zigg is a user on cybre.space. You can follow them or interact with them if you have an account anywhere in the fediverse.

Remember when you had to go to a store to plunk down some serious cash to get something like a C compiler and an editor?

I wondered if that was still true so I checked Microcenter's site. The closest approximation was some web design software.

I remember going to the Wayne State Book Store to pick up a copy of Borland C++ 4.0 for $99 (which normally retailed for $499).

I can now buy any range of single board computers and run gcc for $5-$35 dollars, all told.

That is mind-boggling to me.

zigg @zigg

@craigmaloney I remember a three-way phone call with my dad to IT (?) at the company he worked for, trying to figure out what a quite-young me needed to graduate from built-in BASIC and move on to building .EXEs. I think he hoped he could get the guy on the other end of the phone to make a copy and send it to us. Didn’t happen. 😊