Hello from 80s programmers

Modern programmers can be called darlings. To their services - the most powerful development environments, many programming languages. And only 30 years ago, scientists and lonely enthusiasts wrote programs even on calculators.

Carefully, under the cut a lot of photos!
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In the mid-80s, the state made a lot of efforts to popularize information technology. Scientific articles were published, entire sections devoted to IT topics appeared in journals. For professionals (who at that time were mainly scientists), the Academy of Sciences of the USSR published the journal Programming. Do not forget about the lovers. For example, in the magazine "Technology - the youth" appeared the heading "Man and Computer", which was devoted to clarifying new terms and reviews of new devices. There were also tips on combating viruses, using media, etc.

In an effort to increase the speed of integration of computer technology in the daily life of the state, the authorities did not make any special distinctions between women and men. Thus, the magazine “Rabotnitsa” (circulation ~ 15 million) called on women to master a computer on a par with men, and also to teach daughters to this science. In September 1986 a little girl appeared on the cover of the publication in front of the monitor.



Although the computer was quite expensive, it was really possible to assemble it from parts purchased on the radio market. Therefore, unpretentious articles about computers and programming even appeared in Murzilka!



Such popularization of computer devices sometimes led to incidents. For example, in the newspaper Trud, dated 1987, a note appeared on the enterprising head of the ACS of a cement plant, who handed over parts for 6,000 rubles to assemble a personal computer at home. In those days, six thousand rubles cost a small apartment in Moscow, although the VAZ-2106 was worth even more - 9,124 rubles.



The subject of amateur programming was repeatedly raised on the pages of a popular scientific publication, like “Science and Life” (circulation - 3 million). Since 1985, they began to publish articles in the framework of the series “School of a beginner programmer”. In these articles, the reader was taught the basics of creating programs for microcalculators. Now it may seem surprising, but at that time programming was called art. How much this approach differs from the “ Hindu ” code that is often found today!

To further immerse yourself in the lamp atmosphere of the programming of the late 80s, we bring to your attention scans from the Science and Life magazine miraculously preserved by one of the employees of Cloud4Y on 11.1988. This lesson number 22 of the notorious "School novice programmer."


A slightly more convenient option for reading is in Archive.org . If you want to get even more information about programming on calculators, then here is a good article .

And what about them?

While in the USSR they developed amateur programming, in the USA they made predictions for the future. So, Apple held a competition of ideas about how computers will be in 2000. The competition was won by a group of students at the University of Illinois. The fact that they suggested, described in a note from the magazine "Science and Life" from 1988. She found her sultee back in 2009 , but it doesn’t get any less interesting, right?



It is even interesting, how many people will now be able to write a program using the limited power of a micro calculator? If you have successful examples or you yourself tried to write something like that, share in the comments.