• 👋 Hi, I’m Stuart (@sdtodd)

I first started programming back in the early 1980s on a BBC Micro, using BBC BASIC and 6502 assembler.

I then undertook more formal training as a programmer when I left school, dare I say it initially with MS BASIC (although I learned to avoid the GOTO statement) on a CP/M compatible networking OS (McNOS), Z80/8080 assembler, Pascal and Borland Turbo BASIC on the PC. My first job was as a programmer was with the local authority in the Social Services and Strategic Housing department, I continued using MS BASIC but also started using C, working with Informix and Oracle database platforms, however as an authority we also made significant use of the DataEase database development system and I worked on systems developed on DataEase for the training units of both social services and housing, the house sales system (sale of council houses to their tenants), client and asset databases for the elderly support teams in the authority. I also started using the Clipper 87 database development system at this time.

I left the social services department to join the education department, supporting systems that were used in school offices. I continued to use MS BASIC and C, but more significantly Clipper 5.01 and FoxBase as the company that we licenced the school information management system (something of a clue there) developed their initial systems in Clipper. Foxbase in particular proved to be a useful tool for investigating and fixing errors in the data. I used Clipper to develop more substantial programs, and I wrote a number of in-house support tools and applications and some for schools and other organisation using it.I regard Clipper as a true programming language (OK it's XBase) with fundamental support for databases.

My next job was as a IT support manager in a school (a site I was already supporting), I had less time for programming in this role, but did end up writing a tool to bulk create unique user accounts for our students on both Netware and Windows and give them any requisite permissions for their folders. I transferred across as the Network Manager when the school was closed to become an academy.

All through my IT career for fun I continued to program Acorn machines using BBC BASIC, C and following on from the 6502 used in their early machines the ARM processor that they used in their final machines. I continue to program in BBC BASIC, C and ARM assembly language under RISC OS (which Acorn had written for their machines) on the Raspberry Pi. I have also tinkered with PHP and MySQL (or MariaDB) to write web applications.

Well, that's enough about me.

• 👀 I’m interested in ... machine learning, databases, OS X application programming, web application development
• 🌱 I’m currently learning ... Python and machine learning
• 💞️ I’m looking to collaborate on ... anything that will expand my knowledge
• 📫 How to reach me ...