How long have you been using a computer?

I've been using a desktop/laptop/tablet since my 40 yr old offspring was in Reception. But I too remember playing with punched tape programmable desktop in early 1970s.

Must be nearly 40 years. I used to lecture about the paperless office that we were all going to have in the future. Then people started to print off their emails

I learnt to type and then was thinking of getting a word processor but DH persuaded me to get a computer. Reluctantly I did and it soon became invaluable. At one point I hoped I would retire before I needed to use it at work, but of course things moved fast. I loved making my own worksheets for teaching instead of the awful Banda machine. I got good at making charts and tables which was a useful skill. We used AmiPro, and I still prefer its successor Lotus WordPro to Word. Excel spreadsheets were not my forte. We soon moved on to a language lab full of computers, but I was glad to retire when report writing became an awful cut and paste exercise instead of saying what you wanted to say.
I have used my skills to produce a church weekly newsletter, and I don't know what I would have done without my ipad during lockdown. I also do a lot of family history on my laptop. I am not keen on using my phone to its full potential as it is too small.

Only for about 25 yrs. DH and I took a few evening classes in the beginning. We were both complete novices and quiet apprehensive.
We don't have a laptop or I-pad and do everything on our phones.
Well I do mine and DHs as he is rubbish with tech.

Started on manual typewriter 50yrs ago..progressed onto electric then word processor and yes, Amstrad computer early 80s and now on this old Apple Mac laptop...with arthritic fingers?
MAYWALK you are very inspiring!

Come to think of it, in the '60s my father was made Superintendent of Mechanised Accounts for a well known insurance company, and I was called in to help on Saturday mornings. Until I was carrying a large tray of punch cards across the office to feed into the mainframe, and dropped the lot! They flew everywhere, and I was never allowed to set foot in that room again!

Thanks so much NotSpaghetti I was trying to explan it to my DGCs the other day-they weren't impressed! Now I can show them! (but I suspect they still won't be)

trisher
oldgamesdownload.com/grannys-garden/

I was in the first year of undergraduates in my university to do computer science. Previously there had only been a postgraduate course open to graduates in maths , physics or engineering but in 1964 they allowed students who had done two years of maths to do the course.

We were taught to program in Algol and KDF9 Autocode, the machine language of the English Electric KDF9 computer. At that time the university had a total of two computers.

In 1966 I worked on analysing hospital statistics and programmed in Fortran with Plan subroutines to speed up input, using an ICT computer and inputing on punched cards. The computer was housed in an enormous air conditioned room and there were rows of boxes with magnetic tape on large reels (as you might spot on some of the older James Bond films).

It is great to see so many memories of BBC computers in schools I did a course on them in 1985 so I could return to teaching. My DSs were talking about them the other day and the game Granny's Garden.
My mum did a course at the local library in her late 80s and loved her laptop. She called family on it and played endless games of patience. She could e-mail but her typing speed was slow.

I’ve used one for about 35 years, but I taught my mum to use a tablet when she was 90ish. She enjoyed online scrabble and the voyeurism of family Facebook. Read the news and weather every morning and reported to me whether it was going to rain at 10am or not ☺️ Unfortunately it broke so I bought her a new one. The difference is minuscule in how to turn it on but she just can’t get it. It goes unused now. It’s a shame as it did entertain her for a few years.

My sons bought me a computer for my 60th birthday when I had just retired. So that's nearly 24 years.
They said they wanted me to keep my brain going. And it has. I love computers.

About 15 years,couldn`t do without one now.

I can remember at school writing a program then putting it on punch cards and at a precise moment dialing up a connection to the local college to feed them all through, then finally out came a silhouette of a face on that green stripy computer paper. I have been a fan ever since and reading this thread brought back memories of DOS and big floppies then the little ones....... how things have changed and keep on changing.

Petera I think it's fair to say we have probably all, at some time, been surprised, overwhelmed or excited by computers alongside other technologies.

My "amazing" moment was when a friend brought over his scanner and printer. Our printer was old by then and only "did" text. As we had no idea what to do with it, we enjoyed copying some of the children's drawings, changing the sizes and so on.

One of my girls, then about 5 wanted to know "how big can it draw" and was asked "how big do you want it?"

So... we has a picture of a frog "as big as this wall", on the wall for weeks. It was like a giant jigsaw and the excitement in the room that first day was something that will live with me forever.

In 1970 in the bank where I worked.

All of the day's transactions were put onto a punch tape, using a piece of equipment like an adding machine.
Then we had to phone HQ numerous times before finally getting through and setting the tape running, on a big machine standing in the corner of the room, to transmit the info.

People from other branches, round about, had to bring their punched tapes to us, too, to be transmitted.

In 1973, I started a uni course in computer programming where I had to produce a collection of punched cards for each assignment and leave them with the computer room, which housed the huge computing equipment.
I then collected a printout the next day to find out if I had programmed correctly.

Unfortunately, I gave that up and had no more knowledge of computers until a college course, related to work, in 2002.
And the rest is history.

I still remember receiving my first email in about 1980 (on an internal system - it was a few years before external started, at least for me).

I sat down at a terminal and logged in and a message came up saying "You have mail", I looked at it and puzzled for a minute before walking to the mail room and saying "The computer says you have something for me".

Fifty years (I used to work with mainframes) - so at work, for study, then teaching, now for everything (shopping, research, entertainment, banking etc.)

ElderlyPerson

NotSpaghetti

ElderlyPerson

Over 53 years.

I started using Algol 60 on an Elliott 803B. computer

Wow! Just googled this model to see what it looked like. They think only 211 were built!

The one I used had a graph plotter attached to it, with a roll of paper that rolled in and out and a pen that went from side to side across the width of the roll. There was a plotter package of Algol procedures that was loaded from paper tape after the Algol compiler and then one could the procedure calls in a program.

We had graph plotters in the central forecasting office at the Met Office EP .This was the progress that resulted in me leaving the job .
We were no longer needed to plot the weather charts by hand with double black and red ink pens for the forecasters .

Since 1988.

FORTRAN, COBOL, PASCAL and C are the ones I remember. And SQL, later on, C++
I was only on the periphery though as I wasn't a programmer.
Oh yes. What about Visual Basic and Java - these were the first languages my children learned.

Since the 1980’s when we used programs like Lotus instead of Microsoft.
Alongside teaching, I trained to deliver INSET, teaching teachers to use computers in the classroom, starting with BBC computers-what a nightmare they were.
I’m still teaching computing now, but it’s not just word processing and spreadsheets anymore, it’s computer art and coding with python and html and internet safety.
It’s amazing and the children love it,

NotSpaghetti

ElderlyPerson

Over 53 years.

I started using Algol 60 on an Elliott 803B. computer

Wow! Just googled this model to see what it looked like. They think only 211 were built!

The one I used had a graph plotter attached to it, with a roll of paper that rolled in and out and a pen that went from side to side across the width of the roll. There was a plotter package of Algol procedures that was loaded from paper tape after the Algol compiler and then one could the procedure calls in a program.

Since 1974, at University. You had to enter your data onto punched cards and present them for processing. If they didn’t have too many holes, I used them for shopping lists.
Like Marydoll I taught IT in schools but always hated it. In primary schools, nothing ever works as it should!
We use WhatsApp and Zoom with family and friends.

About 35 years. I was offered a job in the US using computers. Prior to that, the nearest thing I'd used was a word processor, which was much like a type writer. Ironically, my husband at the time urged me to go for the opportunity, saying computers were the way of the future.

I think I'm not bad with IT, for my age, but I do feel my lack of ability compared younger people.