(Computer related) Curriculum

My PC and notebook experiences and my life as a “hobby programmer” - that’s the topic here.

This website contains quite a few technical words about computers. If you want to know what these terms mean, you may google.

Sometimes I say about myself, “I’m a freelancer”. But to get things right: I wasn’t bad at math; that is more likely to be true.

In 2011 or maybe 2012 I discovered my calling to "computers" and to programming, even though I have been programming in C/C ++ since 1991.

As long ago as 1985, I enjoyed sitting at my home computer C64 (Commodore 64). I started programming in BASIC about June 1985, so I was 28 of age. During this time, besides BASIC, I also dealt with microprocessor technology and the so-called assembly language. Assembly is also a programming language, but much more difficult than BASIC.

Later, in 1989, when I was working in Frankfurt, I bought the first real “PC”. I used the MS-DOS batch language. In 1990/91 I bought Turbo-C/C++ from Borland to program in the programming language C++. I learned the programming language C/C++ from 1991 until today. In 1997 I kind of imitated the “Cogpack”, as far as I could with the “text mode” (for the console). Cogpack is a professional paid cognitive training program.

2000 to 2010, I took a creative break.

I’ve been enjoying my new Windows 7 notebook since 2011. My first attempts with the database program Access were my return to IT. - In 2015, I made videos.

From 2017 till 2019 I added Excel, Java and Haskell to my list of interest. You know Excel. Java and Haskell are two programming languages. Windows 10 I continued like Windows 7. I’m still getting to know the operating system and do a lot of programming work with C/C++. I experimented a little with SQL (a database programming language).

My parents were Hellmuth Siegmund-Schultze (my father was suffering from polio) and Elisabeth Siegmund-Schultze. I was born and raised in Hanover, and I enjoyed the city.

You might see my strong affinity for technology because I remember following detail. I’m thinking of a technical “thing” related to the vehicle my paralyzed father got, which wasn’t a moped but had three wheels and a moped two-cycle engine:

My father got a vehicle with a moped motor, which was steered with a rigid “handlebar” (meaning the long connecting rod for steering). And that was not possible for Dad because he needed the long, longitudinal connecting rod able to be swiveled widely.

I also remember why my father wanted it differently: he couldn’t have got into the vehicle from outside. Then my mother would have had to lift him into that vehicle every time! He got the bar improved, of course. - I don’t remember how old I was.

School started when I was six; in my case, the school year began in April 1963. The government issued the transfer certificates in April until 1966. After this point in time, it changed because the so-called "Kurzschuljahre" were realized in order to switch to summer certificates. Two complete school years were “crammed” (pressed) into a substantially shorter time: the 1966 school year lasted from April 1 to November 30; The second short year followed, from December 1, 1966 to July 31, 1967. The transfer certificates were available at the end of July. And because of the "Kurzschuljahre", my parents let me go to elementary school for another year. But I didn’t like that last year in elementary school.

I couldn’t see the many boring math boxes anymore. It was just because of these math boxes that I got a poor grade in math (maybe a German "4", approx "D" in the USA). Tough math problems with the raven (the more difficult optional arithmetic problems were marked with a little raven in that book) were more fun to me! And I liked math text problems that required more attention - much better than the easy, boring standard arithmetic blocks! The end of the song was: I got a poor grade in this 5th school year (because Ms. Niemeyer always gave the “stupid” easy and, for my feeling, too boring calculation boxes to us).

The head of the elementary school Ms. Schwarzfeldt recommended to send me to the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gymnasium in Hanover-Zoo. I see God’s wonderful work in it. - The Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gymnasium was for boys only and had an excellent reputation.

My parents went to an introductory event organized by the director Drigalsky in the high school. So the director said that being good at math would be an advantage. My parents got a shock! They had to say that I only got the German grade 4 in math. At the end of the conversation he, the director, said anyway: “Send us the boy!” - That still encourages me today.

At this Kaiser Wilhelm Gymnasium from 1967 - boys’ gymnasium, beginning co-education (girls are now allowed to go to the former all-boys school) - I had Latin for 9 years and achieved Latin proficiency certificate. My dad said to me: “Translate as precisely as possible, and as freely as necessary.” We read Caesar back then.

I had Latin from the fifth grade of the German “Gymnasium”, Greek from the sixth grade, and later English. Around the 10th or 11th grade, I started Russian. I have learned new writing systems more than once. I learned Greek (ancient Greek) and Russian (Cyrillic) scripts. And in languages I first learned Latin, Greek, English, a little Serbo-Croatian and Modern Greek - and much later Russian basics.

One incident shows that I was good at math. It was in high school when a trainee teacher was teaching maths, that is, the entire 45-minute lesson. Our math teacher was also there. The trainee teacher wrote a series of logically structured equations on the blackboard. Then I noticed a mistake he had made by accident, said it aloud, that it was wrong - and afterwards I received praise from the math teacher!

I gave my life to Jesus. That happened in the YMCA, Hanover, Germany.

During this time we went to Yugoslavia twice. Today one would have to say "Croatia" to our travel destination. These trips to Yugoslavia took place around 1972.