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Poll: How old were you when you started programming?

news.ycombinator.com

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

#91

Post by A1kmm »

I started early but slow - a friend had a Commodore 64 and we were writing simple BASIC programs at about 7, and another friend had an MS-DOS system with QBASIC. Slightly after then, my family got a Windows 3.1 based home computer, and I used to log on to BBSes and download other people's QBASIC code as well as writing simple (non-graphical) menu systems and the like. I then learned x86 assembler and began writing programs that combined QBASIC and x86 assembler. I also had some exposure to C via the compiler built into a 2D DOS-based graphics package my father used for work.

Around 1996, the family computer got Windows 95, and HotJava came out, and I got hold of the JDK (a very big download on a modem - I had to wait all night), and I learned Java and made a few applets. I also got a Visual Basic CD that came with a book about it. About a year later, I was able to set it up as a dual boot system, and installed Linux, giving me easier access to gcc, and I learned C. I also learned to audit code for security bugs and found a few in popular IRC daemons - after reporting them to the developers, I ended up becoming a regular contributor to the development of several ircds.

I got my first paid programming job on my 15th birthday (after applying to lots of places), for a lawyer who was running a software business on the side, developing native Windows apps.

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

#92

Post by yason »

I was eight.

I got a C64 for Christmas but then-surprisingly the reading-head of the bundled datassette player wasn't properly tuned and thus I couldn't load and play more than a limited few of all the games that came with the C64.

A translated version of the C64 user's guide / BASIC programming manual—I didn't know English then—came with the computer and I started reading it, typing little programs, tweaking them, and then eventually writing clones of my own, later variations.

By the time the datassette problem was identified, sent to be fixed, and returned to me I had found programming to be much more fun than the available games. I did play them and enjoyed many but I'm not much of a gamer even today, really.

(And yes, tuning the reading-head was dead easy DYI job as I learned shortly after.)

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

#93

Post by orangea »

alanl wrote: post #66

Lots of BASIC people out there, it really was very easy starter language to get into. Anyone know are the kids starting with these days?

Now, they either start with Javascript or learn to program on their graphing calculators. They are usually interested in graphical apps, so Java/Objective-C sometimes too.

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

#95

Post by hendler »

zephjc wrote: post #55
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

Funny, my first was similar, in Apple ][ BASIC. When I was in 7th grade, a friend (still to this day) and I had a typing class which used Apple ][s. One day we had a substitute teacher in who knew absolutely nothing about computers. I decided it would be funny to prank her so I wrote something like: 10 PRINT "GOVERNMENT ACCESS ONLY: THE FBI HAS BEEN CONTACTED" 20 FLASH 30 GOTO 10 I called her over with a worried face…

Same here - I was influenced in my first BASIC program by the Wargames movie and "Firefox" (Clint Eastwood, not Mozilla) and had a password protected diagram of an ascii uber figher jet.

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

#100

Post by boneheadmed »

zephjc wrote: post #55
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

Funny, my first was similar, in Apple ][ BASIC. When I was in 7th grade, a friend (still to this day) and I had a typing class which used Apple ][s. One day we had a substitute teacher in who knew absolutely nothing about computers. I decided it would be funny to prank her so I wrote something like: 10 PRINT "GOVERNMENT ACCESS ONLY: THE FBI HAS BEEN CONTACTED" 20 FLASH 30 GOTO 10 I called her over with a worried face…

Oh yes. 7th grade lines on the Apple IIe:

  10 FOR I = 1 to 100
  20 PRINT "I WILL NOT SPEAK OUT OF TURN IN CLASS. I WILL FOLLOW CLASS RULES"
  30 NEXT I
"That is fantastic that you can type all of that out on your typewrite Michael. Well done." (The concept of Dot Matrix wasn't even well known initially and perhaps bad lenses).
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