Hi,
I may not be the most ancient here - at 69 - but there probably aren't too many that are older, I guess.
I was an IT Manager/Analyst/programmer/support engineer (it was a small company!) for some years before I retired in 2004, working with a unix (Aix) system and Informix database and SQL. Plus of course the PCs that accessed the main system.
Back in the 70s (?) I built my first Compukit computer, for which I later upped the RAM to about 16 K (Yes K!) I taught myself Basic, and some machine code (without a compiler you had to do it all yourself), and made my wife computer-phobic by trying to explain bits and bytes to her too often.
Using my massive experience with Basic, I taught myself to program my company's Burroughs computer that used punched cards and tape, and which had a 2K Hard Disk! (which sounded like an aeroplane when it started up)
As the company moved forward in the IT world (it wasn't called that then!), in around '73 we acquired a unix system employing COBOL, so I had to teach myself that language. Later updates took us to Informix and SQL. I played around with other languages, including c, but being entirely self-taught, there were probably many gaps in my knowledge, and I was not the most efficient programmer. But I got the whole factory - which made springs - under computer control, so even if it was not the best system, it did work.
Now retired, and moved to a country area - Somerset UK - I mainly enjoy woodwork and making things - see my organ, Topsy on <UR SNIPPED> .
I have joined this group to try to get help with a c program that I wrote many years ago, which is designed to run a Tote system at a Race Night (where films of horse races are projected).
Hopefully someone will understand my problem