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  3. How old did you start programming?

How old did you start programming?

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  • E Ernest Laurentin

    Just wondering: how old were you when you start programming? maybe had your first computer? - I started programming when I was 12yrs (w/ VIC-20 and commodore 64)(I still feel young though!) - Programming language: Basic, then..Assembler for Commodore 64

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    xooh
    wrote on last edited by
    #78

    I was 10 I guess, with BASIC, on a french "TO7" (Thomson), back in the mid-80s. Then, on a ATARI ST -512K RAM, 360K disks- in GFABasic and 68000... Hum. I'm 33 by the way :)

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    • E Ernest Laurentin

      Just wondering: how old were you when you start programming? maybe had your first computer? - I started programming when I was 12yrs (w/ VIC-20 and commodore 64)(I still feel young though!) - Programming language: Basic, then..Assembler for Commodore 64

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      NutSoft
      wrote on last edited by
      #79

      In 1979 when I was 13 years old (at school) using Commodore PET and Basic. First owned a Sinclair ZX81 with 1KB memory and no storage media!

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      • E Ernest Laurentin

        Just wondering: how old were you when you start programming? maybe had your first computer? - I started programming when I was 12yrs (w/ VIC-20 and commodore 64)(I still feel young though!) - Programming language: Basic, then..Assembler for Commodore 64

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        Nader Elshehabi
        wrote on last edited by
        #80

        Ernest Laurentin wrote:

        how old were you when you start programming?

        I started programming back in 1992, when I was 9 years old. I started with QBasic at that time

        Ernest Laurentin wrote:

        maybe had your first computer?

        Well, it was my father's -still was able to play games on it though.:-D So it's still kind like mine too-. I used it more than him most of the time. It was Acer 8-12MgHz, 2Mb RAM, 40Mb HDD.

        Regards:rose:

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        • E Ernest Laurentin

          Just wondering: how old were you when you start programming? maybe had your first computer? - I started programming when I was 12yrs (w/ VIC-20 and commodore 64)(I still feel young though!) - Programming language: Basic, then..Assembler for Commodore 64

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          Parsley72
          wrote on last edited by
          #81

          Wow, what a bunch of late starters! I wrote my first program on a ZX81 when I was about 9. What language? If you have to ask...

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          • E Ernest Laurentin

            Just wondering: how old were you when you start programming? maybe had your first computer? - I started programming when I was 12yrs (w/ VIC-20 and commodore 64)(I still feel young though!) - Programming language: Basic, then..Assembler for Commodore 64

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            f29ceac8 b450 4ee4 af17 1eb12cd025e9
            wrote on last edited by
            #82

            I started programming when i was in 8th grade (it was around 94 i guess) in GWBASIC. The machines in my school were IBM-PCs with 128kb ram and those big floppy drives. never had any hard drives. Used to boot into DOS3.2

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            • J Jasmine2501

              Hehe... I remember when software was distributed that way. They'd just print the source code in a book and you'd buy it and type it in yourself. The great thing about that was that you could hack it and make it better. I had a great hack for Blue Meanies from Outer Space (which was distributed on tape, but had bugs), and I ported World Power from Apple to VIC-20 that way, by printing the code and typing it in, doing the translations along the way. I'm the original author of Choo Man Foo (a C-64/128 Pac-Man clone)... anyone ever played that? I've always wondered if it made it outside of my home town.

              "Quality Software since 1983!"
              http://www.smoothjazzy.com/ - see the "Programming" section for (freeware) JazzySiteMaps, a simple application to generate .Net and Google-style sitemaps!

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              Rocky Moore
              wrote on last edited by
              #83

              Jasmine2501 wrote:

              Choo Man Foo (a C-64/128 Pac-Man clone)... anyone ever played that?

              Nope.

              Jasmine2501 wrote:

              just print the source code in a book and you'd buy it and type it in yourself.

              Yeah, I had an utility I wrote published with an article in Compute! or the Gazette. It was a little asm program to capture the screen and convert it into a BASIC program. Trival but handy at the time ;)

              Rocky <>< Latest Code Blog Post: Vista for Web Development, Read this first! Latest Tech Blog Post: Blog changed to Subtext!

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              • E Ernest Laurentin

                Just wondering: how old were you when you start programming? maybe had your first computer? - I started programming when I was 12yrs (w/ VIC-20 and commodore 64)(I still feel young though!) - Programming language: Basic, then..Assembler for Commodore 64

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                Paul Watson
                wrote on last edited by
                #84

                About 13 on a 286 with Basic and then Turbo Pascal. I turned the moon green with TB, ah the memories.

                regards, Paul Watson Ireland & South Africa

                Shog9 wrote:

                I don't see it happening, at least not until it becomes pointless.

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                • E Ernest Laurentin

                  Just wondering: how old were you when you start programming? maybe had your first computer? - I started programming when I was 12yrs (w/ VIC-20 and commodore 64)(I still feel young though!) - Programming language: Basic, then..Assembler for Commodore 64

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                  Mehdi Mousavi
                  wrote on last edited by
                  #85

                  Coooooool thread :) 1. Started coding at 15. 2. Commodore +4, Commodore 64, and Commodore 128. 3. Basic, GWBasic, QBasic, Pascal, C, C++, etc ... 4. My first PC was an Intel 386/33MHz/1MB RAM (4 x 256) with a co-processor (added later).

                  Mehdi Mousavi - Software Architect [ http://mehdi.biz ]

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                  • E Ernest Laurentin

                    Just wondering: how old were you when you start programming? maybe had your first computer? - I started programming when I was 12yrs (w/ VIC-20 and commodore 64)(I still feel young though!) - Programming language: Basic, then..Assembler for Commodore 64

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                    Jim from Indy
                    wrote on last edited by
                    #86

                    I was a freshman in college. My high school didn't have classes like that -- too expensive. I took a class in FORTRAN in school...yes, punch cards on a CDC6400 (sort of a junior super computer....) I enjoyed it so much, but hated cards, that I became the fella who sits at the desk outside the computer center and helps others with their programs (the "insultant"). My favorite question: "I didn't change anything, but my program doesn't work anymore..." Answer: "If you didn't change anything, why did you run it again?" The closest we had to a PC back then was a PDP-8 minicomputer. Jim (college class of 1976)

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                    • R Ravi Bhavnani

                      Started programming at 21 Got my own computer at 25 (IBM-AT, 6MHz, 512MKb RAM, 20Mb hard disk) First programming language: Pascal /ravi

                      My new year's resolution: 2048 x 1536 Home | Music | Articles | Freeware | Trips ravib(at)ravib(dot)com

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                      dlgussin
                      wrote on last edited by
                      #87

                      I was 9 years old and started programming Basic on a TRS-80 model 1. I think that dates me!

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                      • E Ernest Laurentin

                        Just wondering: how old were you when you start programming? maybe had your first computer? - I started programming when I was 12yrs (w/ VIC-20 and commodore 64)(I still feel young though!) - Programming language: Basic, then..Assembler for Commodore 64

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                        Lost User
                        wrote on last edited by
                        #88

                        13 years old. I started out with Basic and moved on to some assembly on both the Atari 800 and Apple II. Those were the days - when a teenager could know everything there was to know about at least one thing :P

                        Regards, Dave

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                        • E Ernest Laurentin

                          Just wondering: how old were you when you start programming? maybe had your first computer? - I started programming when I was 12yrs (w/ VIC-20 and commodore 64)(I still feel young though!) - Programming language: Basic, then..Assembler for Commodore 64

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                          Gonzalo Brusella
                          wrote on last edited by
                          #89

                          I've started on my dad's job when I was four correcting their Fortan syntax on a TI-99 as a game... When I was 6 my family buyed my first CZ Spectrum (The argentinan-renamed version of the Sinclair ZX Spectrum) with a datasette unit for storage (Ohh those old happy days :(( ) When I was 12, I had my firt PC (a 80386 with 4 MB of RAM). My fist real development language was Basic... Later Pascal and C came into my life and the the last one never went away...

                          I'm on a Fuzzy State: Between 0 an 1

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                          • C Christian Graus

                            Cool thread idea. I was about 15 ( I can't remember ), and it was an Apple ][. Funny enough, the private school I got kicked out of didn't have a computer lab, the public school that took me in, did. I saw the Apples, and I fell in love. I had money in the bank ( my mum put the money the government gave her for us, in the bank ), and I spent it on an Apple ][ clone, I joined AUSOM ( the local computer club ), and I was hooked. In fact, I often say that I failed most of high school because I spent my time playing on the computer and programming. Which worked out pretty well for me in the end, but I won't advocate it to my kids.... I passed year 11 after being kicked out of home in the last term. I don't think I passed anything else, in all of high school. I did a TAFE VOC course, got an A in computing, A's for maths, and failed the rest. I did a computer operators certificate, but I didn't attend the mid year exams, mostly in disgust.

                            Christian Graus - Microsoft MVP - C++ Metal Musings - Rex and my new metal blog

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                            MrSmersh
                            wrote on last edited by
                            #90

                            8 on a IBM mainframe copy (Felix C52).Yes punch paper cards... It was an experimental program at the local technical youngsters club. Even now I do not "own" a computer, where I work I have allotted 5 though :)

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                            • E Ernest Laurentin

                              Just wondering: how old were you when you start programming? maybe had your first computer? - I started programming when I was 12yrs (w/ VIC-20 and commodore 64)(I still feel young though!) - Programming language: Basic, then..Assembler for Commodore 64

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                              Andy Brummer
                              wrote on last edited by
                              #91

                              I was 10 when my parents got me a 16K Radio Shack color computer and a few books on basic. I had to beg them for the tape recorder so I could save programs.

                              Using the GridView is like trying to explain to someone else how to move a third person's hands in order to tie your shoelaces for you. -Chris Maunder

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                              • E Ernest Laurentin

                                Just wondering: how old were you when you start programming? maybe had your first computer? - I started programming when I was 12yrs (w/ VIC-20 and commodore 64)(I still feel young though!) - Programming language: Basic, then..Assembler for Commodore 64

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                                Hoverbored
                                wrote on last edited by
                                #92

                                Was about 16-17 (Jr in HS)in '73-'74. We had a teletype terminal, you had to dial the school district office, then put the phone in the 'ear cups' on the side of the terminal. We were programming in BASIC (computing orbits for Physics!). Things weren't much improved 2-3yrs later in college. I went to a commuter school, and folks 'gave me the phone lines' after 9pm to dial back to school for my Fortran homework (on my TRS-80 M:I w, Cat Novation modem! 300bps). Can you whistle at 300bps? ;-)

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                                • E Ernest Laurentin

                                  Just wondering: how old were you when you start programming? maybe had your first computer? - I started programming when I was 12yrs (w/ VIC-20 and commodore 64)(I still feel young though!) - Programming language: Basic, then..Assembler for Commodore 64

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                                  Jason J Neigh
                                  wrote on last edited by
                                  #93

                                  4th Grade (9 yoa). TI 99/4a w/ "Audio" Tape Drive (Christmas Present). BASIC. (as if there was a choice for it.) :-D

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                                  • E Ernest Laurentin

                                    Just wondering: how old were you when you start programming? maybe had your first computer? - I started programming when I was 12yrs (w/ VIC-20 and commodore 64)(I still feel young though!) - Programming language: Basic, then..Assembler for Commodore 64

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                                    Geoff Gariepy
                                    wrote on last edited by
                                    #94

                                    First saw a personal computer in a Radio Shack store somewhere around 1978-79. First got to use a computer when I started high school in 1981 -- Commodore PET. I was 13 that year. :laugh: First owned a VIC-20 around 1982. 3KB of RAM, cassette tape mass storage, and I was really living! I learned BASIC on this machine and the PETs at school. We had old teletype machines at school we used for printers. Noisy! First owned a Commodore 64 in ~1984. I remember paying $200 for it, using money I earned painting a basement. My parents gave me the 1541 Floppy drive for Christmas. (The VIC and the C-64 are still boxed up in the original boxes in my basement!) Learned Pascal (KMMM) and 650x assembly on this machine. Believe it or not, I didn't actually get a PC-compatible machine (a used 386) until 1994 or so. I had been working as a sysadmin for several years at that point and couldn't afford a new machine. In between the C-64 and my 386, I had an Amiga 1000, which I used all through college. What a ride it's been! :)

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                                    • E Ernest Laurentin

                                      Just wondering: how old were you when you start programming? maybe had your first computer? - I started programming when I was 12yrs (w/ VIC-20 and commodore 64)(I still feel young though!) - Programming language: Basic, then..Assembler for Commodore 64

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                                      JHubSharp
                                      wrote on last edited by
                                      #95

                                      I was around 4 or 5 when I started poking with my dad's old C-64. Thought it was the coolest thing ever to "give" my sister a screen that repeated "Happy birthday" over and over until I hit the break button. I went to QBasic in my teens and HTML in high school. I didn't ever really get back into coding (other than the very occasional JavaScript) until college, though.

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                                      • E Ernest Laurentin

                                        Just wondering: how old were you when you start programming? maybe had your first computer? - I started programming when I was 12yrs (w/ VIC-20 and commodore 64)(I still feel young though!) - Programming language: Basic, then..Assembler for Commodore 64

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                                        sampyxis
                                        wrote on last edited by
                                        #96

                                        For me, 13 yrs old - Vic 20 / then a Commodore 64 - loved it - basic, machine language - wrote games. I also wrote a few articles for various magazines before I was 16 - it was a great time ;-)

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                                        • E Ernest Laurentin

                                          cool! Same for me. BASIC got me hooked first.

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                                          msimas73
                                          wrote on last edited by
                                          #97

                                          I was 13 years old when I got a MSX 8 bit computer for Christmas (64kb of RAM with a cassette tape player, all hooked up to a TV - these were very popular in Brazil at the time)). I also got an Apple IIe programming book (there were no books out for MSX yet :-)) and that's how it all started...

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