Re: Learning to use the Apple II.

[spam@luddite.ca (Ned Ludd)]

Ernest <leucoplast@seanet.NOSPAM.com> wrote:

> I've been working on several fun Apple II related projects and I've realized
> that a huge part of the Apple II is well outside of my understanding, and
> it's very frustrating for me. I'm not a programmer in any sense of the word,
> so I don't understand the fundamentals of Apple II programs, or how to make
> improvements on them, etc. and the Apple II memory map is Latin to me. It
> drives me nuts to have so many ideas of things that I would like to try or
> tinker with and not be able to do them because I don't know how.
> 
> What's worse is programming is something that I've never been interested in,
> in a general sense. It's almost like I have some sort of phobia about
> programming but really, it just seems like it would take years and years to
> learn it and I would probably never be very good at it anyway so I ignore
> it.
> 
> Some things I can intuitively understand and figure out but programming is
> not one of them. Give me something mechanical to fix and I have no problem
> but ask me to write a simple program in BASIC and my mind freezes up. Even
> so, I wish that I did know how to write programs so that I could enjoy these
> old computers more fully.
> 
> E.

Don't give up on programming so easily. When I first got into the Apple
2 I had no inclination toward programming, but it really isn't that hard
to figure out the basics. While I'll never write anything that _real_
programmers will appreciate, I have at least learned enough BASIC and ML
to cobble together some fairly functional programs... and I'm coming
from an art/music background, so anyone with a more mechanical bent
should be in a better position to start with ;-)
-simon