How it began

1984

In 1984 I bought my first computer. It was a Sinclair ZX81 with 1KB of RAM, a resolution of 64 * 44 pixels (black and white of course) and without any sound! The programs where saved on micro cassettes that were loaded with a simple tape recorder.

After hacking tons of program-listings from computer magazines (almost all of them were hex-dumps without any checksums) I learned BASIC and programmed my first small programs.

1985

Only one year after I got my first computer I wanted more and bought a Sinclair ZX-Spectrum 48k. This computer had 48KB RAM and a color resolution of 256 * 192 pixels. The sound was incredible when your heard it coming out of the built-in speaker.

After programming this computer in BASIC I learned assembler and programmed the Z80 CPU. Then I offered my first program (a collection of tools providing a fast-save routine a small copy-program and so on, all written in assembler) in an advertisement.
A PASCAL compiler was also available for this computer and so I began to learn PASCAL.

1987

The next computer was an ATARI 1040STF. This one was my first computer that allowed a somewhat professional work. After programming in BASIC and a little in LOGO, Borland release their C compiler on the ATARI ST and I began to program in C with Turbo C. I also programmed this computer in MC68000 assembler.

The next years the ATARI (in 1992 I bought an ATARI TT 030 with 4MB RAM) was my major platform. Among other programs I developed a tool for creating, editing and printing Nassi-Shneiderman-diagrams (I hope this is correct in English) and a source-code generator. That tool was distributed by a friend of mine but it didn't become as successful as we hoped. Nevertheless it was mentioned in the German computer magazine c't back in 1993 or 1994.

I haven't had a PC when - in 1993 - I had my first contact with Eiffel: It was ISE Eiffel for UNIX. During my study a project was planned to be realized in Eiffel but we had to switch to C++. The turn-around-times were too slow and no graphical user interface library was available.

1994

ATARI was dying and so I bought my first PC with a 486DX2-66 CPU. Soon I started programming in C with Borland's Compiler. Then I learned C++ and programmed my first windows applications with the OWL (Object Windows Library, Borland counterpart to Microsoft's MFC). During my studies of computer science I also learned COBOL and FORTRAN (but I try to forget them). I also did some work with Asymetrix' Multimedia-Toolbook and Motif on some IBM AIX machines.

1996

Since 1996 I work as a analyst/programmer in the south-west of Germany.