Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: What sparked your interest in programming?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 56 posts

Re: Ask HN: What sparked your interest in programming?

#11

Post by frosted-flakes »

AutoHotkey[0], which is a phenomonally inconsistent and bizarre yet simple scripting language for Windows that lets you hack together pretty much anything. I knew nothing about programming and was just trying to do something simple with it (I don't remember what), and failing until I dove head first into the docs.

The I discovered the forums, which had a lot of healthy discussion at the time. I remember contributing to a clipboard manager written in AHK called Clipjump[1] that I still use to this day (great concept, not so great implementation). This was when I was in high school in the early 2010s. From there I got a lucky break when I was hired with no prior experience for a PHP4 scripting job, and then on to greener pastures from there with JavaScript and Python.

[0]https://autohotkey.com

[1]http://clipjump.sourceforge.net/

Re: Ask HN: What sparked your interest in programming?

#15

Post by volkk »

It's weird but I was never interested in it and had no idea what I was in for until I majored in computer science. My dad is a programmer and essentially told me that this is the way to go in the future. Having spent tons of time on the computer playing video games as a teenager, I figured it just made sense. Thankfully college opened my eyes to it and during the whole Facebook craze, it really sparked a ton of interest.

Re: Ask HN: What sparked your interest in programming?

#18

Post by gnat »

In the very early 1980s, my father took me into a bookstore in Auckland, New Zealand. While he browsed, I wandered over to the personal computer section where another shopper noticed my interest, asked my name, and typed

  10 FOR I% = 1 TO 10
  20 PRINT "HELLO, NATHAN"
  30 NEXT I%
  RUN
into a BBC Micro. And I was hooked. Mum and Dad saved for a year or two and bought me a Commodore 64, and I was away.

Now I try never to miss an opportunity to show the magic to young kids, and I always think of the kindly stranger when I do so.

Re: Ask HN: What sparked your interest in programming?

#19

Post by Buttons840 »

I had a VTech "PreComputer 2000" in the 90's, a kids toy. It was battery powered, with a 2 line display, had word games, etc. One of the games was "BASIC", which was like a typing game that beeped a lot. I finally read the manual and found out that BASIC was a pretty good game once you understand it.

I'm glad the creators of that toy computer made it into an actual computing device, more than the mere toy it appeared to be, and that they included a manual which actually taught how to program.

Re: Ask HN: What sparked your interest in programming?

#20

Post by nikofeyn »

Buttons840 wrote: post #19

I had a VTech "PreComputer 2000" in the 90's, a kids toy. It was battery powered, with a 2 line display, had word games, etc. One of the games was "BASIC", which was like a typing game that beeped a lot. I finally read the manual and found out that BASIC was a pretty good game once you understand it. I'm glad the creators of that toy computer made it into an actual computing device, more than the mere toy it appeared…

i had a similar experience, making a little password "application" on mine. however, it didn't turn me on to programming. it was just a thing i did. many years later, i sort of fell into software. i still don't like programming because the tools are always well below what i'd like and really get to me. my saving grace is enjoying the idea of using programming to represent some concept or learn about some new idea. "doing" with software is very frustrating because, as bret victor has talked about, seeing the thing is hopeless with today's tools.
Post reply on HN