Author Topic: Users of Geekhack, how and why did you start programming?  (Read 5339 times)

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Offline Kraksx

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Users of Geekhack, how and why did you start programming?
« on: Tue, 26 August 2014, 16:50:39 »
I just started my senior year of high school and in the last couple years my interest in computers has skyrocketed to the point where I really want to learn how to program and learn as much about computers as I can. Though the little time I have spent on this site I've learned that many of its members are programmers/coders or something of the like so I figured this would be a good place to ask the question...

How and why did you start programming?

The more I learn about code the more confused I get. What language to learn? Do I want to make webpages or programs or mobile apps? Where do I even start once I've figured out the answers to those questions.

So I figured I would start here by asking the people of Geekhack about their stories. What made you start?

I know I'm asking a lot but any help would be appreciated. Thank you very much.

Poker II

Offline Hundrakia

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Re: Users of Geekhack, how and why did you start programming?
« Reply #1 on: Tue, 26 August 2014, 17:27:27 »
So like most, my journey started with programming my TI-83 calculator.
Hey, don't laugh! I was able to store cheat notes in unused strings, IIRC.
After that my interest weaned, I dabbled for the longest time with whatever
there was available. I was quickly able to relearn everything in the Python
based CS 101 course in Udacity, I'm not sure where it is at as a program now,
since this was two years ago. I'd recommend it, though.

The languages used are really secondary to understanding and learning,
Hell, or the initial bit; and endless fun, I'll strongly suggest scratch.mit.edu.
Don't write this off as juvenile, it's powerful enough that you can bring any
concept to life that you can imagine, while very surreptitiously  showing you
exactly how coding works. It's great, so was the Udacity course.

Offline rowdy

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Re: Users of Geekhack, how and why did you start programming?
« Reply #2 on: Tue, 26 August 2014, 17:32:11 »
I started in early high school.  My maths teacher brought his computer in to the class and taught us some basic programming (actually, thinking about it I don't know if he was supposed to do that).  It was fun and easy.  A year later I had saved enough to buy my own computer.  The school increased the number of their computers.  We founded the school's computer club and taught programming to other interested students.  Haven't looked back since.
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Offline noisyturtle

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Re: Users of Geekhack, how and why did you start programming?
« Reply #3 on: Tue, 26 August 2014, 17:34:43 »
I started because CS courses were a requirement for my degree, but hopefully I never have to do it again.

Offline Puddsy

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Re: Users of Geekhack, how and why did you start programming?
« Reply #4 on: Tue, 26 August 2014, 17:51:48 »
I watched the matrix, and was talking to one of my friends about it.

"Dude, you know that if you learn to program, I bet you can make the matrix REAL"

It was a joke at the time, but I took it literally and learned bits of terminal code. Terminal turned into Eclipse, and now I'm just waiting on where to go next.
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Offline RabRhee

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Re: Users of Geekhack, how and why did you start programming?
« Reply #5 on: Tue, 26 August 2014, 17:58:37 »
I was lucky, in about 1980 my father had an option to hire another member of staff for his small (6 people) electrical design company, or buy a computer. He bought the computer. It was a Hewlett Packard HP-85 using Basic as an operating system. I started programming on that at age 8, and then on the others we bought after he convinced the main customer to start using them too. In 1984 or so we got our first IBM PC, an XT that sucked compared to the HP, but we persevered with it.

After we added PLC (factory machine) control to the electrical design, I quit school at 14 to code full time, DBase 3, VBasic scada systems and PLC program, which is similiar enough in some ways to Assembler that I moved to some PC assembler stuff. After that, its all the same regardless of language or machine, just get the book to learn the nuances.

I was lucky because by about 1992 everyone wanted coders but there were few about with over 10 years experience, so wages were high. These days I quit coding, burned out on it. Instead of cut holes in brass :)

A good knowledge of coding is a definite asset even in this world overpopulated by computer geeks. Get a language down solid and you should find learning another is pretty easy. I would say learning something to a high depth, and having continual reasons to learn is more important than which language. The thing I saw that kills people learning to code is them sitting in front of a computer with no reason to write something. Whatever interests you, make sure you have the drive and enjoyment to make whatever it is (programs, apps, websites, etc) to as high a standard as possible. Like CodyEatsWorld, I look at his work and see a guy that pushes himself to make what he produces as sharp as possible. Have a reason to code every day and you can't help but get good in time.

You can focus on visual stuff, file and data handling, maths stuff, core or operating system stuff, networking, hardware device control, Object oriented stuff, or a bucket of other areas, but a good working knowledge of all those things will help immensely. Once you know the core to a good level, there isn't an incredible difference between running database queries for oil rig design, running telemetry systems for formula 1 teams, controlling robots to make car engines, making pet food, writing quests for MMOs, or making animated graphics. (yes I did all these things at some point :))

Good luck with it :)
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Offline Kraksx

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Re: Users of Geekhack, how and why did you start programming?
« Reply #6 on: Tue, 26 August 2014, 18:07:10 »
I was lucky, in about 1980 my father had an option to hire another member of staff for his small (6 people) electrical design company, or buy a computer. He bought the computer. It was a Hewlett Packard HP-85 using Basic as an operating system. I started programming on that at age 8, and then on the others we bought after he convinced the main customer to start using them too. In 1984 or so we got our first IBM PC, an XT that sucked compared to the HP, but we persevered with it.

After we added PLC (factory machine) control to the electrical design, I quit school at 14 to code full time, DBase 3, VBasic scada systems and PLC program, which is similiar enough in some ways to Assembler that I moved to some PC assembler stuff. After that, its all the same regardless of language or machine, just get the book to learn the nuances.

I was lucky because by about 1992 everyone wanted coders but there were few about with over 10 years experience, so wages were high. These days I quit coding, burned out on it. Instead of cut holes in brass :)

A good knowledge of coding is a definite asset even in this world overpopulated by computer geeks. Get a language down solid and you should find learning another is pretty easy. I would say learning something to a high depth, and having continual reasons to learn is more important than which language. The thing I saw that kills people learning to code is them sitting in front of a computer with no reason to write something. Whatever interests you, make sure you have the drive and enjoyment to make whatever it is (programs, apps, websites, etc) to as high a standard as possible. Like CodyEatsWorld, I look at his work and see a guy that pushes himself to make what he produces as sharp as possible. Have a reason to code every day and you can't help but get good in time.

You can focus on visual stuff, file and data handling, maths stuff, core or operating system stuff, networking, hardware device control, Object oriented stuff, or a bucket of other areas, but a good working knowledge of all those things will help immensely. Once you know the core to a good level, there isn't an incredible difference between running database queries for oil rig design, running telemetry systems for formula 1 teams, controlling robots to make car engines, making pet food, writing quests for MMOs, or making animated graphics. (yes I did all these things at some point :))

Good luck with it :)

I think maybe that is my problem, whenever I sit at my computer and think of stuff I would like to create I just draw a blank. I feel like I'm missing a creative spark

Poker II

Offline Smasher816

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Re: Users of Geekhack, how and why did you start programming?
« Reply #7 on: Tue, 26 August 2014, 18:08:32 »
I started sometime around age 12 - 6 years ago back in 7th grade. All self taught as a hobby.

I played the game Battlefield 2, and got into the "BF2 sandbox" mod. Started with skinning, then game file edits (ammo, speed, etc), but eventually I moved on to actual plugins (which were all python). I didn't know anything and learned from talking to others. I still remember asking someone on Xfire what "!=" meant.

My mom got me a python game programming book for christmas and I made pong, astroids, and stuff like that. Then I moved onto stand alone programs, and dabbled in C. Moving into high school I found java which I really enjoyed and ended up making a few hundred dollars with an app my sophmore year. Hung out in IRC and learned how to rebuild kernels, which lead me to running Linux in a VM. Then I wanted to compile android from source but it was slow and I switched to dual booting. Now I have been running linux (Arch Linux) for a few years as my main OS. I'v contributed stuff to Cyanogenmod and other android roms, helped build a dual boot kernel, etc. In this time I have had countless little abandoned projects that I started for fun but then dropped to move onto something else. I even messed with z80 asm to try building a native app (not a TI-Basic program) for my school TI-84 calculator .

This summer before I start college I have been working with a small dude's startup (just him, me, and a friend + some marketing relationships). Picked up PHP and in the first day or two and have been working on stuff since then - it also involves MySQL and javascript. I'll be skipping the first few programming courses when I start my comp sci education and already have stuff for my resume. Hope things work out well as time goes on.

"Learning" PHP or another new language isn't difficult for me. Once you get all the concepts - scope, functions, flow control, OOP (inheritance, interfaces, ...), etc then it's just syntax  , the built in classes/functions (which is all online), and some random language specifics. Stackoverflow helps :P
« Last Edit: Tue, 26 August 2014, 18:14:36 by Smasher816 »

Offline cruzin

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Re: Users of Geekhack, how and why did you start programming?
« Reply #8 on: Tue, 26 August 2014, 18:30:54 »
I remember dabbling with basic when I was in elementary school back in the 80s. I really started almost 19 years ago making Web sites with simple HTML, back when the Web was just starting to get big. As different things became more prominent in Web development I learned them: CSS, JavaScript, MySQL, Perl, PHP, etc.

I taught myself with all of them by looking at examples, reading books/docs and coding all kinds of things. I didn't worry about getting the code flawless at first, just coding and making it work. As I learned proper techniques and processes my code improved. That part is an on-going process and always will be.
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Offline RabRhee

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Re: Users of Geekhack, how and why did you start programming?
« Reply #9 on: Tue, 26 August 2014, 18:34:53 »
I think maybe that is my problem, whenever I sit at my computer and think of stuff I would like to create I just draw a blank. I feel like I'm missing a creative spark

I would think there is something for most people somewhere in coding, especially with your interests in computers overall. Its a bit like learning to play an instrument. I know people that failed to get into playing because they just sat learning chords or taking lessons to play pieces of music they wouldn't play even on a hi fi if they had the choice. But teach them how to play 2 minutes of Pink Floyd's Money and they have the reassurance that its something they want to do. (yes, I know these days noone wants to play Floyd, im old :P) Of course once they have 10 songs down, then they want to learn chords or take lessons. But at least by then they got hooked.

I used to do stupid stuff like write visual basic versions of old screen savers, just to work out how the maths and drawing worked. Or emulate menu screens of popular programs (this advanced into writing trojan horse programs to steal passwords. man that was a near arrest :D ) Sometimes I knew guys who would try and do impossible things like try and get their PC to play decathlon on the playstation for them (top L1/R1 switches on a Playstation 1 were volt-free contacts, which allowed some obscure coding ideas). Some of the early programs I wrote were rubbish to guess a number, or draw a house. It sounds crap now but it was just to make a computer achieve something. Once I got my version of Mystify screensaver done, I put function key controls to swap them from squares to many-sided shapes, then I tried to get 20 going at once to see just how much crap my PC could do at the time.

It helps if you have a need for a program that doesn't quite exist (harder now that everything has 200 free apps for). Perhaps you like overclocking hardware and find fan controller software is all a bit generic or just plain crap to use. Or maybe an MP3 tagging program sucks because you can't get it to tag all your music in the format your car can read. Find a task you might use a standard program for and think how you could maybe write a version that works more for you. Or even write some app that makes farting sounds. Hell, if you have a favourite app, try rewriting it with your own colour scheme, or to con your mates when they try use it. I would suggest thinking of a usable thing you might want, rather than programming for its own sake.
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Offline Kraksx

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Re: Users of Geekhack, how and why did you start programming?
« Reply #10 on: Tue, 26 August 2014, 18:46:45 »
I think maybe that is my problem, whenever I sit at my computer and think of stuff I would like to create I just draw a blank. I feel like I'm missing a creative spark

I would think there is something for most people somewhere in coding, especially with your interests in computers overall. Its a bit like learning to play an instrument. I know people that failed to get into playing because they just sat learning chords or taking lessons to play pieces of music they wouldn't play even on a hi fi if they had the choice. But teach them how to play 2 minutes of Pink Floyd's Money and they have the reassurance that its something they want to do. (yes, I know these days noone wants to play Floyd, im old :P) Of course once they have 10 songs down, then they want to learn chords or take lessons. But at least by then they got hooked.

I used to do stupid stuff like write visual basic versions of old screen savers, just to work out how the maths and drawing worked. Or emulate menu screens of popular programs (this advanced into writing trojan horse programs to steal passwords. man that was a near arrest :D ) Sometimes I knew guys who would try and do impossible things like try and get their PC to play decathlon on the playstation for them (top L1/R1 switches on a Playstation 1 were volt-free contacts, which allowed some obscure coding ideas). Some of the early programs I wrote were rubbish to guess a number, or draw a house. It sounds crap now but it was just to make a computer achieve something. Once I got my version of Mystify screensaver done, I put function key controls to swap them from squares to many-sided shapes, then I tried to get 20 going at once to see just how much crap my PC could do at the time.

It helps if you have a need for a program that doesn't quite exist (harder now that everything has 200 free apps for). Perhaps you like overclocking hardware and find fan controller software is all a bit generic or just plain crap to use. Or maybe an MP3 tagging program sucks because you can't get it to tag all your music in the format your car can read. Find a task you might use a standard program for and think how you could maybe write a version that works more for you. Or even write some app that makes farting sounds. Hell, if you have a favourite app, try rewriting it with your own colour scheme, or to con your mates when they try use it. I would suggest thinking of a usable thing you might want, rather than programming for its own sake.

Thank you, this is really great advice. I suppose I have to think of something to mess with and stick with it

Poker II

Offline Kraksx

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Re: Users of Geekhack, how and why did you start programming?
« Reply #11 on: Tue, 26 August 2014, 18:48:44 »
I started sometime around age 12 - 6 years ago back in 7th grade. All self taught as a hobby.

I played the game Battlefield 2, and got into the "BF2 sandbox" mod. Started with skinning, then game file edits (ammo, speed, etc), but eventually I moved on to actual plugins (which were all python). I didn't know anything and learned from talking to others. I still remember asking someone on Xfire what "!=" meant.

My mom got me a python game programming book for christmas and I made pong, astroids, and stuff like that. Then I moved onto stand alone programs, and dabbled in C. Moving into high school I found java which I really enjoyed and ended up making a few hundred dollars with an app my sophmore year. Hung out in IRC and learned how to rebuild kernels, which lead me to running Linux in a VM. Then I wanted to compile android from source but it was slow and I switched to dual booting. Now I have been running linux (Arch Linux) for a few years as my main OS. I'v contributed stuff to Cyanogenmod and other android roms, helped build a dual boot kernel, etc. In this time I have had countless little abandoned projects that I started for fun but then dropped to move onto something else. I even messed with z80 asm to try building a native app (not a TI-Basic program) for my school TI-84 calculator .

This summer before I start college I have been working with a small dude's startup (just him, me, and a friend + some marketing relationships). Picked up PHP and in the first day or two and have been working on stuff since then - it also involves MySQL and javascript. I'll be skipping the first few programming courses when I start my comp sci education and already have stuff for my resume. Hope things work out well as time goes on.

"Learning" PHP or another new language isn't difficult for me. Once you get all the concepts - scope, functions, flow control, OOP (inheritance, interfaces, ...), etc then it's just syntax  , the built in classes/functions (which is all online), and some random language specifics. Stackoverflow helps :P

Speaking of Arch I dual booted that on my computer for quite a while and that's how I learned most of the linux I know. Eventually I broke it and couldn't manage to fix it and since then I haven't gone back to it. Maybe I should get Arch running on this computer again and brush up on my linux terminal.

Poker II

Offline Puddsy

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Re: Users of Geekhack, how and why did you start programming?
« Reply #12 on: Tue, 26 August 2014, 18:50:40 »
i just think "what is the most useless thing i could possible make"

and thus, the letter reshuffler was born

comedic value > usefulness
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Offline divito

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Re: Users of Geekhack, how and why did you start programming?
« Reply #13 on: Tue, 26 August 2014, 23:05:59 »
I think maybe that is my problem, whenever I sit at my computer and think of stuff I would like to create I just draw a blank. I feel like I'm missing a creative spark

This is precisely my issue; I have no personal glaring need to solve a problem by coding something. Kind of need a specific push or request to get me going.
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Offline smknjoe

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Re: Users of Geekhack, how and why did you start programming?
« Reply #14 on: Tue, 26 August 2014, 23:21:58 »
I learned to program in Basic on Commodore Vic-20 when I was 6...because you had to know how to program (not code. Code is the result of programming. It's not a verb.) to use any PC back then. I then moved on to C, C++, Visual Basic, and more recently Python.

Get a RaspberryPi if you want to learn to program. In fact give them to as many inquisitive children as you can. They are cheap and designed for that purpose.
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Offline Hundrakia

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Re: Users of Geekhack, how and why did you start programming?
« Reply #15 on: Tue, 26 August 2014, 23:24:08 »
I think maybe that is my problem, whenever I sit at my computer and think of stuff I would like to create I just draw a blank. I feel like I'm missing a creative spark

This is precisely my issue; I have no personal glaring need to solve a problem by coding something. Kind of need a specific push or request to get me going.

That's where little game projects come in to play :D
For me anyways, I tend to dream up silly Android app ideas.
But yes, definitely you need to have your heart in to making
something, your retention for how things work and general
understanding of the underlying bits feels really accelerated.

Offline iri

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Re: Users of Geekhack, how and why did you start programming?
« Reply #16 on: Wed, 27 August 2014, 03:46:55 »
i started in 1991, using BASIC on a ZX Spectrum computer.
cannot stop ever since.
(...)Whereas back then I wrote about the tyranny of the majority, today I'd combine that with the tyranny of the minorities. These days, you have to be careful of both. They both want to control you. The first group, by making you do the same thing over and over again. The second group is indicated by the letters I get from the Vassar girls who want me to put more women's lib in The Martian Chronicles, or from blacks who want more black people in Dandelion Wine.
I say to both bunches, Whether you're a majority or minority, bug off! To hell with anybody who wants to tell me what to write. Their society breaks down into subsections of minorities who then, in effect, burn books by banning them. All this political correctness that's rampant on campuses is b.s.

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Offline Smasher816

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Re: Users of Geekhack, how and why did you start programming?
« Reply #17 on: Wed, 27 August 2014, 09:25:52 »
I used to do stupid stuff like write visual basic versions of old screen savers, just to work out how the maths and drawing worked. Or emulate menu screens of popular programs (this advanced into writing trojan horse programs to steal passwords. man that was a near arrest :D ) Sometimes I knew guys who would try and do impossible things like try and get their PC to play decathlon on the playstation for them (top L1/R1 switches on a Playstation 1 were volt-free contacts, which allowed some obscure coding ideas). Some of the early programs I wrote were rubbish to guess a number, or draw a house. It sounds crap now but it was just to make a computer achieve something. Once I got my version of Mystify screensaver done, I put function key controls to swap them from squares to many-sided shapes, then I tried to get 20 going at once to see just how much crap my PC could do at the time.

That sounds a lot like me.

I think maybe that is my problem, whenever I sit at my computer and think of stuff I would like to create I just draw a blank. I feel like I'm missing a creative spark

This is precisely my issue; I have no personal glaring need to solve a problem by coding something. Kind of need a specific push or request to get me going.

Sometimes I will just work on stupid random stuff - ex: others have mentioned letter shuffler, card games, reproducing programs, etc. Right now I am working on recreating an old 16bit dos program but with C (since I'm still not super comfortable with pointers) and with a modern graphics library. If I wanted to the simple terminal thing could be a full blown game with shaders and everything.

Personally I find a lot of satisfaction with programming and critical thinking in general. It's really satisfying to finally fix that bug or get that feature working. Sometimes it is hard to have the whole picture in mind but if you start then you sometimes think of little things to add as you go. I have the problem of never saying it is done - there is always something else I can do. My advice is just to work on anything, anything at all, even if it seems silly.

Speaking of Arch I dual booted that on my computer for quite a while and that's how I learned most of the linux I know. Eventually I broke it and couldn't manage to fix it and since then I haven't gone back to it. Maybe I should get Arch running on this computer again and brush up on my linux terminal.

Go for it. NB: There is no more GUI installer, just boot the dvd/flashdrive and you are at a command prompt - format the drive, bootstrap it, chroot and install stuff + edit config files, and your done. The beginners guide is huge and intimidating - but it covers everything, and half of it probably won't be applicable. If your comfortable with linux you might look at the advanced guide since it skips all the fluff and just tells you what you need to get done.

I have to say, the arch wiki is a godsend of a resource. Even when working with other distros I still go there for documentation on some things. Because behind  the package manager and default packages - they all really have the same core stuff. The forum can also be helpful but I have never really had to use it myself. Good luck with your journey and hopefully you don't hit another brick wall where everything breaks. Google is your friend - if you have had the problem, someone else probably has too.

Offline davkol

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Re: Users of Geekhack, how and why did you start programming?
« Reply #18 on: Wed, 27 August 2014, 14:30:10 »
I had to take a class on computers (primary school) and somehow ended up in the advanced group that learned some Pascal basics and simple turtle graphics. Around that time, I started to make websites and eventually progressed to DHTML (aka JavaScript) and PHP, because it was cool to have your own website, y'know… before Facebook became popular. Also, I played a bit with Game Maker or something like that and made a text adventure (I loved creating my own pen'n'paper RPG and strategic games at the time).

I fell in love with Python (because KISS) a few years later and then had to take Lisp and C as a CS major.

Offline Oobly

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Re: Users of Geekhack, how and why did you start programming?
« Reply #19 on: Thu, 28 August 2014, 06:02:40 »
My dad bought an Apple IIc and I wanted to make it do stuff. So I learnt to draw with Apple Logo II and Turtle Graphics. It was a great intro to programming and is actually a far more full-featured language than I realised at the time.

Then I progressed to Applesoft Basic, then a little 6502 assembly language, then Pascal and 8086 assembler, C, OpenGL, C++ and other modern frameworks and languages (Java, C#, etc).

I used to do a lot more little hobby projects and games before I started programming for work. Now I hardly ever code for fun and it kind of sucks. I tend to have too many other hobbies to fit in the kind of coding I'd want to do nowadays, so... Maybe when I don't do coding any more for work I'll get back to having fun with it. My primary interest nowadays is still graphics related. I've always been fascinated with creating images with code. It really feels like you're creating something from your imagination and I'm fascinated by how the final image is influenced by the constraints of the language used, the API version, etc. I'm a very visual person, I guess.
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Offline vyshane

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Re: Users of Geekhack, how and why did you start programming?
« Reply #20 on: Thu, 28 August 2014, 08:57:54 »
I learned BASIC on a 286 when I was around 13 years old, mostly out of boredom because the computer was too old to play the latest games of the time. I didn't have a book or reference. I read the Gorillas.bas source and muddled around with limited success. I managed to learn about loops and conditionals, but didn't grok GOSUB. I was mainly drawing stuff on the screen, did some simple animations and fractals.

Like others have said, it's easiest to learn programming by doing. You can't learn it simply by reading a book from cover to cover. A good first language would have a REPL and an interactive environment like Scala's worksheets or Swift's playgrounds. I think that Swift will make a great first language to learn once some beginner level books are published about it.

Offline Hundrakia

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Re: Users of Geekhack, how and why did you start programming?
« Reply #21 on: Thu, 28 August 2014, 11:23:06 »
My dad bought an Apple IIc and I wanted to make it do stuff. So I learnt to draw with Apple Logo II and Turtle Graphics. It was a great intro to programming and is actually a far more full-featured language than I realised at the time.

Then I progressed to Applesoft Basic, then a little 6502 assembly language, then Pascal and 8086 assembler, C, OpenGL, C++ and other modern frameworks and languages (Java, C#, etc).

I used to do a lot more little hobby projects and games before I started programming for work. Now I hardly ever code for fun and it kind of sucks. I tend to have too many other hobbies to fit in the kind of coding I'd want to do nowadays, so... Maybe when I don't do coding any more for work I'll get back to having fun with it. My primary interest nowadays is still graphics related. I've always been fascinated with creating images with code. It really feels like you're creating something from your imagination and I'm fascinated by how the final image is influenced by the constraints of the language used, the API version, etc. I'm a very visual person, I guess.
Svg makes you happy?

Offline pr0ximity

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Re: Users of Geekhack, how and why did you start programming?
« Reply #22 on: Thu, 28 August 2014, 16:49:39 »
Thank you, this is really great advice. I suppose I have to think of something to mess with and stick with it

That's exactly the best advice I could give you. Don't worry about what language you pick or what framework you start with or whatever, because it truly doesn't matter, and you'll never get started because there isn't an answer for "what is the best language for ___?" Pick something that lets you create something that interests you, and dive head first. I think the easiest way to be successful in learning to program is having a goal you can work towards. Create a website, a frogger clone, draw some patterns or fractals, or something else that interests you. Then start as small as you can and work your way up.

Also, take a free online course on coursera, udacity, or edx. You've got nothing to lose and it will give you a good starting point to do the above.
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Offline hashbaz

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Re: Users of Geekhack, how and why did you start programming?
« Reply #23 on: Thu, 28 August 2014, 16:59:03 »
I started in middle school with programming books from the library and good ol' QBASIC.EXE.  Programming was a really natural extension of my insatiable interest in computers at that age, and I ended up making a few simple textmode games before graduating to C and the Allegro game library in high school.  Great times.

If you want to make software development a career, I absolutely recommend studying it formally -- but for diving in and seeing if it's a good fit for you, I agree with others here that the best approach is to find a project that interests you and just figure out how to do it.  Don't worry about languages or technology, just do something you're interested in.  There are tons of resources online to help you.  Phone apps are probably a great entry point.

Offline davkol

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Re: Users of Geekhack, how and why did you start programming?
« Reply #24 on: Thu, 28 August 2014, 17:11:09 »
inb4 the usual flamewar about the brain damage caused by Basic, Pascal, PHP, Java or nearly any other particular programming language. ^_^

There's something about it though. I spent too much time frustrated looking for missing/extra dots or semicolons in my Pascal code.

Offline pr0ximity

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Re: Users of Geekhack, how and why did you start programming?
« Reply #25 on: Thu, 28 August 2014, 18:08:10 »
inb4 the usual flamewar about the brain damage caused by Basic, Pascal, PHP, Java or nearly any other particular programming language. ^_^

There's something about it though. I spent too much time frustrated looking for missing/extra dots or semicolons in my Pascal code.

I learned in Scheme, for me it was parens. I'm so goddamned good at matching up parentheses now, it's come in pretty handy.
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Offline Smasher816

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Re: Users of Geekhack, how and why did you start programming?
« Reply #26 on: Thu, 28 August 2014, 18:13:44 »
inb4 the usual flamewar about the brain damage caused by Basic, Pascal, PHP, Java or nearly any other particular programming language. ^_^

There's something about it though. I spent too much time frustrated looking for missing/extra dots or semicolons in my Pascal code.

I learned in Scheme, for me it was parens. I'm so goddamned good at matching up parentheses now, it's come in pretty handy.

And that is why any modern text editor will highlight the matching paren for you. No more guessing games.

Offline davkol

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Re: Users of Geekhack, how and why did you start programming?
« Reply #27 on: Thu, 28 August 2014, 18:30:36 »
inb4 the usual flamewar about the brain damage caused by Basic, Pascal, PHP, Java or nearly any other particular programming language. ^_^

There's something about it though. I spent too much time frustrated looking for missing/extra dots or semicolons in my Pascal code.

I learned in Scheme, for me it was parens. I'm so goddamned good at matching up parentheses now, it's come in pretty handy.
That actually isn't that much of a problem IMHO, because Scheme syntax is super simple. When I learned it, I basically embedded its REPL in my head. Also, code is usually very modular (short procedures). Advanced editors have been around for quite a while anyway… unless you code on the whiteboard like I sometimes do.

Offline pr0ximity

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Re: Users of Geekhack, how and why did you start programming?
« Reply #28 on: Thu, 28 August 2014, 20:33:44 »
All fair points. I'll take my paren-counting skills to the grave.
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Offline Oobly

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Re: Users of Geekhack, how and why did you start programming?
« Reply #29 on: Fri, 29 August 2014, 03:32:35 »
inb4 the usual flamewar about the brain damage caused by Basic, Pascal, PHP, Java or nearly any other particular programming language. ^_^

There's something about it though. I spent too much time frustrated looking for missing/extra dots or semicolons in my Pascal code.

I learned in Scheme, for me it was parens. I'm so goddamned good at matching up parentheses now, it's come in pretty handy.

And that is why any modern text editor will highlight the matching paren for you. No more guessing games.

And before we had these or if you're using one that doesn't, good layout practices make it trivial. Such as always putting an open brace on a new line, using proper indentation and ending any statement with a ";" when you create it. It's not hard. A good IDE or compiler will let you know these kind of things easily, too.

My dad bought an Apple IIc and I wanted to make it do stuff. So I learnt to draw with Apple Logo II and Turtle Graphics. It was a great intro to programming and is actually a far more full-featured language than I realised at the time.

Then I progressed to Applesoft Basic, then a little 6502 assembly language, then Pascal and 8086 assembler, C, OpenGL, C++ and other modern frameworks and languages (Java, C#, etc).

I used to do a lot more little hobby projects and games before I started programming for work. Now I hardly ever code for fun and it kind of sucks. I tend to have too many other hobbies to fit in the kind of coding I'd want to do nowadays, so... Maybe when I don't do coding any more for work I'll get back to having fun with it. My primary interest nowadays is still graphics related. I've always been fascinated with creating images with code. It really feels like you're creating something from your imagination and I'm fascinated by how the final image is influenced by the constraints of the language used, the API version, etc. I'm a very visual person, I guess.
Svg makes you happy?

Um... it depends. I prefer raster for 2D, easier to render. Unless I'm working in OpenGL, then converting SVG to polygons is nice for scaling.
Buying more keycaps,
it really hacks my wallet,
but I must have them.

Offline Hundrakia

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Re: Users of Geekhack, how and why did you start programming?
« Reply #30 on: Fri, 29 August 2014, 03:46:30 »
inb4 the usual flamewar about the brain damage caused by Basic, Pascal, PHP, Java or nearly any other particular programming language. ^_^

There's something about it though. I spent too much time frustrated looking for missing/extra dots or semicolons in my Pascal code.

I learned in Scheme, for me it was parens. I'm so goddamned good at matching up parentheses now, it's come in pretty handy.

And that is why any modern text editor will highlight the matching paren for you. No more guessing games.

And before we had these or if you're using one that doesn't, good layout practices make it trivial. Such as always putting an open brace on a new line, using proper indentation and ending any statement with a ";" when you create it. It's not hard. A good IDE or compiler will let you know these kind of things easily, too.

My dad bought an Apple IIc and I wanted to make it do stuff. So I learnt to draw with Apple Logo II and Turtle Graphics. It was a great intro to programming and is actually a far more full-featured language than I realised at the time.

Then I progressed to Applesoft Basic, then a little 6502 assembly language, then Pascal and 8086 assembler, C, OpenGL, C++ and other modern frameworks and languages (Java, C#, etc).

I used to do a lot more little hobby projects and games before I started programming for work. Now I hardly ever code for fun and it kind of sucks. I tend to have too many other hobbies to fit in the kind of coding I'd want to do nowadays, so... Maybe when I don't do coding any more for work I'll get back to having fun with it. My primary interest nowadays is still graphics related. I've always been fascinated with creating images with code. It really feels like you're creating something from your imagination and I'm fascinated by how the final image is influenced by the constraints of the language used, the API version, etc. I'm a very visual person, I guess.
Svg makes you happy?

Um... it depends. I prefer raster for 2D, easier to render. Unless I'm working in OpenGL, then converting SVG to polygons is nice for scaling.
I secretly want your dual keypads. You must feel like a ninja with those things.

I fell in love when I read the documentation for svg, but I will have to look in to raster.

Offline iri

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Re: Users of Geekhack, how and why did you start programming?
« Reply #31 on: Fri, 29 August 2014, 05:42:05 »
inb4 the usual flamewar about the brain damage caused by Basic, Pascal, PHP, Java or nearly any other particular programming language. ^_^

There's something about it though. I spent too much time frustrated looking for missing/extra dots or semicolons in my Pascal code.

I learned in Scheme, for me it was parens. I'm so goddamned good at matching up parentheses now, it's come in pretty handy.
21st century offers you rainbow parentheses



and color-box

(...)Whereas back then I wrote about the tyranny of the majority, today I'd combine that with the tyranny of the minorities. These days, you have to be careful of both. They both want to control you. The first group, by making you do the same thing over and over again. The second group is indicated by the letters I get from the Vassar girls who want me to put more women's lib in The Martian Chronicles, or from blacks who want more black people in Dandelion Wine.
I say to both bunches, Whether you're a majority or minority, bug off! To hell with anybody who wants to tell me what to write. Their society breaks down into subsections of minorities who then, in effect, burn books by banning them. All this political correctness that's rampant on campuses is b.s.

-Ray Bradbury

Offline rowdy

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Re: Users of Geekhack, how and why did you start programming?
« Reply #32 on: Fri, 29 August 2014, 05:57:13 »
inb4 the usual flamewar about the brain damage caused by Basic, Pascal, PHP, Java or nearly any other particular programming language. ^_^

There's something about it though. I spent too much time frustrated looking for missing/extra dots or semicolons in my Pascal code.

I learned in Scheme, for me it was parens. I'm so goddamned good at matching up parentheses now, it's come in pretty handy.
21st century offers you rainbow parentheses

Show Image


and color-box

Show Image


The rainbows are pretty, but the boxes would distract me.

I've used editors that flash the cursor back to the open parenthesis when I type the close parenthesis, only for like 1/4 second, but it is enough to distract and disorient me, because the cursor is not where it is supposed to be i.e. immediately after the character I just typed.

I no longer use such editors.
"Because keyboards are accessories to PC makers, they focus on minimizing the manufacturing costs. But that’s incorrect. It’s in HHKB’s slogan, but when America’s cowboys were in the middle of a trip and their horse died, they would leave the horse there. But even if they were in the middle of a desert, they would take their saddle with them. The horse was a consumable good, but the saddle was an interface that their bodies had gotten used to. In the same vein, PCs are consumable goods, while keyboards are important interfaces." - Eiiti Wada

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Offline iri

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Re: Users of Geekhack, how and why did you start programming?
« Reply #33 on: Fri, 29 August 2014, 06:12:48 »
well... i have to use the erlang shell.
(...)Whereas back then I wrote about the tyranny of the majority, today I'd combine that with the tyranny of the minorities. These days, you have to be careful of both. They both want to control you. The first group, by making you do the same thing over and over again. The second group is indicated by the letters I get from the Vassar girls who want me to put more women's lib in The Martian Chronicles, or from blacks who want more black people in Dandelion Wine.
I say to both bunches, Whether you're a majority or minority, bug off! To hell with anybody who wants to tell me what to write. Their society breaks down into subsections of minorities who then, in effect, burn books by banning them. All this political correctness that's rampant on campuses is b.s.

-Ray Bradbury

Offline TacticalCoder

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Re: Users of Geekhack, how and why did you start programming?
« Reply #34 on: Sat, 30 August 2014, 08:48:44 »
The rainbows are pretty, but the boxes would distract me.

I've used editors that flash the cursor back to the open parenthesis when I type the close parenthesis, only for like 1/4 second, but it is enough to distract and disorient me, because the cursor is not where it is supposed to be i.e. immediately after the character I just typed.

I no longer use such editors.

I do not like editors configured so that the cursor seems to "move" to another location: this is distracting indeed.

So I set up mine so that the "real" cursor is always obvious (say by being green fluo as in the screenshot) and that the sexp before the cursor is "enclosed" between matching characters (looking like the cursor in the screenshot below, but using less dominant colors and being, hence, less distracting).

Reusing iri's Clojure example (I should really move to the solarized or zenburn color scheme one of these days):



I'm mostly using Emacs (and sometimes IntelliJ IDEA) and under Emacs details like that are configurable.

Regarding OP's question: started programming in BASIC around age 11, in 1984 or so, on an Atari 2600 console for which I had a BASIC cartdridge which came with a keyboard you'd plug in the joystick port. Quickly dumped that crap for a Commodore C64, then years later an Amiga, then years later a PC.
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Offline riotonthebay

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Re: Users of Geekhack, how and why did you start programming?
« Reply #35 on: Sat, 30 August 2014, 11:42:33 »
If you're programming lisp, you gotta be using Paredit. (Or some other structural editing mode.) I haven't had an unbalanced parentheses error in years.

I got started about 3 1/2 years ago in college. I primarily program Clojure now, though the project I'm currently working on is Ruby and ClojureScript.

Offline iri

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Re: Users of Geekhack, how and why did you start programming?
« Reply #36 on: Sat, 30 August 2014, 13:16:16 »
I haven't had an unbalanced parentheses error in years.
I got started about 3 1/2 years ago
*slow clapping*
(...)Whereas back then I wrote about the tyranny of the majority, today I'd combine that with the tyranny of the minorities. These days, you have to be careful of both. They both want to control you. The first group, by making you do the same thing over and over again. The second group is indicated by the letters I get from the Vassar girls who want me to put more women's lib in The Martian Chronicles, or from blacks who want more black people in Dandelion Wine.
I say to both bunches, Whether you're a majority or minority, bug off! To hell with anybody who wants to tell me what to write. Their society breaks down into subsections of minorities who then, in effect, burn books by banning them. All this political correctness that's rampant on campuses is b.s.

-Ray Bradbury

Offline riotonthebay

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Re: Users of Geekhack, how and why did you start programming?
« Reply #37 on: Sat, 30 August 2014, 13:19:38 »

I haven't had an unbalanced parentheses error in years.
I got started about 3 1/2 years ago
*slow clapping*

Maybe "since I started using paredit 2 years ago" would have been better.

Offline Dog

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Re: Users of Geekhack, how and why did you start programming?
« Reply #38 on: Sat, 30 August 2014, 23:52:04 »
If you want to start programming I recommend that you don't worry about what language and just start. Get really good at whatever language it is. The specific language you use is not that important. After you get comfortable with one language, it becomes a lot easier to pick up another. There will be differences, but a lot of the concepts you learn will carry over to other languages.

My first experience with programming was on the website Neopets. One of the things you could do on the site is use HTML and CSS to customize your user profile/shop. I found bits of code from viewing the source of other users profiles and templates available around the web. I didn't fully understand what I was doing at the time. A lot of things were just magic to me. I was just some kid borrowing bits of code and learning a few things here or there as I went. I didn't do it because I loved programming. I was doing it because I wanted a dancing dog cursor. I'll also admit that at the time I also thought it was a great idea to make use of the marquee tag and embed midis. I never really got into programming because I consciously wanted to write programs or make websites. I just fell into it.

When I took my first Computer Science class in high school all the messing around with bits of code helped tremendously. A lot of the things I didn't understand started to look less and less like magic. With programming really any experience is good experience. You will make a lot of mistakes and crappy code before you write anything really useful. "Sucking at something is the first step to being sorta good at something."
« Last Edit: Sat, 30 August 2014, 23:58:57 by Dog »

Offline iri

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Re: Users of Geekhack, how and why did you start programming?
« Reply #39 on: Sun, 31 August 2014, 06:32:27 »
And remember, kids, you should never call HTML a programming language.
(...)Whereas back then I wrote about the tyranny of the majority, today I'd combine that with the tyranny of the minorities. These days, you have to be careful of both. They both want to control you. The first group, by making you do the same thing over and over again. The second group is indicated by the letters I get from the Vassar girls who want me to put more women's lib in The Martian Chronicles, or from blacks who want more black people in Dandelion Wine.
I say to both bunches, Whether you're a majority or minority, bug off! To hell with anybody who wants to tell me what to write. Their society breaks down into subsections of minorities who then, in effect, burn books by banning them. All this political correctness that's rampant on campuses is b.s.

-Ray Bradbury

Offline divito

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Re: Users of Geekhack, how and why did you start programming?
« Reply #40 on: Sun, 31 August 2014, 07:15:12 »
Rediscovered Code Academy and am continuing on my PHP lessons. The teaching / lessons -> challenges are the exact format that I need to approach learning. When I finish with PHP, I guess I'll move through the others.
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Offline rowdy

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Re: Users of Geekhack, how and why did you start programming?
« Reply #41 on: Sun, 31 August 2014, 17:15:16 »
And remember, kids, you should never call HTML a programming language.

By definition it is a markup language.  This is reiterated every time the abbreviation is used :)
"Because keyboards are accessories to PC makers, they focus on minimizing the manufacturing costs. But that’s incorrect. It’s in HHKB’s slogan, but when America’s cowboys were in the middle of a trip and their horse died, they would leave the horse there. But even if they were in the middle of a desert, they would take their saddle with them. The horse was a consumable good, but the saddle was an interface that their bodies had gotten used to. In the same vein, PCs are consumable goods, while keyboards are important interfaces." - Eiiti Wada

NEC APC-H4100E | Ducky DK9008 Shine MX blue LED red | Ducky DK9008 Shine MX blue LED green | Link 900243-08 | CM QFR MX black | KeyCool 87 white MX reds | HHKB 2 Pro | Model M 02-Mar-1993 | Model M 29-Nov-1995 | CM Trigger (broken) | CM QFS MX green | Ducky DK9087 Shine 3 TKL Yellow Edition MX black | Lexmark SSK 21-Apr-1994 | IBM SSK 13-Oct-1987 | CODE TKL MX clear | Model M 122 01-Jun-1988

Ị̸͚̯̲́ͤ̃͑̇̑ͯ̊̂͟ͅs̞͚̩͉̝̪̲͗͊ͪ̽̚̚ ̭̦͖͕̑́͌ͬͩ͟t̷̻͔̙̑͟h̹̠̼͋ͤ͋i̤̜̣̦̱̫͈͔̞ͭ͑ͥ̌̔s̬͔͎̍̈ͥͫ̐̾ͣ̔̇͘ͅ ̩̘̼͆̐̕e̞̰͓̲̺̎͐̏ͬ̓̅̾͠͝ͅv̶̰͕̱̞̥̍ͣ̄̕e͕͙͖̬̜͓͎̤̊ͭ͐͝ṇ̰͎̱̤̟̭ͫ͌̌͢͠ͅ ̳̥̦ͮ̐ͤ̎̊ͣ͡͡n̤̜̙̺̪̒͜e̶̻̦̿ͮ̂̀c̝̘̝͖̠̖͐ͨͪ̈̐͌ͩ̀e̷̥͇̋ͦs̢̡̤ͤͤͯ͜s͈̠̉̑͘a̱͕̗͖̳̥̺ͬͦͧ͆̌̑͡r̶̟̖̈͘ỷ̮̦̩͙͔ͫ̾ͬ̔ͬͮ̌?̵̘͇͔͙ͥͪ͞ͅ