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Poll: When did you start programming?

news.ycombinator.com

41–50 of 70 posts

Re: Poll: When did you start programming?

#47
1977: I learned BASIC from typing in programs in "What To Do After You Hit Return" and experimenting by changing things. On a Processor Technology SOL.

My dad also had a BYTE-8 (I see that's not even in wikipedia, I think it was an IMSAI clone) and had to manually enter the machine code for the paper-tape loader via a set of paddle switches, one byte at a time (one switch per bit, plus a switch for "set"). Then he had to pull the paper tape through the reader at just the right speed, or he had to start over. Good times!

Re: Poll: When did you start programming?

#49
I started in 2000 (at the age of 10) with my old father laptop (running Windows 3.1). I hit the Qbasic icon because I liked the hummer image and wanted to see what's inside. Really, nothing was interesting, but my father introduced me to few commands (print, if, then...). Few days later, I started reading the documentation in English, even though I didn't know English.

Re: Poll: When did you start programming?

#50
post #10

In BASIC (the horror) when I was maybe 6 or 7. I tried making text adventure games by writing out every if/then branch explicitly...

Same here, BASIC, 5 or 6. Text adventure games, lemonade stand, and so on.

Dijkstra says, "It is practically impossible to teach good programming to students that have had a prior exposure to BASIC: as potential programmers they are mentally mutilated beyond hope of regeneration." But he complained about nearly everything.

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