I'm not a programmer, but I've started taking an interest in learning how. But I can't help but notice just how intimidating the barriers to entry are. I'm making my way through the RoR tutorial on railstutorial.org and liking the progress I'm making so far. So, any suggestions? Stories? Warnings?
Ask HN: When did you 1st start programming and why?
1–10 of 26 posts
Re: Ask HN: When did you 1st start programming and why?
#212 years old ; Fascinated by computer viruses, and hacking :)
But nowadays, what I really think amazed be, and still does, is the way we are able to go from a thought to its implementation through the use of a programming languages in about no time.
Think of any other field other than software engineer where you can go from hypothesis to modelling and then testing in about a few hours or days ? There ain't many. (On a side note that's why its becoming more and more prevalent to use programming to model and study real world situation ; e.g. economics, standing-ovations, etc ).
Re: Ask HN: When did you 1st start programming and why?
#312 years old ; Fascinated by computer viruses, and hacking :) But nowadays, what I really think amazed be, and still does, is the way we are able to go from a thought to its implementation through the use of a programming languages in about no time. Think of any other field other than software engineer where you can go from hypothesis to modelling and then testing in about a few hours or days ? There ain't many. (On…
How did you get into it? Read any books? Asked someone?
I agree that the field is fascinating and I am having a hard time focusing on my classes as a side effect.
I've read a lot of blogs that directed me towards certain books and tutorials. However, I'm curious about how people start from 0.
Re: Ask HN: When did you 1st start programming and why?
#412 years old ; Fascinated by computer viruses, and hacking :) But nowadays, what I really think amazed be, and still does, is the way we are able to go from a thought to its implementation through the use of a programming languages in about no time. Think of any other field other than software engineer where you can go from hypothesis to modelling and then testing in about a few hours or days ? There ain't many. (On…
How did you get into it? Read any books? Asked someone? I agree that the field is fascinating and I am having a hard time focusing on my classes as a side effect. I've read a lot of blogs that directed me towards certain books and tutorials. However, I'm curious about how people start from 0.
1- Choose a goal/project
Try to think short term here since you probably won't be full time on that, and so it won't replace your job in the short term -- i.e. get a goal that is both easy and fun to you
2- Choose a prog lang
Depending on what u want to do in the future with your skills, you'll choose another language.
For that, either ask around or here in HN I guess.
3- Google [language] tutorial
4- then Google [language] [goal/project] tutorial
glhf !
Re: Ask HN: When did you 1st start programming and why?
#5I started 10 years ago at school. My first language was VB6 and I learned from my school teacher and some books.
Nowadays I do mainly PHP
Re: Ask HN: When did you 1st start programming and why?
#6I just got eager to create a simple game at an age of 15. Then I started to learn PHP and Mysql. At first, it was hard. But most importantly - it was interesting.
And learning was like this:
1) Reading a book and reading tutorials online
2) Asking question in forums
3) And asking people through skype. Half of them blocked me :) However, it was worth.
Good luck and don't give up when you face a problem.
Re: Ask HN: When did you 1st start programming and why?
#7I'm not a programmer but I still think I have something to share.
When I was 16 (ten years ago) I had an IRC channel about a very specific genre of music. I thought it would be cool to also have a website about it. So I used one of those geocities type of services to host my first website. I started doing reviews and listing upcoming concerts and stuff like that and soon I found my self maintaining a music website (rather than an IRC channel website). I started learning HTML & CSS, reading A List Apart and articles by Zeldman, Bowman, Mayer Molly and 456bereastreet. That's when I really got into web standards (when CSS Zen garden was created) and unfortunately started focusing more on the technology rather than the contents of my site.
When I was at uni. I dropped my side-project due to studying and stuff but kept reading & learning about what's going on. That was ~2004 when table-less designs were all the rage. To some extend I regret focusing more on the technology (HTML, CSS, Javascript) instead of my goal (the music website) but I'm glad that I really know "how to make websites".
Re: Ask HN: When did you 1st start programming and why?
#8copying listings in basic from magazines to get games on to my spectrum as a kid, some of it must have sunk in!
Re: Ask HN: When did you 1st start programming and why?
#9Started with a VIC20 programming BASIC games. I was amazed that the games I played were all based on simple logic / rules.
Re: Ask HN: When did you 1st start programming and why?
#10My Dad was director of a think tank that had access to remote timesharing (primitive Basic, over a 110 baud teletype) when I was about 11 (1962??) and I enjoyed that.
I have been programming for a living since the early 1970s - still love it and frequently try to talk friends' kids into considering computer science or engineering.
One thing that has been especially fun: I have become a pseudo-expert in a lot of application domains over the years. This is sort-of like changing careers frequently, keeping the working experience fresh.