Roland Perry wrote:

In message op.uc27d0gc0v1caa@thedell, at 08:07:02 on Sat, 21 Jun 2008,
Brian L Johnson remarked:
Can anyone join in? I think I'm coming up to 40 years of computer
work now, although there have been gaps. I did much more at school
than when I was at University, for example.

Gosh! I did absolutely no computer work at school.

It wasn't on the syllabus, but we had a very active "club" that met at
lunchtime and after school. Programs were hand-punched onto cards, which
I dropped off (the whole club's efforts) at the Technical College on my
way home, picking up the previous day's output. This meant I had a good
relationship with the staff at the college and I sometimes went in
during the holidays and used their "teletype room".

My lunchtime activities were restricted to The Printing Club. Mind you,
that interest has lasted me through the years as well. (I'm a bit of a
typography nut.)

I went on to take A-level Computer Science the very first year that it
was offered (by Oxford Exam Board) entirely self-taught.

Alas, not offered by my school in Leeds: a few flavours of Maths were all
that was available. So I substituted one of them for Art History.

--
-blj-