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?

Qbasic --- then I found C (smiles) and then assembly language :)

and then GNU(<-- make Stallman happy)Linux.

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

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.

PHP1 -> VB (makes eyes bleed) -> C++ -> ASM/C (where I am now ;))

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.

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.

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.

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.

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...

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++

Continuing laserlight's list:
HTML -> Javascript -> PHP -> C++ -> Assembly/RE

Did anyone ever use the LOGO language? ;)

What's that? Never heard of it. :)

it was used a few years back in on elementary school systems to use "Turtle graphic" programming

I've used LOGO before. It was pretty fun actually. Not that I remember anything specific now.

In grade school, at one point, we were allowed to play with a computer that had a turtle. I remember distinctly drawing castle walls.

That is what i thought it did too. Its very old now days mind, just goes to show how many languages there are in the world, and some odd ones too! :p

I learned Logo in school. Fun thing.

And last year I used NetLogo, a system where you have hundreds or even thousands of parallel turtles. It's used for agent-based modelling.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by swgh

it was used a few years back in on elementary school systems to use "Turtle graphic" programming

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Oh that! :D

I wouldn't call that a programming language. Just some kind of scripting thing.

@school
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinclair_ZX81
Yes, an awesome 1K of memory to play with - that really forces you to pay attention :)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_II_series
IIRC, it was some kind of basic, but I can't remember the details.

@home
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBC_Micro
Initially using BBC Basic, and then later on 6502 assembler.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by swgh

Did anyone ever use the LOGO language? ;)

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Indeed. I started long ago on BASIC, and then rapidly switched to LOGO writer - I was better than the webmaster at LOGO writer. Then I went on to PASCAL --> C++ --> JAVA --> several psudo languages used for programming psychology research tools.

Interestingly, I teach elementary school now and some of my students are still working in Logo Writer - it now goes under its company name Microworlds.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by swgh

Did anyone ever use the LOGO language? ;)

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Oh, I did. Two years ago (I'm 15). It used the turtle, but I believe it was called MicroWorlds.

My learning went something like this (starting point around 2002, ending point about now):


PHP -> Perl 5 -> C -> ??? -> Haskell, Erlang, Perl 6, others


You're probably wondering what exactly happened in the middle area. So am I.

In terms of hardware, first computer I can ever remember was my father's old MS-DOS system, way archaic but I had fun playing Midnight Rescue on it.
Second computer was a laptop my sister obtained with Windows 3.1. I fiddled with this for a while.
Then we got Windows 95.
Then we got Windows ME and stuck with it for far too long.
Now I have XP but primarily run GNU/Linux and OpenBSD.

Atari ST / Omicron Basic

It's a pretty long chain... and I got to be honest, Martin Gardner and Chaos and Fractals are probably half of where I am now in programming.

1. Good old super-customized autoexec.bat
2. QBasic, with some inspiration from my Dad (thanks dad). I still remember that 'game' I wrote, it was a text adventure about being on an island with treasure on it.
3. High School! Every student was required to own a graphing calculator. Me and my mom saved some money by getting one of the HP calculators. Many were the prime number calculating programs and stuff that made beeps.
4. College. For one semester took an intro class which was taught in Java.
5. Summer Break. QBasic revisited. Game state searches kinda stuff. Let me just say, QBasic is a PITA. On the bright side, it was easy to make neat graphics programs.
6. Summer Break #2. Downloaded DJGPP, and went through K&R (again, thanks dad).

After K&R, I think I pretty much knew how to program. It was just a matter of finding applications.

Wrote a spreadsheet in eight grade to manage an NCAA basketball pool.

Me? I was into robotics (of all things . . .) then discovered microcontrollers. Then I discovered that I perfered writing programs for the microcontrollers rather than designing the robots. So, hence came BASIC. I tried GW-BASIC (this was in 2002 . . .) then decided I liked Liberty BASIC (made by Shoptalk) better. Then, expanding on my knowledge, I tried C, then decided I liked C++ better. Well, then I got to OOP, and, well, lets say that I hated it. So I switched back to C and have been learning it since.

Currently, I use C, although I've taken courses in C++ and Java just for the sake of it. I mostly use Debian GNU/Linux but have been using an older laptop with Win98SE on it because my mom is monopolizing my usual comp.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by nvoigt

Atari ST / Omicron Basic

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I'd completely forgottten about the Atari ST! While I didn't use it to program, it was a great gaming rig. I still wonder how many hours were wasted on that playing Bubble Bobble and Elite instead of doing homework :D

Quote:

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Currently, I use C, although I've taken courses in C++ and Java

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Its never a bad idea to have a variety of programming languges under your belt :)

html->VB->C++->PHP->C->MIPS(Assembly)
I forgot most of php though.
If I have more time, I would relearn php :(

GWBasic. My grandmother was a Cobol programmer and was visiting, I had this cute book where either illustrated robots (or aliens) talked in Basic, and I happened to have a computer with GWBasic.

Eventually I got Qbasic (I wanted a compiler).

A few years later, I picked up C after a friend of mine got into it along with HTML, which my friend was also into.

I picked up C++ soon after (natural progression from C), along with Java (we used it at a summer program).

When I got to college, I learned Scheme and LISP thanks to one of the department's intro classes, though I only fully grokked Scheme when I had to teach it.

After taking an class on computability (and using Vim), I decided regular expressions were super. (Who'd think theory would be so practical?) Perl was a natural stepping stone. (I also had some experience with it from websites, of course.)

Perl and CGI were a hassle, so I learned PHP, which I don't much like. It is not a hassle, but it is ugly.

I picked up Ruby when I was involved in teaching a class that planned to use it, and I found it much to my liking, and tend to prefer it as scripting language over Perl.

I've recently dabbled a bit in x86 assembly (primarily for debugging) and Erlang (just for fun).

Nowadays, for work, I spend a fair amount of time programming in a custom CLIPS-like rules engine language that we implemented in house. (In addition to C++.)

And he forgot to mention that before he learned Qbasic...I was better at microworlds.