The project that first made me fall in love with Perl…

Perl 5 had recently launched, with new features for object-oriented programming, includable modules, lexically scoped variables, and references—including closures. At the time, I was writing boot code, diagnostics, and production test software for Kurzweil-brand electronic musical gear. Part of the challenge of doing embedded systems back then was getting the machine code into the actual machine. The C compiler, assembler, and linker generated a binary file, which needed to be physically programmed into multiple EPROM chips in order to run the code on our custom hardware. We actually had software tools to pad out, checksum, and split up the binary data so it could programmed into multiple EPROMs according to our specifications.

And then we started designing systems that exceeded the capabilities of our tools. And I had to hack together custom C programs to reformat the binary data according to the new requirements. I think I might have done that twice. And then I asked myself whether Perl, which was always very good with strings of data—and what is a binary file but a big string of data? I asked myself whether Perl might be able to do a better job.

While reading Andy Hertzfeld’s anecdotes (and those of his colleagues) of designing the original Macintosh computer, I was inspired, inspired to take account of my own passions, the passions that these stories reminded me of. Today, I continue that list:

• I love to create new patterns. I love solving problems through discovery, inventing that which has never existed before. (From part 1.)

• I love applying principles in new ways. I love working with abstractions, and turning them into concrete expression. I love challenging the status quo, breaking through the limits of what everyone else says is “possible.” (From part 2.)

• I love achieving status through collaboration, which is compassionate conflict. I am not a baboon. I do not achieve a sense of status by beating up (literally or figuratively) on my colleagues and friends. But I do expect to be recognized for the ideas I bring to the table, and I want to be taken seriously.

But before I worked there, I tried to work at a supermarket, like my very first job.