你是怎么與個人計算機結緣的?
Well, I ran into my first computer when I was about 10 or 11.
我第一次見到計算機是10或11歲
And it’s hard to remember back then but I’m, I’m no fossile now, I’m no fossile
很難回憶當年的情景,我可不是故作老成
So when I was 10 or 11, that was about 30 years ago and no one had ever seen a computer.
大約30多年前,見過電腦的人不多
To the extent they’d seen them, they’d seen them in the movies.
即使見到,也是在電影里
And they were really big boxes with...For some reason they fixated it on the tape drives, as being the icon of what the computer was, or flashing light somehow.
那時電影里的計算機都是裝有開盤機的大柜子,閃閃發(fā)光
And, so nobody had ever seen mysterious, very powerful things that did something in the background.
真正了解計算機功能和原理的人不多
And so to see one and actually get to use one was a real privilege back.
有機會接觸計算機的人更是寥寥無幾
And I got into NASA Ames Research Center and I got to use a time sharing terminal.
我有幸在NASA Ames研究中心見到一臺
And so I didn’t actually see a computer but I saw a time sharing terminal.
那還不是一臺完整的計算機,只是一臺分時共享的終端機
And in those days it’s hard to remember how primitive it was. There were no such things as a computer with a graphics video display.
設備非常簡陋,連顯示器都沒有
It was literally a printer. It was a teletype printer with keyboard on it.
只是一臺帶鍵盤的電傳打印機
So you would keyboard this commands in and you would wait for a while,
你在鍵盤上輸入指令耐心等待
and then things would go "tatatatatata", and it would tell you something else.
然后它會噠噠噠地輸出結果
But even with that, it was still remarkable, especially for a 10-year-old,
即便如此這玩意也太奇妙了,尤其是對十歲的男孩而言
that you could write a program in BASIC, let's say, or FORTRAN.
你可以用Basic語言或Fortran語言編寫程序
And actually this machine would sort of take your idea,
機器接受并執(zhí)行你的設想
and it would sort of execute your idea and give you back some results.
然后把結果告訴你
And if they were the results you predicted,
如果結果和設想的一樣
your program really work,
說明程序見效了
and it was incredibly thrilling experience.
這太讓人激動了
So I became very err.... captivated by computer.
我完全給計算機迷住了