How many teenaged programmers?

I'm 14. I thought it was good that i knew how to do stuff in vb. I have been put to shame. I don't even know half of what you guys are saying!

i am 13 still, started about 1 year agoish

what do people think about my programming?

i know a fair bit, but do not care about databases, api or subclassing

i'm 14 and i've been programming since i was about 9. i used to have a amstrad cpc6128 and all i knew how to do is run the games off the disk (i was about 5 - do you expect me to know how to program!!!). i found out later that you can make programs in basic on it. Then we bought a 486 and i was looking around the dos directory and running all of the programs. i found qbasic and i was looking in the help file and it was similar to the amstrad. then i got VB 5 and i've been using it from then on. (i don't have that 486 anymore).

i think that if you like programming then you shouldn't sell what you make (only if it's a really simple game)

i like programming because you can get control over the computer and make programs that suit your needs

i work for companys and am in my teens...i have an internship at one of the largest life insurance companies in the country...i am in college, but manage to make almost 40k a year doing vb, odbc, web, and c++ work. i hope i helped...

i've been programming for about 18mths now. previously I was a construction worker for about 7 years.

I then realised how much money I could make sat on my behind in a nice warm office with plenty of talent to look at.

I work for a utilities company in Britian as a solutions analyst.

Gaz

With Me
.Age = 14
.Experience of VB = 3 yrs
.DoVBBecause = Basically, I'm a student. I do VB because I love to do.
.MakingMoney = False
.CanAcceptOffersForMakingMoney = True
.CurrentlyDesigning = Internet Database Application
End With

I'm 19 (still a teen technically I guess) and I am making pretty good money as a junior database engineer for the ISP; Earthlink Network, Inc.

"...never meanin' no harm,
makin' their way, the only way they know how,
and that's just a lil' bit more than the law will allow."

I'm 25, and I have not been programming consistently, but I first played with BASIC (back when it was all caps) on a C64, and then whatever that logo turtle thing was on an Apple IIe.

I had an account on a VAX in high school, and then became a comp sci major at NCSU in '93. I was introduced to the internet in '91, but I wasn't really intrenched until '93.

This may be off topic, but... who remembers that? I feel that there was a big change in the internet durning '94. I miss the good ol' days. Fidonet, Geine (sp?), and news instead of web based messaging boards. Hell, the web was something out of CERN and you used Lynx or Mosaic.

Back then, viruses actually did something, propogated themselves without relying on dumb users (lusers) or users using Outlook. Back then, web pages had more info and less graphics. And back then, I felt young enough, had little to know responsiblities, and would spend all night in the lab with the gang, ordering pizza, sacrificing much Dr Pepper, and hacking away, usually at MU* code (written in C/C++), or comparing kluges.

I really wish I had gotten more into computers when I had that C64. I still have it, but it is shot. Got fried in a storm. A friend has a couple of trash 80s at his parents house. A coco 1 and 2. Another friend has a VME box, a few Sun pizza boxes, and runs BSD on an Ami2K. And I love reading through the old MIT hack files.

Well, I am rambling now, and should get back to work.

-Travis

I am 18 and have never had an official course in vb. Everything I have learned is from the web or from similarities between vb and C (I have had a course in C). I am going into my sophomore year of computer/electrical engineering at the University of Michigan come September. I work as an Engineering Technician (student engineer) for the US Army.

-CD

If some of you guys are "grandpas" in your 20's, then I must be a great-great grandpa at the age of 39. I am amazed at how knowledgeable many of you other guys are at such young ages (13, 14, etc.).

The reason I am responding to this thread is that I have a son who is 12, and I would say he is a "power user" and gamer. He's a bright kid and I know he would be a natural at programming. The problem is, although I have offered to teach him, and he tells me he wants to learn, the "lessons" always seem to get postponed. I'm sure part of it is (subconscoiusly) that it just isn't as cool if "dad" is into it.

As for myself, my first programming experience was at the age of 18 when I was a freshman in college (it was an intro to computers course, the language was PL/I, and we had to type our programs on punched cards - any of you guys ever hear of those?). Any way, I didn't pursue comp-sci in college (I should have), and I didn't back into it again until a year after college, when I took a career school computer programming course (this was 1984, so it was heavy on COBOL, with some mainframe assembler and IBM PC BASIC thrown in). I've been working as a programmer ever since, first doing mainframe stuff in COBOL and PL/I, then getting into PC-DOS programming (still in COBOL), and finally getting into VB around 1995 (VB3 was current at the time). Recently, I've been doing mostly database stuff with VB6 and Access.

But before I bore the hell out of you guys, I'll stop and get back to the point. Let me ask you these questions:

(1) For those of you who started at very young ages, what prompted you to get into programming? Was it an interest you developed on your own, was it from school, did a parent or older sibling turn you on to it, etc.? (I know that this question was addressed somewhat in earlier posts.)

(2) In your opinion, what can I do to motivate my son further in this area?

I look forward to your input on this.

hmmmm..
I got started because I wanted to make AOL programs.. hehe, well by the time I learned how, I had a strong and severe hate for aol, so I said screw the AOL programs.
if you want your son to start programming, then dont get him started with databases, and stuff like that, tell him what you can make that is fun, like games(using bitblt)


what are his interests?
obviously games, but what else?
does he like to play CD's on the computer?
or does he like MP3's?
if so, you can help him make a shell generator for winamp, or a cd player program, or something.

and tell him about the money involved in programming...
and the very little bit of physical work involved in computer programming.

I know that would get me started if I wasnt already programming :D

I'm nearly sixteen and I am now learning Vb6.0 and HTML, but am sorry to report that I have yet to make any money. Check out Cyberarmy.com, though. They've got this kid who's only like 15 and he already sold something for $400K.

I'm a teenaged programmer. I am curretly 17, although I will turn 18 in August. I have take a year of Visual Basics (I LOVE it) and 2 years of C++ (I HATE it). I hate C++ probably because I have the worst teacher ever and I really don't know what is going on. It is a shame, but oh well. I figured next year at Virginia Tech a real professor will show me how it is done. Oh yeah, I'll be attending Virginia Tech next year and majoring in Computer Engineering.

Publius

your from virginia(I assume this because you are going to virginia tech)
I am from Va too :D
but I am probably going to John Hopkins Uni, :D

i'm 17, and have been programming since i was 10. Of the languages I've learned thus far are; qbasic, pascal, c++, html(i really don't consider HTML programming, but am including it for those that do), java, and am now teaching myself visual basic. I have never earned money writing a program, although, I am working on something for my school, and if they like it, I may get something out of it.

I am 15 and have been programming VB for about a year now. I would like to make money doing this but I don't know where to look. Any tips?

Hey, BruceG!

I noticed you mentioned punch cards in your post. My mom use to use those back when she did some programming stuff. Whenever we complain about losing something from a disk, she just tells us how the machines use to eat the punch cards and you had to start all over again.

Why aren't you guys chasing girls, getting busted for under aged drinking, and racing cars. Now in my day.........l think l will stop it right here:):):):):):)

Seriously keep it up, though god knows what will be happening in IT when some of you younger guys turn 20.

Speaking of underage drinking, I celebrated the country I loved last night (It was Canada Day) with some good whiskey, and let me just tell you it doesnt help you program one bit :) I feel like crawling up into a ball and dying about now.

the way i got into programming was when my friend sent me a program that would do stuff for aol ... u know punters n stuff like that ... well after seeing his program i wanted to know how to make my own ... that's when i learned about vb ... i started asking around n found vb4 ... then look at websites with code to program for aol ... then i bought myself a vb book ... stopped programming for aol ... i just make simple programs now n then ... (like a program to find out my grades) ... i tried selling it to some teachers of mine but it backfired ... they didn't know how to use a computer ... lol ... my school wastes so much money on new comps yet the teachers don't know anything about them ...

You're all making me feel old now...I shrug off my teens next month :D

I usually don't post anything but after seeing what I read so far I had to write something, even if I know that probably no one will read this.

First thing is, how can people start "programming" at ages like 7,8,9?? You didn't even know how to kiss a girl at that age! Let me explain something: programming is not typing exactly what is written in a book by a programmer. We probably all did that. A huge part of programming is to create something using your imagination. (And at that age, the only think you could probably imagine is how to kiss a girl). The thing is that part of the human behavior is to get attention, or to prove something to others... and we sometimes do that by lying, unfortunatly. When people will get old, they will probably be like "why did I say that?? it's not true at all!" to lots of things. But knowing that we are not flawless is, I think, a big step to the mankind evolution.

Next thing I want to talk about is money. Unfortunatly lots of people seem to have a dollar sign written in their eyes. Maybe oneday you will realise that money is not everything, far from it. You should try to find happiness in what you do and what you give to others, or to the humanity, instead of the money you earn from your work. You can't buy your life, never. Because when you will be 80 or 90 years old, in your last days on earth with millions in your bank account, think few minutes about your life and if you lived it as much as the one who has one penny left in his account. I hope you will.

Peace out,

Marc

P.S I started programming at the age of 2, when I hacked the grocery system so that my pampers would cost me less.

I've been programming since the age of 11.

First I learned QBasic that came with MS-DOS, by using its online help. I also tried dBASE, FoxPro and few others.

Then i moved to Turbo C++. I learned C and then Assembly myself using books.

I spend quite a time on C and assembly.

When Windows 95 came, I stopped programming. I felt difficulty in moving over to C/C++ for Windows.

I spend some time on Java / JavaScript.

From the past few months, I've started ASP. Now I am developing web applications in ASP, VB and HTML.

Very soon, in this month, i'll put up an ASP site. I'm preparing it now.

These days i'm also programming in C/C++ again and going to move over to Visual C++, InterDEV and Visual J++.

I am 17 now.

I LOVED THE REPLY OF Zyx2001. I MYSELF DONT CONSIDER BEEPING THE SPEAKER AND PRINTING DATE/TIME AS PROGRAMMING. I USED TO DEVELOP SIMPLE PROGRAMS AND UTILITIES AT THE AGE OF 13-14. BUT AFTER THAT I'VE STARTED PROGRAMMING AGAIN NOW! FEW MONTHS BACK!

[Edited by umair on 07-04-2000 at 01:31 AM]

IF YOU GUYS WANT TO MAKE MONEY FROM YOUR PROGRAMS TRY:

1. http://www.radiate.com
2. http://www.conducent.com

http://www.conducent.com is a broken link.

http://www.conducent.com is not a dead link.

I'm 12, started in Feburary, and pretty much got the concept of Visual Basic, I just do it for fun

Hi!
I am a teenage programer, I started with a QBasic RPG, then I started on VB eventually, just now I decided to learn DIV.

Yo compuGEEK i'm 14 and am a programmer aswell, i'm part of a company consisting of three of us the others are aslo teenagers, we are currently making an RPG which we hope to sell. I started programming in VB when i was 12 but now I use a programming language DIV, check out http://www.div-arena.com

Da Ray

I'm 13 Currently making 20 dollars an hour Designing the
Department of Defence in Canada's Homepage

But VB is my best language.
When I was 5 I was alwys on the computer and I saw my dad playing with Qbasic :) and he showed me some stuff my very first program was just as simple as
"What is your name"
then thats when the light clicked and
at my school they don't know this but the guy who runs the server and stuff if He can't answer he asks me.


Well thats my life :D

20$ an hour at 13! How the heck did you get a job doing that anyway?

I'm 18, I've been programming for 3 years now. Started off with simple HTML, then C++, then VB. VB is by far the easist language I've come across, well aside from HTML of course. I work with C++ the best. NO money yet, but someday.........

<removed>

I am 19 years old and work for one of the fastest growing Web Design company's in London, Access Logic (www.accesslogic.co.uk) I started when I was 15 building web sites just for fun and when I realised that the whole world was suddenly finding an interest, I got a job doing what I do best.

I didn't realize that most of you guys are like my younger brother. I'm 26 and started my programming life at 17. I started with QBASIC - Turbo Basic - Clipper - Turbo C - CA Ingres - Unix C - Gupta SQL Windows - MS Access and now VB. I've touched HTML, VB Script and JavaScript too. I'm from Philippines and I've been to Singapore and now US because of my profession as programmer. Thats the story of my IT life.

' from philippines too

Public Sub MyLife() As a Programmer

Dim I_Started_Last_99_Aug As a Clipper Programmer_

foxpro 4 win

Now.learning VB and C++

End Sub

That's very bad syntax!!!

who cares ... im not going to compile that heheh

uwat la

By the time this thread dies we're all gonna be past our teens I reckon ;)

I'm 16, know HTML, javascript, and VB ofcourse. never got paid.

Damn this thread has been up for a while and i still haven't posted. Sooo...
I'm 17, started with vb3 2 years ago and haven't stoped learning since.

Laterz,
D!m

Hey,
I'm 15 and I've been programming since I was 13. I started with VB4 and now I'm up to VB6. I will get started with VC++ in a little bit, I just want to mess with VB for a little while longer!
No, I haven't made any money from programming :( , but I'm hopeing I will soon!

P.S. I became a member because of this threat!:D I just have to be a part of it!
-Emo

Interesting to see how many folks started off programming young.

I've been programming since the age of 9 and am 18 now. That's a total of 9 years! I've made a lot of stuff that I'm now living off of including my own programming language for Database and web development.

Cheers!

I'm 17, and first started learning BASIC on a BBC B when I was 6. I began getting the hang of C when I was 11, and 4 years ago we bought our first PC, and I started VB at 15. I got into C++ about a year and a bit ago. Anyone else start that young?

I didnt start at 6, but I did start at around 11~12

i been programming since 15(holy chicken balls, thats a long time), never relized it been that long
yet i didn't do any real programming til i was about 18
so i am 20 now
been programming for 2 years i guess

got my own software company (dont make crap off that, but i like doing that for fun)
i work for a electric company, cleaing their messed up db
i make web pages for clients on the side
and i just signed a contract with a IT company to have their website designed
SWEET MONEY

little tip for youngsters
keep programming, i promise you it will pay off
o if it doesnt, you end up not getting a job
well thats just to bad, cus i will be in barbados enjoying the sun, while you suffer

damn that came out outloud

but seriously, eventually money will come in
*me prays this other deal goes throu, worth almost 60 K*
happy programming

im 14 and I know vb6 and html. I dont make money but I will once I finish this game im makeing.

I learned HTML when I was about 12, on the old computers at my school. They were not connected to the network so they were unlocked so I could save my work. I have made money because I made my friends WebPages. The WebPages took me about a total of 6 months. It had over 500 pages, totaling over 15MB in just HTML. Almost all the artwork to was handmade, and there was probably a good 30MBs of artwork there...

I am just starting to learn VB6. It has been quite a trip so far...

As for school stuff... I almost made it in to the library as the server operator at my middle school. Now in high school, the tech person (he has no actual job title, go figure...) complete ignores me... Finally I confronted him about it; he said I wasn't smart enough to run the school security. I told him to leave me in the room for five minutes with the computer so I could break into it. He agreed to it, after the five minutes, he came back in, and I had changed almost all the preferences on the computer, deleted some garbage, and installed Quake 2 off a disk that was in my back pack, and had printed his user-name and password, the principals, and a list of all the team leaders stuff. When he saw all of it, he freaked out, shredded the stuff I printed, changed all of the passwords I printed, and said that he fixed the security so I couldn't do that again, even though all he did was change the passwords and uninstall Quake 2. I was banned from all school computers for 2 weeks, then when I got back on, I deleted the security program off the main server with a prog I made in VB6.0...

[Edited by ComputerWiz6996 on 12-29-2000 at 10:01 PM]

Well I'm not quite a teenager anymore, I just turned 21. I've only been programming about 1 or 2 years. I guess you could say i know a little bit about a lot of things. I have the problem of starting to learn something and then going on to something else before i'm finished.
The languages I know best are:
--Informix 4GL
--HTML
--Visual Basic
I am currently in the process of learning Perl, C\C++, and i've dabbled a little with Java.
As of know I am working for a company writing 4GL programs and doing a little bit of web design.

yo im 13. I know HTML(a little not that great), vb(great), and c++(just started but i know all the basics and did all the 1st programs). been programing since i was 8. my dad helped me alot he works at IBM. he told me what to learn and got me all these books. right now im working no a media player. i made some other programs and thier on my site, but. i havnt updated my site since i was 10. but people keep hitting it. i hope to become a rich robotic enginer.

15, visual basic, html, asp, batch, basic (not much any more) and it is quite easy to make money with your programs, visit http://www.radiate.com

i started BASIC at 7 im now 16 and program in VB6.0 and i get paid :D
I might have a go at VC++ soon.

I'm not a teenager but if you divide my age by two I would only be 17! Four people older than me made me feel a lot better - it is quite a shock to find out how young some of you guys are!

Still, how many of you have found the right girl, got some great kids and paid off the mortgage? It's not all bad being old.

Cheers,

P.

Hi! I'm now 15. I started programming when I was 11, just a few lines of QBASIC, then I got into batch files and Pascal. Now I can do all sorts:
VB
QBASIC
Java
HTML
ASP
JavaScript
VBScript
CSS1
Pascal
C++
etc.
If there's NE1 Interested in joining me in a freeware/ shareware company go to this thread:
http://forums.vb-world.net/showthread.php?postid=195386
Later.

I am A teen programes and i do make alot of money because a sold my first program for a large company for almost nothing (under $4000)
And later got ref. to other companies where i charge full price.
Good luck to EVERYONE

Quote:

---

Originally posted by RoyceWindsor1
I'm twenty-three now, but I learned to program early in my teens. If you want my advice, start with C++.
It is the most popular language which is TRULY object-oriented, and learning it will give you the fundamentals to work with many other tools.
If you start with something like visual basic, you will
DEFINATELY pick up bad habits which will hamper you working in more sophisticated languages later

- John

[Edited by RoyceWindsor1 on 04-22-2000 at 02:00 PM]

---

I've got to agree with RoyceWindsor1 on this one - start with the hard stuff (C++) if you are smart then move back to the easy stuff. Its a bit like those martial arts things where you start prancing around with a sack of cement on your back or practice fast moves in water and then can *amaze* people withg how good you are when you take the weights off ;)

Seriously - I've taught programming in college and I can tell you that it is really difficult to lose bad habits -

Hi Im Dan. I program in VB and QBasic. I am 11 and have created a wireframe control which can be found in the thread cheap 3-D under Games & Graphics Programming

i'm 14
i first stated in HTML then i moved onto VB then off to QBasic and then C. once i laerned C basicz i started working on UNIX and then i got into computer security. im currently learning ASM
and no im not making money off of anything i do
i want to though

Hi, I am 15 and I started learning QBAISC aout 1 year ago. Then I moved on to visual basic. Now, I am learning and programming in C\C++. I dont think that I will be able to make money for next few months because I am not so much expert at any of the programming language:p

I've already posted here, but....

I'm 14 and know

• HTML
• JavaScript
• ASP(VBScript and learning PerlScript)
• PHP
• C/C++(UNIX/Win32 Console/Windows GUI)
• Visual Basic
• Python
• SQL
• Java(Just a little bit)
• DOS Batch
• TI-Basic(83/89)
• Perl

I started learning ASM quite a while ago, but stopped because I wanted to finish learning C/C++(For the most part, I've finished, I still need to learn things like Nested Templates, Tree's, and need to brush up on Inheritance). It would be nice to learn XML/XHTML, but it just looks like too much of a pain in the ass.

[Edit: Forgot to add Perl to the list]