How Long Have You Been Programming ?

[QBRADQ 0]

Hello all!

Well, I started programming in BASIC when I was 12. That lasted about a day, because I had no idea what I was doing. I had just heard from one of my teachers about QBASIC, and the fact that it was on all DOS boxes.

About a month later me and my mother were walking through a book store. My mother loves to read, and always tried to encourage me to back in those days, but I wasn't very interested. Then, the Computer Programming section caught my eye. I looked through the books, and found a copy of "Sam's Teach Yourself C++ in 21 Days". It was fifty dollars at the time, and came with a really crudy old version of Borland's Turbo C, but I begged my mother for it anyway.

I used Turbo C for about a day, got tired of it, found DevC++ (http://www.perfectname.com/domains/index.php?domain=bloodshedsoftware.com&), and off I went. No, I didn't learn C++ in three weeks. It took six years, and a dozen more books before I was proficent with it.

Now I am 21, and know a whole host of languages both scripted and compiled. I am currently studying to be a network systems engineer and not a programmer as origionaly planned. My sister is a professional programer for Wal-Mart, so I've got to see what's involved. That's just not for me. However, my programming experiance is helping out wounderfuly. Not only that, it's by far the best hobby I have ever had.

Ohh yea, I would like to mention that I did go back to BASIC when I was 18. For someone with a good knowlage of C++, a fundamental understanding of the BASIC syntax, and a good function listing for it, BASIC can be a very powerful little scripting language. Especialy when it comes to graphics.

QBRADQ

[shadowatasta 0]

Hi. I first started on the path to programming when I joined my school's Computer Appreciation Club when I was in Sec. 2 (= 8th Grade) but we only got a computer at the end of that year, an Apple-compatible. So, I had to use the school's Apple II computers for most of the year, as did other members who did not own a computer - we were grouped to use them before school started. We also learned programming languages, a different one each year - Basic, Turbo Pascal and Assembly.Years later, I studied for the NCC Diploma and subsquently, finished with an Advanced Diploma in Computer Studies/NCC Higher Diploma. We had subjects with programming and that was where I first practiced coding, nothing complex though. The first real test of my coding skills other than for assignments was when I was asked by my sister to create a programme that generates random unique numbers for one of her university assignments. But, it wasn't bug-free as my sister pointed it out to me.I also did some programming while I was working in a bank, mostly in DBase IV and Access basic. I resigned so I could further my studies in Australia and it was for a Bachelor of IT. I did a lot of programming since it's a "Science" course, especially in C/C+.After graduation, I found a job as a programmer and the language that I used was Visual Basic. Now, I'm trying to learn web languages like HTML and PHP.

[vizskywalker 0]

Yay, another assembly programmer! How much assembly do you know, shadowatasta? (Cool nickname too )~Viz

[dukdalf 0]

First programming?When I was 15, the first computers came into our highschool. Those were PET 4000's, from the later famous CBM (Commodore Business Machines) brand. Alternatives in those days were Tandy TRS-80, IBM and Apple models.We had 8 PET's, linked together in a network, with a tape recorder each, and two 5,25 inch floppy drives attached to the main machine in the network.Those machines came in for learning us teeners programming, so that's what we did.In a couple years we explored all the available BASIC commands and made some more ourselves. Then we turned to machine code, for which the 6502 processor is also quite well known. A year or so later we all stopped with programming as there wasn't anything else to learn, and we didn't have an alternative machine. The famous C64 was a step forward, but not very much as you consider the amount of memory. The instruction set had been extended largely, but I didn't look at computers for quite some years.In university, at my 21st we got Pascal programming courses. That's when I continued, where the base was still laid with the PET-programming. Another 8 years later I followed some training in Cobol and similar techniques in order to get a job. When changing from mainframe to AS/400 I also learned RPG, a native AS/400 lanuage.During the Cobol-jobs I developed myself with HTML and some Java, whereas my main focus now is on PHP.

[OpaQue 15]

Learnt Batch Programming first.. then Foxpro.Then Basic.(just the basics)Jumped to C but was way too confusing for me. (I was in 7th grade) Hardly 12 years old.Then Got introduced to HTML, Then learning the concepts of CGI, I learnt Perl.Then tasted JAVA (didn't master it or anything...) but grasped Javascript. Then VBscript :DSide by side, just for the heck of experementing stuff, I learnt,ASPColdFusionThen the good days hit me, when I learnt PHP and decided to continue with it.In college, I learnt C and C++.Since I wanted to work with database, I learnt SQL Query language. But, ATM, I am sticking around with PHP only.I tried to learn Graphics, but then there too, The ActionScript thing in Flash attracted me and I started learning that. Its pretty cool actually, but I don't use Flash since it is not recommended at all for targetting webpages for Search Engines.I have been programming from past 7 years. Still I don't call myself a PRO in any language. As I was usually busy with many other things and could never go in deep with any language. The only language where I have advanced a lot is PHP. But still, the language is soo vast and new liabraries being added day by day, leaves me behind

[ddlworld 0]

3 years now

[MOO 0]

Man Im new to coding just started learning, still not good but learning hehe.

[XMaster1405241510 0]

I have been programming since 3 years back. I started out by finding a neopet-cheating forum and I wanted to help. So I checked for some programming languages and I started learning C++ for about....3 Months. I learned alot, and even learned how to make GUI's, but it was too difficult for my taste. SO I agreed that I would learn C++ after I get more experienced. I started looking at some sites and I found out of "Python". It was extremely easy and I sticked to learning that language intill they said that Python wasnt very usefull for cheating in games like Neopets. I went to my trusty "Google" , and found out that alot of people used VB6, including the members at the forum I was active at, to make programs. I immediatly bought VB6 and learned alot of the basics and after 2 years, I am very well known for making programs to cheat on Neopets. I enjoy using VB6 because its EXTREMELY usfull, very easy to learn, and you can basicly make any program your heart desire...but of course..you need to work very hard.

[Shadow X 0]

I've only been in programming like 5 months now. I'm hoping that by getting my hosting account with Xisto I can improve my chances of becoming a succesful webmaster.

[ZeroHawk 0]

Wow... I feel like a newbie. I only started programming a year and a half ago, and there was a half year period when I did no coding at all so it works out to be 1 year. I don't think I'm ready to move on to more advanced languages like C+. They look pretty complicated. Maybe in a year....Programming will always be a hobby to me. I'm not loooking at a job in computers (even though it is the future) seeing as I'm one of the smartest, if not the smartest kids in the school. I can go for a lot more.

[butch 0]

I've stared programming 2 years ago. For real. Before that I've learned Pascal in school, but lost my interest in meanwhile. Started with PHP, now learning Python. My favourite is PHP, I'm one with the open-source idea, also PHP is the easiest to learn for n00bs, a lot of documentation and tutorials around the web. And Python is close, currently I'm in "hello world" mode, starting to grip on it. Python is a neat language to me, easy syntax - easy to learn adn extendable - just what I love in Python.

[vdhieu84 0]

The first time I programmed? It must be when I was 9 years old.There was the first national programming competition for students in my country. And there was no kid in my city qualified for the national competition so they (the city commitee) must choose from *other source* one that can handle the job. Well, my father was a well-known CS professor at that time so the city comittee believe that I (as his son) can do that. Oh well, I knew nothing about programming since then and he threw me a QBasic book and asked me to program. I found it really fun and the first *big* program was finished 2 months later, which won the national prize. Then, I stopped programming for 9 years, yes, 9 years, until I go to college.I'm a pretty decent programmer, ranked the first in my CS class, won several competition, but that's it. That's my story, fun but there is some sad in it, I wish if there were no that 9-year... Now, after done with college, I stopped programming again )

[twitch 0]

If you class HTML/DHTML/CSS as programming, then sign me up for 3 years ago/2 years ago/1 year ago.As for PHP, I started on Sunday, so I'm getting into the whole thing. I want to start learning either Java and/or C++ at Christmas time.

[Sarah81 0]

Does HTML programming/coding count?If it does, then I've been doing very basic Web sites for over a decade now. When I say "very basic" I mean that I don't know anything beyond "straight up" HTML coding and a couple of very simple JavaScript commands. (I could probably learn more if I wanted to do more, but the sort of sites I come up with just don't require any advanced work.)So ... I'll just keep writing fiction, as it seems that I'm far better at this than at programming. And when I'm a world-famous novelist, I'll pay someone lots of money to create the sweetest author's Web site ever *grins*

[pyost 0]

Now I'm 15 years old and started programming a year ago. I started with QBasic, which I handled pretty well, for about 6 months and then I stopped. It was a rather big pause for me. I wanted to start Pascal, but I found it too boring. Now I'm in high school and we're starting to learn Pasacal ;)Besides that, I'm also going to some extra classes, where we are beginning to learn C#. We're working in Micro$oft Visual Studio 2005. I hope I will get the hang of it soon enough.......