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Ask HN: What sparked your interest in programming?

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

#21

Post by stebbins »

livueta wrote: post #10

Are there are any games they play/might be interested in that have scripting facilities of some sort? I got into tech of various flavors by learning to write RuneScape bots circa 2005-2009. There were a few publicly available Java reflection-based bot dev kits at the time, which was my initial entry point. I later got into more advanced programming topics by figuring out how the SDKs themselves worked and rolling my…

Wow, this throws me back. I had the same exact experience. Now I'm back down memory lane thinking of that forum drama...

The RuneScape botting scene was so strange. It was a really interesting subculture to be a part of. If you were ever active on JH, we probably have seen each other's posts...

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

#25

Post by sethammons »

I was "in to computers." I liked looking through files, new software, and drawing in ms paint. As I started at university, my buddy said, "you should take a programming class." I took CS101 in C++. I got an easy 4.0 and he hired me at his start up doing PHP. That was the start. Then I went into insurance, financial advisement, and teaching math in highschool. All the while, tinkering and toying with programming and some odd jobs (all the while raising a family that we started a bit early by conceiving at age 15). After failing at insurance, failing at financial advisement, and failing as a teacher (which all hurt), my side projects caught the eye of a recruiter, and I interviewed at a few places. I ended up with a great software company where I have grown tremendously and am now (years later) a principal engineer. I love what I do and I think I am pretty decent at it :). What does this mean for your kiddos? Find something they like on computers and link that to a programming problem. Helo them learn that a computer is a tool and a tool they can alter and control to do what they need done. There is no magic there.

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

#26

Post by phaser »

QBASIC.EXE! When I was in high school, there was this small program (small enough you won't delete for extra space for games) included with DOS that contained everything you needed to create a small program.

Today's official answer would be Visual Studio on Windows or Xcode on macOS which aren't simple or small.

The most similar contemporary approach to that simple game making is probably the 2D game engine LÖVE, which is awesome

https://love2d.org/

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

#28

Post by dividuum »

phaser wrote: post #26

QBASIC.EXE! When I was in high school, there was this small program (small enough you won't delete for extra space for games) included with DOS that contained everything you needed to create a small program. Today's official answer would be Visual Studio on Windows or Xcode on macOS which aren't simple or small. The most similar contemporary approach to that simple game making is probably the 2D game engine LÖVE, whi…

You might also take a look at PICO-8 (https://www.lexaloffle.com/pico-8.php). It's a "fantasy console" also programmable in Lua. It includes code/sprite/music/sfx editor. So a complete environment to build games. And the best thing is that the cartridges are also PNG files (example: https://www.lexaloffle.com/bbs/cposts/2/29524.p8.png)

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

#29

Post by lazyjones »

My father writing a number guessing BASIC program on the computer in his lab (possibly a Vector 3, I don't know) literally in seconds - in 1982 - to demonstrate its capabilities to me.

I still believe BASIC (with line numbers, particularly on graphics capable systems) was the zenith of stimulating programming environments for beginners. Having everything you might want to do available for download/copy on the Internet within seconds is the opposite...

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