Where'd you start?

[alkatran]

Where did all of you get started programming? Did you just start screwing around on a computer, learn it in school, learn it from a friend, read it all in a book?

I know I started from scratch, just trying random things in QBasic on an old computer (go 96 megs of hard drive space + windows 3.1!).

I suppose I learnt the most stuff from asking questions here and reading a few books (although, honestly, I can learn more by disecting code then reading how to do it).

That brings up the second question... what'd you learn the most info/most important stuff from?

[Acidic]

Didn't everone know it at birth???

no seriously, I started JS a few years ago. Firstly I was asking questions on a forum, then I started answering the questions. That's how JS started. oh, HTML I learned in a matter of days before that (re-learning it now though).

Then I tried C++ for a bit but decided to go on to VB first as I found C++ a bit difficult. I've not tried anything really challenging in VB as of yet, so I'm not any good at it.

When I started using a friends server of mine I started learning PHP and MySQL.

All the languages I know (even the ones I know just a bit of) I've learned from tutorials on the net. Then from asking/answering questions on forums.

I haven't read any books yet, but I've realised that I learn best by being given how a function works, then messing about with it.

The place I learned the most from is either here or js-x.com. Same for where I learned the most important stuff.

[BodwadUK]

First programming was 5 years ago when i started college.

My word i am old

[wossname]

I started 16 years ago at home when I was 8, you think you feel old?

I didn't do it very regularly until I was about 17 (I'm still talking about programming!) when I procured a copy of VB.

I'm not a hard core coder like some of the guru's in here but I can work most things out eventually. Being drunk helps a lot.

[Nightwalker83]

I started about six years ago.

[plenderj]

I started at home as a child doing simple loops in QBasic, and making noises and things like that.
I couldn't do very much however.

Then, when I was about 12/13 I got into mIRC scripting (mIRC is an IRC Client), and was developing scripts to do things on the internet in that - stuff like an FTP client or e-mail clients or proxy servers etc.
That's how I initially learned about networking.

Then I started to write a game in mIRC. mIRC wasn't really designed for this however.
So I decided I would write it in a proper programming language

At about the age of 14/15 I had got Visual Studio Professional 5.
I opened it up, and popped in the C++ CD, planning on learning C++. The CD was scratched so that didn't work. Then I tried J++ - that CD was scratched too. So then I tried the VB5 CD, and that worked. I learned a few little bits and pieces and then set it aside.

I came back to VB when I had to write an application for something in-house. We were going to send out a few e-mail shots to customers - but we needed a way of finding duplicated e-mail addresses in our e-mail address lists.
So I wrote an application called DupeX - which you can still buy on the web today.

So it went from there, learning more and more VB as I went along writing small utilities for in-house use, and also selling them as we went along.

Then a bank that we dealt with asked us to develop an ASP website through which they could purchase products from us using their SAP EBP application.
So I had to learn ASP & MySQL very quickly to get that done.

And then I decided to write an online e-commerce shop in ASP.Net/VB.Net+C#, using ADO.Net
That's coming along very well at present and is nearly ready to go live.

Along the way for web development I've picked up javascript (and vbscript I suppose). I quite like javascript.
I also learned Java in college on the rare occasion that I turned up - oh and Motorola 68000 Assembler too. I quite enjoyed that

I also know a little C/C++, and some Haskel98 (I think that's what its called ...)

[visualAd]

My first taste of programming was when I was 7. I remember making simple programs in BASIC. This was back in the days when there was no code indenting, all lines had to have numbers and goto was the norm.

I then did some qBasic when I was about 10. I made simple little programs that weren't much use to any one. I made a times tables program for my little brother though my dad did the loops because i didn't understnad them

If my program didn't compile sticking End If at the bottom of the program seemed to fix it (in other words i only had mild understanding of what I was doing).

I started for real when I was 17 - I was learning about the Windows Registry and wanted an easier way to modify values automatically. So I learnt VB Script. Then I learnt VB 5 then VB 6, then Javascript and PHP. Now I'm learning C and Pascal (at college).

[Pc_Madness]

Originally posted by Nightwalker83
I started about six years ago.

And finished when?

Started ...4-5 years ago in VB. I have no idea how I managed to get my hands on learning edition though. There was a magical leap between HTML and VB that my brain has ordered erased.

[Cander]

Tandy Basic on a TRS-80 color computer at 8 years old.

[BodwadUK]

I have a bad memory too. Apparently i learned COBOL 5 years ago

[MethadoneBoy]

I started Java programming a few years ago in college. I didn't really get what it was all about until about Christmas of my first year, when I sat down with a Java book, discarded all other subjects and just programmed away. It was fun

I also know a little Assembly, some VB and kind of know Haskell.

[ahara]

My first exposure to programming was 27 years ago when I was in high school....the "computer room" consisted of a telex, an acoustic coupler, and an analog phone with the round dialer. To log on, you picked up the phone and dialed a number....waited for a tone (handshake), and then pluncked it into the acoustic coupler which had two cups for each end of the phone. You would then use the telex which would communicate with a mainframe via the acoustic coupler. Sometimes the wait for your output to come back was fifteen minutes. I absolutely despised it, almost flunked the course, and vowed to never work with computers again........


.........21 years later.....I am managing my own pub (and losing a ton of cash doing it)....my manager brings his pc in (386 - windows 3.1) to help monitor the money flow....at this time, I taught myself Lotus 1-2-3 and began creating spreadhseets...and then later with macros....not too long later, the pub went belly up.....decided to go back to school....figured computers was a good choice because I really liked working with Lotus....went to a college for a 3 1/2 year intensive program (Systems Analyst) and at the onset had absolutely decided there was no way in hell I would be a programmer. In my first term, took VB for the first time - turned out to be my best subject. Throughout college, programming was always my forte and I soon became addicted to it. I have now been programming for only two years, but I am still hooked!!!


Just goes to show, one never knows where one's journey will take them, until they make the trek!!