Poll: How old were you when you started programming? • Hacker News Board

Re: Poll: How old were you when you started programming?

#111

Post by code_duck » Wed, Dec 29, 2010, 10:50 PM UTC

I started at a very basic level when I was 5, with Logo and BASIC on the C64.

I wrote programs that generated colorful pictures in Logo, and the barest beginnings of a text adventure game (to which my only exposure was Logo Adventure) that revolved around my stuffed animals in BASIC.

By the time I was 8 or 9, I really wanted to write something like Zork or other text adventures, but I had not the faintest idea how to make a parser for that, and nobody was really helping me, unfortunately.

Then in my early teens, I worked a bit with ARexx, AmigaVision and AmigaShell and I really, really wish we had bought Borland C because I really wanted it back then...

Then, I didn't really do anything programming-wise for 15 years until I picked up PHP a few years ago. Oops! I did a lot of interesting things in between, but I wish I'd picked up serious programming skills a lot earlier in life.

Re: Poll: How old were you when you started programming?

#112

Post by lsemel » Wed, Dec 29, 2010, 10:53 PM UTC

Commodore 64, which I got when I was in elementary school. I still remember a bunch of the POKE codes you would use to change the colors in Commodore 64 BASIC.

Re: Poll: How old were you when you started programming?

#113

Post by checoivan » Wed, Dec 29, 2010, 11:20 PM UTC

mikeryan wrote: post #46

Commodore 64 bought with a paper route money. Sub poll, who's first program looked like this? 10 print "Mike Rocks" 20 goto 10

#FTW! then was making the thing pop sounds and draw :)

Re: Poll: How old were you when you started programming?

#114

Post by st-keller » Thu, Dec 30, 2010, 12:01 AM UTC

I was thirteen - my parents didn't know what a computer was good for - so i didn't got one. so i had to write my first programs onto sheets of paper (lot's of them). i had to do lots of typing when i finally got my c64 ;-)

Re: Poll: How old were you when you started programming?

#115

Post by Jinyoung » Thu, Dec 30, 2010, 12:26 AM UTC

I started in 5th grade by accident. Yes, accident. My dad bought me a Mac and a book called "BASIC for Mac."

Re: Poll: How old were you when you started programming?

#116

Post by linuxhansl » Thu, Dec 30, 2010, 1:07 AM UTC

14. I had a ZX81 with 1k of memory. Programmed in "assembler" in Hex with a handwritten sheet of the opcodes.

As an aside, it is amazing how we are able to adapt to new technology. I find it quite normal these days to program in Java and Lisp using a 1000x the memory of my first machine to print "hello world".

Re: Poll: How old were you when you started programming?

#117

Post by Homunculiheaded » Thu, Dec 30, 2010, 4:25 AM UTC

mattdeboard wrote: post #104

Homunculiheaded wrote: post #51

I didn't start until I was 25, after doing an undergrad in english and a master's in a completely non-technical field. I didn't really think I could become a "real" programmer just that I could learn enough to automate some things. I loved it and also the CS side of things, I kept working at it and now I'm working on my master's in CS, have built quite a good number of sophisticated applications that I'm proud of and…

So what do you do for a living now? I'm in somewhat a similar situation and am curious where your skills have taken you professionally.

Sorry for the late reply (was a bit busy today), wanting to preserve a bit of my anonymity, I essentially found a position fusing both my previous master's subject area and my programming skills (in academia). Since it actually pays less then a regular development gig I've toyed around with changing careers, but it has other perks (flexibility, freedom, a nice office etc).

Re: Poll: How old were you when you started programming?

#118

Post by davidst » Thu, Dec 30, 2010, 5:34 AM UTC

Age 15. Apple II+

The discussion here brings back a lot of fond memories. The Apple II was a great computer and easy for a teenager to understand. Source was available for almost everything (and what wasn't officially available had been disassembled and documented with high quality.)

Here's something other HN members might enjoy: Got access to an old Apple with Applesoft BASIC? Try this:

  CALL -151

  300: AD 30 C0 E6 B8 D0 02 E6 B9 4C B7 00

  B1: 4C 00 03

  3D0G

Now, run any BASIC program and listen. You'll quickly discover you can tell what the machine is doing. Floating point? Rapid ticks. Tight loop near the beginning of the program? High-pitched whine. Great for debugging or simulating a background thread.

Re: Poll: How old were you when you started programming?

#119

Post by Zolomon » Thu, Dec 30, 2010, 8:59 AM UTC

I was 16, this was 6 years ago, and I saw a friend program something in QBASIC. I was in complete awe - and I saw my future scroll past in front of me. Within one hour, I had written my own keyboard controlled piano by tapping into the PC-speaker. Now I'm in a computer science program at a university and working full time as a .NET developer (quitting to go back full time to school after the summer.)

Re: Poll: How old were you when you started programming?

#120

Post by kellishaver » Thu, Dec 30, 2010, 9:04 AM UTC

I voted 11-16, but I started dabbling around 7 with TI-BASIC on a TI-99. It was mostly playing, though, at that age. Then in HS, I started writing simple games in GWBASIC. We didn't have Internet access at home then, so it was about all that was easily accessible to me. When I got to college, I started getting into web dev languages and that's when I started getting serious about it.