I think that all of us probably started programming in relatively close time space, i've always used the computer since i was like 4, i didn't start programming until i was ten though, now iv'e been into programming for about close to five years. How about you guys(and girls)?

[ This Message was edited by: happyhacker14 on 2001-07-20 23:26 ]

I've used computers since '96 (I'm born '86). I begain programming in '97, when I was 10/11.

Born 85, used computers since 1994, started doing HTML 1997 and programming 98.

Born in '84, used computer as far back as I can remember (Flanklin H1200, which we got around the time I was born), started HTML in the mid 90s some time, and Perl about 16 months ago. [addsig]

I am such a loser.. I started at 14 . Took a VB class as a sophmore, intro to C++ as a junior (nothing more than functional C with C++ headers), then a first year college level C++ class as a senior.

born 86, used a computer for computer games which i played with my dad when i was like 8, and started programming when i was like 12/13 or so, when i saw fabs do cool things in BASIC in school...

that brings to mind... LOL

fabs, sebi and to all that makes sense to:

If Jan Eilers hadn't been, we would prolly never have started the ypn! That's funny, as we don't even really know him. Also if he had been good at french.. that's funny

I was born in '89 and started programming at CyberCamps (a camp for nerds ) when I was 10, they taught me "C++" but really it was just basic C with cin and cout. Then, I guess it was a few months later, I decided to learn Java, now I do very little of any other real programming language, only Java.

I was born in 86, started programming a year or so ago. Maybe a year and a half, explains alot

haha, thats so true, i still remember, u were the king of the school when u first wrote the Basic program that sends those network messages, and u can kill somebodyz pc with it.. lol, i think the version of it that i saved into a hidden folder might still b there, lol

Born 1983 ( I feel old ), have been using the computer for as long as I can remember.

My mom tells me I could type before I could write. Typing is easier, anyway.

Thought GWBasic was scary. Tried PC StoryBoard when I was 4 or so. (Okay, so it wasn't really programming, but it had ifs!) Liked LOGO when I was 5. Taught myself Pascal at around 6 or so. Proceeded to devour computer manuals and online help. Been a geek ever since.

Ignore me - I'm a little weird.. =)
---
Oops. Would you believe I had accidentally noted my year of birth as 86? Outrageous lie. I was born in 1983. Makes me positively ancient. Musn't post when sleepy..

[ This Message was edited by: sachac on 2001-08-03 17:22 ]

lol, you're really a guru then... "taught yourself Pascal at the age of 6" - sounds like a prodigy or something:).

Btw, I think there is a post in this forum noting how weird each one of us is... So you're no exception on that part.

One could also say that I was pretty deprived as a child. I never really saw the point in playing with dolls, and the computer was so much more fascinating than the TV...

... okay, I was really bored, and stubborn, and I didn't want to give up. So I learned it, although I didn't understand anything until I read the manual for the Nth time..

The first time I saw a PC was 1996, when I was 10

Robert: that just proves how fast you learn .

First time I saw a computer... Hm, as far as I can remember, the first time I saw and used a computer was in 1991, when I played Wolfenstein on a 386... I was 6 . It was a monochrome, black/white screen so that's why neither I nor my parents noticed the violence . I've stayed a Wolf3d fan ever since...

But I only gained any actual knowledge of what a computer can do at the age of 9, in 1994, when we bought a 486DX-2.

Wow, this is cool. I never thought I would meet people my age anywhere in the programming world.
Anyways, I was born in 89, saw a PC at the age of 8 or 9. Pretty late but I caught on very fast because this PC was mine! Muwhahahaha! I felt the surge of power lurking in my fingers lol. Then my PC got some type of virus and crashed tons of my programs so it was very hard to get around in Windows and thats how I became this computer nerd. I started programming when I was 10-11.

i messed around with just html around 10-11 and got into vb/c/asm 12-13 (im 13 rite now)

Hi all,
Im obviously new to the board but plan on being an active member. Plan to see some of you on IRC.

My programming skills are pathetic at best. I recieved instruction on Java and C++ while getting my AAS in networking, and Im self taught in HTML. I begin my BA this Nov 5th in CIS so im sure ill be here alot.

LEAD.

[ This Message was edited by: IEATLEAD on 2001-10-16 14:46 ]

hi, i have to say this is an excellent post by happyhacker14
i was born 1985 , i started programming at 14
where i started learning Qbasic , then went on to VB which i am still learning , i tried to learn assembly than gave up , however i might take it up later , coz assembly seems cool!!

Assembly is cool .
Well, when did I? Quite a while ago. I started out with my brother's C64. Probably I was 5-6. About two years later, I was something near intermediate in BASIC. About the time I was 8-9, I could browse through Giana Sisters' (good game ) code and do all modifications I want. Then about the time I was 12, I started VB. It's been 3 years, and the thing I really need is a certificate

I got my first computer with 11. and started Programming when our class got Mr.Braun at school.

who is Mr.Braun? I know him, but the others don't
anyways, I got my first comp when I was 6 years old (actualy wasn't mie tho). programming since early 2001.
Now I'm a OpenGl and 3D freak
[addsig]

Hmm, I was born in 1987, i don't know when I saw my first computer, but it was propably my brother's first C64 or something. When I was like 5, 6 or something I played Doom all days until I was 8 and started with QB.. a year later or so I was tired of QB and begun with some Pascal.. did some nice things in pascal, and then, when I was 12, I started to code in C, and some C++.. Last year I taught myself assembly, and here I am now!

lol ... I played doom with like 6 and couldn't sleep for several days
no, seriously
the good old times when everybody was still working with consoles ... that was cool
[addsig]

Saw a computer - 5 yrs old
Played Kings Quest - 6 yrs old
Used E-mail - 9 yrs old
Began HTML - 11 yrs old
JavaScript - 11 yrs old
CSS - 12 yrs old
Visual Basic - 12 yrs old
C++ - 12 yrs old
Perl/CGI - 13 yrs old
Scheme - 13 yrs oldI am 13 years old. [addsig]

...when are you going to learn a real programming language?

I could put the tape in and play Moon Rider at age 9 i think (-:

I started programming at 12 with VB(Visual Basic), then just learnt heaps of others, I love ASM, and Batch - 2 favs so far

Hate C/C++

My family's had a PC for as long as I can remember... I started to copy BASIC programs from a book my dad had when I was about 6, but didn't actually do any programs of my own until I was 15, when I took a Pascal class... I took VB at 16, and since then have taken a couple Java classes... I'm self-taught in C, C++, ObjectPAL, and HTML... I'm just getting into Win32 and C#...

Seems most ppl here have self taught, IMHO self teaching is better for programming, You learn more, and it sticks with you longer, but can be a bit more frustrating in the beginning.

Do you all feel same way????

I figured this might help ppl who are new an want to start programming.

well, i'd find it strange if somebody learnt programming like, deciding he wants to program and go to a course or something.
I think everybody interested in it begins with teaching himself...

i was born in 1986.

i saw pc in 1993 it was game compute that is being connected to tv. primitive sega or something. i saw pc in 1996. i started to use it for games in 1997. i started to program in 1999. i it was HTML. i'm webdev mainly. i learned programing lang for binaries in 2001. =)

I'm like robost86. My dad brought home a 486 in '97, I was almost 11, and I learned QBasic on that. I also learned basic computer stuff on that. I moved on to VBA when we got our new computer in '99. I taught myself HTML in 2000. I learned actual VB when I got a "demo" version for my birthday. I bought VC++ last year and have been atempting to teach myself that. Not going so good.

[ This Message was edited by: dxprog on 2002-03-06 22:00 ]

The first computer I saw was an Apple. I played Oregon Trail and some other game that I can't remember. I didn't get into computers until I about 2 years ago, which as soon as I got into comupters I got into programming. Anyways I have learned more and more every day.

First computer was a commodore amiga (whenever those came out) played around with the BASIC on that, which was actually pretty cool for its time, but didnt get really interested in anything until school at eleven when i found how gullible people could be ("Hey Alex, before you save that document:holding ctrl-alt and pressing DELETE!DELETE!DELETE! gets you this really cool game...") and figured out QB which was on the machines, and started sharing programs across the network. Id bury the code somewhere public and give people batch files which were basically shortcuts to the code; so whenever i felt like it i could put in a few extra lines that shares all their files or smth...
When i figured i was having to bury ASM into my programs to get the power i needed, i moved on to c++
kind of dropped coding for a bit until we got dsl, and am trying to motivate myself again

Also, i think the best way by far to learn technical stuff is through a decent book. I find this so much quicker than online tutorials or documentaion; i find i think best (least destractedly ) when away from computer. trying everything out as soon as you read it is fun, but you end up making 101 variations of "hello world" in your chosen language.
out of interest, how many ppl here plan coding projects on paper before working on them?

You got the point Yjo!
I totally agree with you. When I'm in front of my box, I simpyl can't keep away of the keyboard - so I try one bad idea after the other and it lollipops up my precious time...That got totally frustrating for me. Every project I started died some weeks later, because of bad planning and lack of knowledge. So, for my current project I sat down and made a wrote down some pages of notes (yes, handwritten(!)), planned the Object model and the overall structure of the program. And I read a lot. I found out, that it is much better to read on the next two chapters than to start coding at once. Every simply get clearer then.

Concluding I can say, that the hours of planning and preperation safe you about ten times (or more) time of skipping bad ideas and struggling with a badly structured program design. It will also keep you motivated, because if you have a plan and you learned about your topic then you are always able to estimate how long each step will take and how far the next version of your program is away.

I will never ever start a project without planning again! [addsig]

born 1986, saw first pc when i was ~4. it was/is the 80286 i've got now
started batch when i was ~9/10 and started with (turbo) basic 1.0 when i was ~12. after 3 or 4 weeks i started with QuickBasic 4.0.
when i was 12-13 i started C/C++ and then went back to basic. after a while i returned a bit to C/C++ and tried some assembler things. I began with (Turbo) Pascal somewhere in 2000 when i was 14. I returned using assembler when i was 14, somewhere in 2000/2001. I made my first operating system in 2001, without name of course it was more a test. after 2/3 weeks learning assembler I bought a book with interrupt numbers, memory locations and other stuff. i used the book and made my own VESA lib for Pascal and C/C++ using assembler, I made a operating system with vesa support too [addsig]

UPDATE: (like you all want to hear it ) This year alone, I have learned ASP, JScript, CSS, PHP\MySQL, and am much better with C\C++, I'm not fluent but close enough for my liking. [addsig]

First PC was a Commiedore 64 with a busted monitor. Next I got a little toy laptop that could to BASIC on a 20x4 screen. Then I got a 486DX with QBASIC on it. Woohoo! Graphics! Then I got my current box - a 1.4GHz Athlon, and put DJGPP on it. Runnin' rh linux 6 and "windozz z Z Ze" xp '03 on it. Self taught c programmer who learned out of library books and INFO!

I program in vim. Get over it.

Mmmmm.... Library books [addsig]

I've been programming since 9 or 10, and I think I created my first playable game when I was 10.

History Of My (Computer Life).

Born - 1987
Saw First Computer - 1993.
Saw Windows '95, didn't like it -1995.
Got first computer - 1996
Got second computer - 2000
Started HTML + JavaScript - 13
Started Java - 14
Explored some other imperative languages - 15
Had first class in School in programming (We're doing Pascal ) - 19th September 2003.

Our teacher made a serious error of judgement and broke an ancient programming tradition. The "hello, world!" program didn't say "Hello, world!". It said "Today is Tuesday" (When today was Friday).

I've seen a lot of books recently that essentially say " 'Hello, world' is a load of crud! Let's do something else" [addsig]

I side with dx! [addsig]