SWAG Letters: Finding One's Way

I get a lot of emails about the SWAG archive I host. Most of them are about the same, someone typed their name into Google and was surprised to find some code they wrote over 10 years ago. I recently got this one from Chad Moore that I thought was really worth sharing. I asked Chad if I could and he gave his ok. So now I offer you the first SWAG Letter.

I am writing to thank you for hosting the old SWAG distributions. My name is Chad Moore, and nearly ten years ago I made a single contribution. I contributed ANSI_IO.PAS, a library to interpret escape sequences independent of the operating system's ANSI.SYS. This was one of my greatest programming achievements to date, and at the time I was only 17 years old.

I learned to program when I was roughly 11, an older fiend of mine introduced me to Turbo Pascal 6.0. I absorbed the information like a sponge, and the WWW was the greatest programming resource of all time. My skills were unheard of for my age, but I had failed to enter the industry. Even in high school I won a mail-in software design contest held at Gannon University. Unfortunately, after high school I hung it up to pursue other interests.

I like to say that I "hadn't found my way, yet." But after my reckless years astray from technology, working in warehouse and manufacturing environments, I decided to go to ITT Technical Institute.

My vivid knowledge of Pascal (and inline Assembly), helped me to exceed in my studies. I didn't achieve a 4.0, but my 3.98 is as close as it comes. I am back on track, and it warms my heart to know that I can Google "ANSI_IO" or "SWAG" and my source code is STILL available. There is a section within my portfolio dedicated to that project, honored by the SWAG, and still being distributed to date.

I have been accepted into Robert Morris University for Software Engineering, and I am sure I will blow my instructors out of the water. This will be my next stepping-stone between where I am, and where I am sure to be.

If all goes well, I will apply to Carnegie Mellon University for my masters. Every step of the way, I'll be explaining the BBS subculture--the home of ANSI graphics.

Once again, thank you for hosting such an invaluable archive of peoples achievements. The possibilities are endless.

I hope you will join me in wishing Chad the best of luck as he finishes his journey he started 10 years ago. We are happiest when we are doing what we love and what we are really good at. Godspeed Chad! Keep us in the loop as you reach your goal!

Subject Tags: [Programming] [Software] [Pascal] [Education] [Career] [SWAG]