stars do you want: "; N
50 S$ = ""
60 FOR I = 1 TO N
70 S$ = S$ + "*"
80 NEXT I
90 PRINT S$
100 REM
110 INPUT "Do you want more stars? "; A$
120 IF LEN(A$) = 0 THEN GOTO 110
130 A$ = LEFT$(A$, 1)
140 IF (A$ = "Y") OR (A$ = "y") THEN GOTO 40
150 PRINT "Goodbye ";
160 FOR I = 1 TO 200
170 PRINT U$; " ";
180 NEXT I
190 PRINT

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My Computer Teacher

My computer teacher's name was Mr. Chen. He was tall with black hair and dark eyes. He was very serious about teaching us technology. He was a good teacher but he tended to get annoyed with our class because many of us wouldn't pay attention to him. I was one of the students who was guilty of being a chatterbox. During one class, he actually came over to my computer station and pulled my chair away from my partner while I was still in it! The whole class laughed and I was embarrassed. I was quiet after that day.