Beginning of genx is close or a few years after beginning of internet.
It wasn’t something Joe Random could use even decade or two after, but just mentioning for correct perspective.
Kolanaki@pawb.social 8 months ago
Gen X would have had to program everything themselves at one point, because there was no internet and no portable storage media, so when you got a game or program at a store, it was the source code and you had to type it all in, and possibly fix bugs and errors along the way.
XTL@sopuli.xyz 8 months ago
Kolanaki@pawb.social 8 months ago
That is technically true. It would be more accurate to say world wide web didn’t exist.
billwashere@lemmy.world 8 months ago
I remember typing in BASIC programs for my commodore from a magazine. It actually did teach me quite a bit about coding.
A_norny_mousse@feddit.org 8 months ago
I’m from the lower half of that age bracket and I never did that even once. Knowing the magic incantations to load the game from tape to memory, yes.
hedgehog@ttrpg.network 8 months ago
I’m a millennial and I did it more than once on hardware older than I was, but because I wanted to, not because there were no other options.
jaybone@lemmy.zip 8 months ago
load “jumpman”, 8, 1
Press play on tape…
A_norny_mousse@feddit.org 8 months ago
Z3k3@lemmy.world 8 months ago
We had portable storage. Magnetic tape and paper. Floppy and hard drives existed but were gor the most part out of the reach for consumers
I understand however the c64 usually had a floppy when bought in the states
Spending 7 hours copying code from a magazine only to find you did a dumb on line 538 was a magical experience
UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 8 months ago
It wasn’t everyone in the entire generational cohort working from first principles to build a massive network. You’re describing a tiny fraction of the modern tech sector doing work that was far more electrical than comp sci within a sector that was primarily academic and heavy industrial.
Meanwhile, the rest of the Gen X cohort was still learning to use slide rules and practice pre-Excel accounting standards, when they weren’t just… pouring concrete or welding car parts or cleaning out chemical drums with pressure hoses.
You’re describing a career path that was in the low hundred thousands back in the 1990s, which has swelled to the millions in the 2020s. And even then, we’re talking about a workforce in the hundreds of millions. The vast majority of Americans have never been techies and never will be.
Kolanaki@pawb.social 8 months ago
I’m talking about home computing; not even for jobs.