I started programming at the age of 13, and I can remember how naive I was. I used to think I could do anything with VB, when I never actually did anything productive. I was also a pretty slow learner; it took me a while to understand the concept of variables. You know, I actually made something that I dubbed "MatrixClone" with VB6; a completely stupid "console" that took me a couple weeks to finish and was very badly coded, yet I was proud that I had actually finished something.
Anyhow, the real purpose of this thread is to test a hypothesis of mine, neatly scribbled on my doodlepad next to my monitor:
Does the age at which you start programming affect your competance as a programmer later on?
Generally I think it makes no difference whether you start programming at 13 or 31 - if you can understand it, you can be productive at it.
So what's the general oppinion around here? How old were you when you started programming? What was your first language? Do you think it makes / made a difference?
And yes, I like to doodle while I'm waiting for something to download / compile etc.
