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How Did You Learn How To Program?

Posted by Unknown on from the emacs-plus-glibc-infotex-manual dept.

theodp writes "'Every programmer likely remembers how they learned to code,' writes GeekWire's Taylor Soper. 'For guys like Bill Gates and Paul Allen, the magic began on the Teletype Model 33 (pic). For others, it may have been a few days at a coding workshop like the one I attended for journalists.' If you're in the mood to share how and in what ways your own developer days began, Soper adds, 'cyborg anthropologist' Amber Case is collecting stories to help people understand what it takes to learn how to code. Any fond computer camp stories, kids?"

4 of 623 comments (clear)

  1. Compute! Magazine by Dan+East · · Score: 5, Interesting

    When I was 10 I had a Ti-99/4A and subscribed to Compute! magazine. I'd type the BASIC programs in each month, and through the process of typing in thousands of lines of code, and then wanting to make modifications to the games (adding more lives, etc), I simply began to understand how the software controlled the behavior of the computer.

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    Better known as 318230.
  2. BBC by serviscope_minor · · Score: 5, Funny

    BBC Basic on a BBC and then asm to make it faster.

    Really, BBC BASIC wasn't a bad language. Allowed proper structured programming with functions, procedures, local variables etc.

    I still remember that CHR$(141) does double height text in teletext.

    This has not been a useful thing to remember.

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    SJW n. One who posts facts.
  3. I never did by coldsalmon · · Score: 5, Interesting

    What little "programming" I've done (bash scripting, HTML, MySQL, a bit of Scheme from SICP for fun) doesn't really count. What I've learned, I've taught myself based on information found online and in books. I know enough to write some useful scripts for my office Linux server, but I leave the real programming to real programmers.

  4. One week turnaround with punch cards by brausch · · Score: 5, Interesting

    My high school was part of a pilot project for rural schools in Minnesota in 196x. We got boxes of pre-punched, numbered (in columns 73-80), FORTRAN statements and would assemble programs from them. The teacher would send the student programs down to the Univ. of Minn. via bus and we'd get the printouts back for the next week's class. It got me hooked for life.

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    "Almost every wise saying has an opposite one, no less wise, to balance it." - George Santayana