Thread: How did you begin?

  1. #1
    Apprentice Swordsman's Avatar
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    How did you begin?

    After reading the Windows 3.1 thread, I got thinking. How did all of you start out in your programming endeavours?

    What was the first language you used and how did it happen?

    As I mentioned, I started playing about with QBasic years back, and had a good time doing it. I only really started because I had a computer and found QBasic while looking through File Manager, and wanted to know what it did. The help section was my main reference as we didn't have the internet then, and I didn't know that books about programming even existed. It was a passing interest for a few years until I got in to web design, then from that decided to give programming a bash again using C, eventually enrolling in a course.

    So, how did you get going?

  2. #2
    Linux is where it's at movl0x1's Avatar
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    Qbasic --- then I found C (smiles) and then assembly language

    and then GNU(<-- make Stallman happy)Linux.
    Last edited by movl0x1; 05-14-2007 at 01:49 AM.

  3. #3
    Hurry Slowly vart's Avatar
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    Programming calculator - twenty something years ago
    several 8-bit comuters with different laguages from assembler to BASIC - during my school years
    PC - BASIC, FORTRAN, Pascal, C - in the University
    etc
    All problems in computer science can be solved by another level of indirection,
    except for the problem of too many layers of indirection.
    – David J. Wheeler

  4. #4
    Cat without Hat CornedBee's Avatar
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    First language was Macromedia Director's scripting language, Lingo.

    Then I learned C++ from a very bad book.
    Then I actually learned C++ from a pretty good book.
    All the buzzt!
    CornedBee

    "There is not now, nor has there ever been, nor will there ever be, any programming language in which it is the least bit difficult to write bad code."
    - Flon's Law

  5. #5
    Woof, woof! zacs7's Avatar
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    PHP1 -> VB (makes eyes bleed) -> C++ -> ASM/C (where I am now )

  6. #6
    Math wizard
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    In short, it was with Gamestudio at first, but its limitations and annoyances prompted me to learn C instead.

    In moderate detail, around when Windows 3.1 was common, I had Borland C++. I found programming very confusing. That was the first time I actually saw a compiler/IDE. It wouldn't be until 2000 that I got Gamestudio that I saw programming again, but never got into it as I found it confusing. It was by around mid-2004 that I finally got started and made my first program in January of 2005. Gamestudio used it's own (semi-)unique language - a cross between C and javascript but much simpler and easier to use. The numerous limitations of Gamestudio, especially the single variable type and it's very narrow range (to 2097152 in both directions, in steps of 1/1024), prevented many features from being added without variable overflow occurring. Slopes, pitched gliding, and having objects were not possible because the "var" as it was called prevented this. I got into C because I felt as if the related Lite-C feature would take several months to be released and figured I'd just learn C and program everything myself without bothering with Gamestudio anymore. In fact, I haven't been to their site in almost a year now with only small intentions on briefly returning.

    This goes in ten times the depth, but hasn't been updated in about a half of a year.

    Edit: My current project is reprogramming my 2D game (my first game) entirely in C instead of the flawed version (due to the use of Molebox, another thing steering me away from Gamestudio). I can finally add slopes, pitched gliding, water, dynamic fog, and various other things not possible at all in Gamestudio.
    Last edited by ulillillia; 05-14-2007 at 05:30 AM. Reason: mentioned current project
    High elevation is the best elevation. The higher, the better the view!
    My computer: XP Pro SP3, 3.4 GHz i7-2600K CPU (OC'd to 4 GHz), 4 GB DDR3 RAM, X-Fi Platinum sound, GeForce 460, 1920x1440 resolution, 1250 GB HDD space, Visual C++ 2008 Express

  7. #7
    The Right Honourable psychopath's Avatar
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    In order of learning:
    HTML -> Simkin -> C++ -> PHP -> C++/CLI -> C# -> Java

    Started messing with HTML when I was a kid (10 or so). Was pretty bad at it too, because I didn't understand how websites really worked. Then I started trying to make games with Reality Factory, which uses Simkin as its scripting language. After getting sick of RF, I decided to try and learn C++ so I could make my own game editor system. That endevour is still ongoing, and has prompted me to learn other languages like C++CLI and Java. C++ is still my favourite though.
    M.Eng Computer Engineering Candidate
    B.Sc Computer Science

    Robotics and graphics enthusiast.

  8. #8
    C++ Witch laserlight's Avatar
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    HTML -> Javascript -> PHP -> C++ -> ...

    I started off by wanting to know how someone made text scroll across the screen in an online forum. It turns out the fellow was using the (non-standard) marquee tag, and consequently I went on to learn HTML. Then I observed those nifty scripts that told you the current time and what not on websites, so I went on to learn some Javascript.

    A friend of mine introduced me to a community hosting system written in PHP, and somewhere along the line I decided to find out what it was all about, and then started on PHP. By the time I got to junior college, I decided to take computing as a subject, and thus was taught C++. One of my classmates gave me the link to cprogramming.com, though I did not register for the messageboard until towards the end of my junior college days, when I decided that I wanted to learn C++ properly.
    Quote Originally Posted by Bjarne Stroustrup (2000-10-14)
    I get maybe two dozen requests for help with some sort of programming or design problem every day. Most have more sense than to send me hundreds of lines of code. If they do, I ask them to find the smallest example that exhibits the problem and send me that. Mostly, they then find the error themselves. "Finding the smallest program that demonstrates the error" is a powerful debugging tool.
    Look up a C++ Reference and learn How To Ask Questions The Smart Way

  9. #9
    Ethernal Noob
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    Once I found out that you can make games by programming, I started. Then I started, then started again and again. Eventually I stuck with it and am now learning OpenGL. I just wanted to make programs.

  10. #10
    Registered User Queatrix's Avatar
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    I was as into games as anyone early on, then I had the idea to make some, I got this idea through level editors, I just wanted to take it another step. So I learned HTML; after 2 years, I got into C/C++/XHTML, then PHP/Java/Javscript/XML/CGI/Perl at the same time.

    Weird order of learning, I know, but even now C/C++ is still my language of choice. Until about a year ago, games was always why I was programming to begin with, now I have other reasons...

  11. #11
    Its hard... But im here swgh's Avatar
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    I used to program for the Arcimedies in BASIC in the early 90s then at school I installed a crappy C compiler and learnt very basic C. That prompted me to take C course in college in 1999 and from them I got into C++ which I study at university.

    I now wirte small games ans apps using either C or C++
    Double Helix STL

  12. #12
    Reverse Engineer maxorator's Avatar
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    Continuing laserlight's list:
    HTML -> Javascript -> PHP -> C++ -> Assembly/RE
    "The Internet treats censorship as damage and routes around it." - John Gilmore

  13. #13
    Its hard... But im here swgh's Avatar
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    Did anyone ever use the LOGO language?
    Double Helix STL

  14. #14
    Reverse Engineer maxorator's Avatar
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    What's that? Never heard of it.
    "The Internet treats censorship as damage and routes around it." - John Gilmore

  15. #15
    Its hard... But im here swgh's Avatar
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    it was used a few years back in on elementary school systems to use "Turtle graphic" programming
    Double Helix STL

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