The premise of this thread is simple:

How old were you when you began. How old are you now. What language did you start with, and what language(s) are you using now?

I began when I was 15, I'm 17 now. I started with C++, and today, I pretty much only use C++/C#, but I only know how to use those two very fluently.

I'm just curious =P

My programming progress began at 18 and  I'm now 38.

I started with pascal on a mainframe, then Fortran, then in DOS I went through varietys of turbo pascal, snippits of assembler, C++,  in Windows I've used C++ & been using C# since around october.  I continue to maintain old programs (runs ancient lab equipment) in pascal.

I accomplish what I need, eventually, but I wouldn't say I'm fluent in any of them. 

Best,

Byron

 

I technically started at 12 with Chipmunk BASIC, but that was just for a couple of months. I really started at 15 when I got my Mac. I did a bunch of C/C++ and a few other languages. I'm now 20 (almost 21) and I use C# for all of my personal stuff. At my job I use very little C#, a lot of JavaScript, and some VBScript.

I was 12 (1979) when I went to a school that had a single RM 380Z - Learned basic on there after school with the one teacher who had any idea.

1980 the school got a Pet 3xxx series - more MS Basic

By the time I left that school in 1983 they had a room full of BBC computers - even more MS Basic - and official computer classes.

From age 16-18 my school had Apple IIe's (basic) and some very early IBM clones where I learned Pascal.

At home I watched jealously as people got ZX80s, ZX81s, Commodore 64s, Acorn Atoms and ZX Spectrums and eventually persuaded my parents to get me a Dragon 32 (more basic and 6809 assembly language - hand assembled on paper because I couldn't afford to buy an assembler!). You youngsters with just Mac Vs PC have no idea what a big deal havng the 'right' computer was back then... (The Dragon 32 was not the cool computer - I wish I could remember what it was that made me want that one. It did have the best version of donkey kong and a proper keyboard)

Once I got to University I did more Pascal on some dumb terminals connected to Vax of some sort, C on Sun work stations, Z80 assembly in hardware classes and a few esoteric functional and logical languages. Got myself an Atari ST which I did C and 68000 assembly before discovering beer and woman and programming as a hobby kind of faded away. I had summer jobs for the government doing Fortran IV and Fortran 77 for those 3 years - they eventually let me write some C for a graphics board add on for a Sun workstation. This thing cost $70,000 and did real time solid shaded 3d graphics. Its was less powerful than the worst DX9 card available today for $20 on ebay.

Once I started work I've done C (windows, linux, mac), 68000 assembler, Cobol (thankfully little of this), Lisp on a Mac, C++, Visual Basic (3,4,5,6,7) and finally C# and VB.Net. Don't forget several years of web development with VBScript/JScript and lots of SQL of various flavours too.

Now I'm 40... so I guess I have been programming for 28 years... and you can probably see why I think people who argue over which language is better than others are just inexperienced n00bs who need to get out there and get a job ;-)

 

 

 

Haha. Great post, Z ^_^

Yeah, I don't really have any bias towards any language. Sure, there are language I like, but like this imaginary "console" war, I'll have preferences, but won't really "take sides", per se. All a programming language really is, is just a tool. A tool you use, and exploit to accomplish a task. If you stick, or "take sides" with any language, you're a dote =X

I'm also curious as to how it was when you were starting out. Because I'm just beggining, and seem to be running in to a few frustrations here and there. These last few weeks have been nothing but addiction to be. I eat, sleep, and drink code. I'm working on my project during any available hours, up to the point where my body just shuts down.. I want to keep going, but my body gives. When I'm resting, I sometimes bang my head in to my pillow until I get ideas, and inspiration. When I'm in the washroom, I think about how to optimize my code (which, at this point, doesn't really matter. Just Geddit Done! =P), and I have sheer moments of brilliance when I'm using the facilities =P

But uhh, I'm guessing everyone has gone through some of these frustrations. I don't expect myself to make anything epic anytime soon, but the learning curve is going excruitatingly slow for me, and sometimes I just want to pull out my hair for various reasons. I don't get angry, just a little frustrated at myself, not my code. And just want to keep going and going and going. But I guess it'll take time =]

So, did anyone else share similar experiences when they were younger?

EDIT: And just for reference, I haven't taken a single programming course yet. Save Comp Sci. last year, but I was pretty much a secondary teacher there. They had nothing to offer =P But m'yes, totally home-bred.

I first programmed in BASIC on a Commodore 64 by following a script when I was 8 (at a computer day camp). I am 33 now.

After that first experience of entering a program and seeing it run, I taught myself to program using a syntax manual. I learned the fundamentals by making simple games in BASIC and QBasic (yay for free tools!), until I learned Pascal and x86 assembler when I was in high school (when I could use the school's software, and later my own). At university, I studied computer science, and primarily worked in C and C++. Less often, I also used Scheme (virtually the same as LISP), PROLOG, APL, Ada, SQL, FORTRAN, and assembly for SPARC and M68k. Oh yeah, I did a bit of MatLab programming, too.

When I started working (while at university), I used C++, but for one job I actually wrote macros in Lotus 1-2-3 macro language.

When I started full-time at Microsoft (2000), I learned C# (known as COOL at the time) and a bit of JScript (since I was working on the JScript compiler). Most of my career at Microsoft has involved about 50/50 C++ and C#. Once in a while I have to debug VB code, but I never use it for programming.

Once you understand programming, learning new languages is a snap. Except APL -- that is like programming with Egyptian hieroglyphics, and you need a 5-page cheat sheet to know what key combinations map to the stupid symbols it uses instead of keywords. :-P

 

xD, I think I'm already think I'm past that phase. I'm really fluent in C/C++, and C# (and in Java, too). I can pick up almost any language very quickly, and easily. Heck, even Assembly isn't a problem for me ^_^ But yeah, it's not so much as learning that language. All a language is, is just a tool. A tool is easy to learn, but difficult to master.

It's just that, from the progress I'm making now, and contrasting to some top-notch stuff that is out there today (and yes, I do realize, well, uhh, there's usually a whole studio working on a game), I don't think I'll ever be up to snuff, or even close to what some people are doing these days. It just seems like there's so much disparity. Like, me: | |, them |                                                       |. Yah know?

But, ah, well, I guess that's what it was like for everyone, right? xD, sorry about stressing about that again. But that's just how I feel. I'll get there, someday =]

38/10

45/15

 

Ignoring some copy-paste code done at 13, on some school computer, I really started programming in highschool, at 16.

Pascal was first, but then I quicly took off with VB, Delphi, and C++. Right now I am 22, (to be 23 in July), and I'm using C# whenever I get to choose. I even hijacked the project for my Advanced Graphics course at the university (C++/OpenGL) and converted a few colleagues to use XNA for their projects.

 

David Hunt:

45/15

 

Yay Zman is not the oldest (I think Machaira has a year or 2 on me too).

My first language was Lisp, when I was 14. Now I'm 27.

I was 14 when I began with Pascal. I'm 18 right now.
I hate Pascal. XD
No I work basically on C#, C++ and Ruby. I love these languages. ^^

The ZMan [MVP/Moderator]:

David Hunt:

45/15

Yay Zman is not the oldest (I think Machaira has a year or 2 on me too).

Yeah, I'm 41. Glad to know I'm not the oldest here though. :)

I started when I was 14 with COBOL (you haven't really programmed until you've used punch cards! :D ), FORTRAN, and BASIC on an Apple IIc. Since then I've done Pascal, C/C++, some Assembler, the usual. I fooled around on a Commodore 64 for a while. You also haven't programmed unless you've used Peek and Poke commands!

don't remember my past so well, but my zx81 stands out and i guess i must have been 5-10ish, not really programming though just copying from the magazines that were aroung back then.  really started my own stuff on an atari - cannot recall the model - was cream and brown with a full keyboard and a cartrage stot at the top, then qbasic on pc, delph, vb, c on xenix (microsoft unix) c++, these days its whatever i have to hand that does the job, c#, vba (lots of vba) - javasript, php (if you consider that programming).

wouldn't say im fluent in any, i find its more useful to have a firm grasp of programming concepts (and business logic or at least some exposure to the crazy practices you'll find in any company), that way you can pick up pretty much any language and achieve your objective.

so your answer is 5-10ish and 27.

why do i feel this post will come back to haunt me...

The ZMan [MVP/Moderator]:

By the time I left that school in 1983 they had a room full of BBC computers - even more MS Basic - and official computer classes.

my school was still using them in the 90's with huge orange trackballs almost put me off computers.

I started programming on Atari when i was about 10. Stopped when i was 14 and started again in pascal age 19.

Did a lot of Delphi since age 21 and started C# when i was 25.

I'm 29 now...30 in a little over a month :-(

   I began when i was 7 with visual basic 6(just copying and pasting what by big brother did) then i found about PSCode which was a treasure for me as i just searched what i want and then i found it and copying again

   I kept like that until i became 10 when i think then i was able to understand programming i programmed some database stuff , directx7 and some stuff with visual basic 6 but all was a result of random copying and putting similar things together but not real understanding later i went to .net by luck when i heard a link of a forum (Which was later closed), i surfed to it  and there where i found out whats real programming is then i started doing stuff with vb.net and i became somehow a beginner!

   l took a course in C++ at 11 which was a nightmare for me caz everybody was nearly twice my age but i made it,later i learnt some java but never used it and now i've been using C# for 3-4 years i've got into many branches before i got into game stuff i made only one 3D game with MDX, bunch of stuff for friends and now I'm 15 working with XNA.

I think i'm the youngest on this forums!.

Great question - and also very interesting how early many of us started.

When I was 11 or 12 I started noodling around on the mainframe at my mother's place of employment using the BASIC interpreter.  I spent a lot of my high-school years in Apple and Commodore BASIC interpreters with a smattering of Pascal writing simple games and applications.

My first degree is in computer science.  That was where I learned that I had been programming and possesed a basic understanding, but that I didn't yet really know what was going on from a computer scientist's frame of reference.  So I might be tempted to say that I really started at 18.  I'll let you take your pick.

Right now I am writing in C++, C#, Java, and a little bit of Actionscript and Python.

I turn 40 this year.

I began with Visual Basic 5 in my freshman year of high school; I was 13. I learned C++ shortly afterward and began programming Visual Basic professionally a year later.

I'm now 21 and you'll find me writing C# and Python primarily. Python for web apps and quick scripts, C# for everything else. I'll write C++ when necessary (for managed wrappers and while I was at Google!), but I'll complain like a baby. I'll write Java when my instructors require it, but C# syntax will consistently slip in and I will get annoyed when it doesn't compile.

I started when I was 11 with web dev and batch files (if you can call that programming). Got bored for a while with VB so I moved on to C# and WinForms.

I just began learning MDX when XNA made its 1st Beta - that changed my thoughts completely (and persuaded me to buy an Xbox).

Now I'm 15 and got a game ready for Community Games Beta - I'm helped by some guys who took graphics design in school. Great thread BTW

[EDIT] Ashour, I just checked: I'm 99 days younger than you. lol

Hehe, we have some neat responces here =] And here I was thinking I started young. Thought, most of you young guys (or who were young) seemed to dabble around, before getting serious about it one day.

But yeah, I guess most of you put me to shame. It's not like it matters, but I'm just saying. Impressive, indeed. I could only wish I knew how much I loved programming when I was younger; I never had the opportunity. But ah, well.

I guess we all had humble begginings.

16/15

Bapa:

But uhh, I'm guessing everyone has gone through some of these frustrations. I don't expect myself to make anything epic anytime soon, but the learning curve is going excruitatingly slow for me, and sometimes I just want to pull out my hair for various reasons. I don't get angry, just a little frustrated at myself, not my code. And just want to keep going and going and going. But I guess it'll take time =]

So, did anyone else share similar experiences when they were younger?

Absolutely have had those moments.  I think we all have.  

One thing that helped me "turn a corner" in my coding were the courses I took that were not about coding per se, but about the structure of the underlying hardware.  Computer architecture and assembly language.  Once you know what your compiled code has to become and how your high level language is being interpreted (through many steps) into machine language that is actually being further interpreted in to microcode (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microcode) for the transmission of electrical signals across the various buses on given clock cycles, it helps you to realize that everything that is happening in the machine is deterministic.  It doesn't necessarily give you the answer.  But it makes you realize that there *IS* an answer if you are willing to dig for it.  (and it also gives you some clues as to what must be going on.)

rvcc Cros: I think you should've just disregarded what I said. It's just one of my ways of driving myself >_>

I really should get back in to learning Assembly - it was some really cool stuff. Even made a basic program that could read input, and then output it (once). 21h, anyone? =P. I have a habit of digging down in to the nitty-gritty, and usually for no good reason.

Anyway, sorry about that. It's really cool to see what other people have gone through, and their humbling begginings =]