[SiriusHardware]

Unfortunately Phil, we are all old blokes in sheds nowadays. I have never written software for a living, which is quite sad given the head-start I had having a 'programmable computer' before most people had one but when it came to me having to start work the first job I landed was working as a repair technician in a radio and TV shop.

I liked that job so much that I have been doing it in one form or another for more or less the whole of my working life. Generally the only software I write is for myself, to support one hobby or another or to make some aspect of my life easier at work so I've never had to write anything to a professional standard, unfortunately.

My view is that as long as I don't charge for something I've 'coded', people can take it or leave it, although I will usually try to fix problems if they are politely brought to my attention. I will also gratefully accept anything which someone else has written which happens to do something I need it to do.

I believe Tim and Slothie have both written software for a living, Karen of course was a professional software / hardware engineer and there are quite a few software / embedded software people among the forum membership.