I got my first computer 24 years ago, when I was 10 years old. It was a Wearnes computer with Intel 80286 processor. I didn’t know or have any idea about programming but I know how to operate a computer. I got basic computer lesson from school on how to operate a computer (booting using a floppy disk, Ctrl-Alt-Del, and basic DOS commands) and write document using WordStar.

It was my friend who introduce me to BASIC. He typed a couple of lines on GWBASIC and displayed my name in different colors.

PRINT “Ilham Abiyasa Suhardi” (emulated using dosbox)

I was like “Wow, you can do that with a computer? That’s amazing!!!!”. And that’s exactly the moment I was introduced & fall in love with programming.

On that day, we explored some other commands like changing colors, blinking text, and making a beep sound. After that, I borrow his dad’s book BASIC language reference (Can’t remember the exact title) and made a copy so I could try it by myself at home. That’s when I start to learn computer programming and I’ve been loving it ever since.

So thank you my friend (where ever you are) and happy birthday BASIC!