[Eric-chat] My background...**Long Email ALERT!**

[Gavin R. B. <ga...@ga...>]

Andrew Turner wrote:
> 
> Let me see,
> I started programming when I was 8 or 9. I have been looking at OS
> mailing lists for around a year. I know PHP well and a little perl,
> lately I have started to learn other languages including c/c++.

Man, that's cool d:-)

I always wanted a computer when I was a kid. Didnt get one until I was
fourteen years of age. As soon as I had got it, (an 8086), I was
straight into programming GW-BASIC and producing the best graphics I
could make on the machine. 

Admitted, I was a late starter, but there was always something about the
machines which I could resonate with. Computers were dependable, slavish
and exact, something that you just could not get from a human being. I
remember reading Neil Ardley's introductory book on Computers when I was
about 9 or 10; 'had program ideas even then...d;-) 

One might say that I had a dream of programming supercomputers, being
one of the 'high priesthood', but somehow it was always for someone
else, someone richer. It was the tool of the oppressor, man but at 14 it
was MINE!! 

What really inspired me in those days was the film TRON. I became
obsessed with recreating those effects on my home PC, and, (somewhat
naievely), on the BBC Micros at school. A friend and I found the source
code to a cool little flight sim, and began an attempted hackathon at
school to produce it. Shame we could not get it to compile...

At fifteen, I started to grow very interested in digital electronics,
and a book named Basic Electronics by Malcolm Plant inspired me to learn
Boolean Algebra, even at that tender age. Boolean algebra fascinated me,
and it was a hint that although useless at humdrum bod arithmetic, I had
ability with abstract math. I loved the subject and found myself
imagining how one might build up an entire specification using boolean
algebra alone.

When I started A-Level, I hadnt even taken the GCSE. Seems strange, but
I felt that the GCSE was probably so straightforward anyhow so I skipped
it in favour of modern languages. When the A-Level began I learnt
rapidly, since I was already a self-taught hacker with a good knowledge
of electronics.

I was disappointed when I only got a 'D' grade at the end of it all.
What I didnt know about at the time was my dyslexia. The whole matter
was a let down after having got 73% in my visual basic project,
modelling the behaviour of molecules in a box.

It wasnt until the 2nd year of my Physics/Electronics degree scheme that
I discovered the truth about my condition, and by then it was too late.
The social pressures had caved in on me, and I had become a cybernetic
recluse, spending all-night binges mudding and developing my own MUD. 

Before I left I set up a volatile little following developing a MUD
named Daedalus. The project was ambitious at the time, but arguments
about setting up multiclasses and races etc tore the whole project to
bits. Some big egos put their time and effort into the project and the
whole thing blew.

I decided never again that it would happen.

Anyhow, since then I attempted maths at the same Uni, was getting A's
but dropped out coz' of stress, and then went unemployed for yonks. I
got very depressed after having been spurned by the love of my life, and
also because of the recent discovery of my dyslexic condition.

At the fall of 1999, I enrolled in a 3 year degree in Computing at a
local polytechnic. I was a jaded and entirely different student by then.
Believe me, I just wanted to get the degree finished and under my belt,
and so did my parents. Poverty was always at the back of my mind as I
spend goodly parts of my overdraft building up my own machine from hand.

By the end of this academic year I had gotten almost straight A's. This
was brilliant as I had never been a straight A student before. Now I was
sitting, quietly awaiting the final year of my degree scheme and working
as a technician when *BANG* I was fired because the boss didnt like the
way I was "settling in".

That and the loss of the 2nd love of my life send me into a
mini-depression. Apparently folks at work took offense to my enthusiasm
and knowledge, just wanting me to get on with the job and keep my mouth
shut, and my ambition ZERO.

Then, at home, desperate for a cause to take up...I found
sourceforge.net. Almost immediately I saw an advertisment for software
developers to work on a new OS. I jumped at the chance, I had been
wanting to do systems software for years now, and now was my chance to
have a hand in building a new OS.

Well, the rest is known to you I suppose. Seems like I have been blowing
my trumpet lots, but the email interface can be a little lacking in
intimacy so I feel the desire to communicate. d;-)

Yours,
	Gavin B.