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   RM> Let's see, since this was DOS (for a PC) it was probably in 1987.   
     > Prior to that I had built 2 Apple II+ clones using Apple software.   
      
   MP>The PC that I have that came with DOS 3.3 and GWBASIC was also purchased in   
     >late 1987, so that time frame is correct.  Unfortunately, it did not come   
   wit   
     >a DOS manual.  I figured out how a lot of the utilities worked via trial and   
     >error -- a few of those errors required a restore!  :O  :D   
      
   Ha.. As I said, I started out on Apple Clones and one of the first things   
   I bought before assembling my first computer was a college course book   
   for programming in Apple Soft Basic. That gave me a good idea of how   
   Basic worked so I just had to learn the differences in how Apple and   
   IBM systems did the same things.   
      
   I also bought some books with simple programs and games you write   
   yourself, and I took great satisfaction in copying those programs   
   out and getting them working and then finding ways to make them   
   work better than the originals..   B)   
      
   One of the first big programs I wrote for a place I was working   
   was a database program that was something like 60 typed pages   
   of code which I then drastically modified to work exactly the way   
   that workplace needed it to work, rather than as a general program.   
      
   I also wrote a spreadsheet inventory control program for them.   
      
   I added a production program where you could put in the name and   
   weight of the product you wanted (ceramics and pigments) and the   
   program would write out the formula with the amounts of all the   
   ingredients for a batch that size and print off 3 copies - for the   
   Lab, Office and Plant to use..   
      
   Ironically that last one I threw in as an afterthought, I didn't   
   really even charge extra for it. I left there soon after but I   
   stopped in to visit a few years later and the other programs had   
   both been updated/replaced but they were still using that one.   
      
   Not something MS Office could replace I guess...   B)   
      
   ---   
    * SLMR Rob  * Captain Please!.. Not in front of the Klingons   
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