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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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    maxblitz
    wrote on last edited by
    #110

    I was 17. My father hired me to write a Basic program to help him chart commodity prices. It was an IBM PC XT (I believe). Basic had line numbers and was not yet structured. I think the CPU was a smokin' hot 4 MHZ and the disk drive held a whopping "10 million pieces of information!" (bytes). -- Mark W:omg:

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    • D dlgussin

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

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      Dan Neely
      wrote on last edited by
      #111

      I started with a trash80-color at around the same age. Didn't really go beyond ascii art generation until 5 or 6 years later in highschool with turbopascal.

      -- Rules of thumb should not be taken for the whole hand.

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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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        kurious
        wrote on last edited by
        #112

        1980: I was 7, programming in Advanced Basic (basica on the PC). Moved on to Pascal, then C and x86 ASM, then Java, Bash, Perl and now Python. I still work heavily with Python, Java, C, and ASM. Matthew Carpenter

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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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          destynova
          wrote on last edited by
          #113

          Ernest Laurentin wrote:

          - 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

          Hey, I started on a C64 too, when I was 8 or 9 - only with Basic though. Sure it was right there as soon as you booted the thing up. What an awful implementation it was, though... a slow, unresponsive interface, hardly any language flexibility, and weren't variable names only differentiated by the first two characters? Anyway, I didn't get too far with that. Not until I got an Atari ST a few years later and got into GFA Basic at some point - even by today's standards quote a nice form, I think. And a really graceful interpreter interface! Then I dabbled a little in C (Sozobon C, the PD compiler... fun) and 68k assembly and kinda stayed around that level until I went to college some years later and started with Java and C++. Fun times!

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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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            andyb46
            wrote on last edited by
            #114

            April 1976 Fortran on an ICL 3100 using a teletype keyboard with paper feeding through. Ebarrassed when writing a do while loop without incrementing the loop variable causing infinite loop, took three full pages before control c interrupted loop.

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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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              seggerman
              wrote on last edited by
              #115

              18 - freshman at college Basic on a PDP-11

              Marianne G. C. Seggerman This above all, to thine own self be true and it follows as the night the day thou canst not then be false to any man.

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              • M Mark Salsbery

                :laugh: Youngster ;P

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                TheLioness22
                wrote on last edited by
                #116

                You think that's a Youngster?? I started programming at about 13 using VB 6.0 - Now that makes me the youngster... -Leona

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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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                  tarrc
                  wrote on last edited by
                  #117

                  Huh, I started on something like the IBM 5155, 10 Meg harddrive on an IDE card. Two 5 1/4 floppies and it ran DOS 3.2 I think. No mouse, no USB, just a cool green screen and a parallel printer port. :omg:

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                  • J JLengi

                    Yup, I started with the original 4.77 MHz IBM PC. No hard disk, just 5-inch floppies. First programming language: Basic. When we got a modem, it was a whopping 300 bps. (We bypassed the 110 bps acoustic couplers.) The comm software was written in basic. And FIDONET was probably more widely used than the Internet.

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                    CoolBreeze812
                    wrote on last edited by
                    #118

                    300 bps modems and FIDONET...Oh the memories...the simpler times.:)

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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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                      SR Methos
                      wrote on last edited by
                      #119

                      So long ago.... Started writing BASIC on a Vic20 (at the tender age of 11) then commodore 64, Timex Sinclair, TRS80 , TI 99 and then move up to PC XT,AT and so on. After BASIC, I moved on to PROGRESS for 10 years on main frames and PC . Now a days, i only program in WINDEV and will never look back. But i do really really miss my 64. I just loved that machine. I got really hooked on programming by a magazine(and i dont remember the name) that had a lot of info on the 64 and some language machine programs in it the you had to type in with a little program they supplied. I wish my kids would have something similar today Later all :) Methos

                      "When you have learned to snatch the error code from the trap frame, it will be time for you to leave "

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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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                        Mcsquare
                        wrote on last edited by
                        #120

                        I was 21, my last semester in college as a Math major looking to get into programming when I could finally take my first computer course, Fortran. I had to type the program on paper tape, but the professor could never get the college computer(PDP 8) working. Luckily IBM hired me right after graduation and taught me DOS 360 Assembler language(this was the late 60's). I worked on the DOS supervisor (aka operating system) for the IBM 360/370 Mainframe computers written in Macro Assembler. Anyone remember what an "MNote" was??? Old and crotchety, but still codin'

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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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                          Mobile001
                          wrote on last edited by
                          #121

                          I started programming with CMS-2Y in 1978 on a Sperry Univac AN/UYK-7 mainframe with the Military. It was great to get a TI-99 and hook it up to a 12 Inch Black and white TV as my Monitor and play with those sprites and Basic. There were two camps in the early to mid-80's...the TI hams and the VIc-20/Commodore 64 sluggers. Who would have ever know that my life's work has changed since being introduced to programming..oh so long ago. Lloyd:)

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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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                            tylermenezes
                            wrote on last edited by
                            #122

                            Well, I am fourteen now, but I started around nine with VB.NET.

                            -Tyler Menezes CEO and Chairman of Programs and Websites and MyWebsFree.com "If a plane is on a convayer belt moving backwards at the same speed that it moves fowards, will it take off?"

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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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                              irotsoma
                              wrote on last edited by
                              #123

                              I was 8 (Dos batch files) and 9 or 10 when I started with BASIC on an Amiga 1000 with a 1MB RAM expansion that was like 5 lbs.

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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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                                studboyshabbir
                                wrote on last edited by
                                #124

                                I started programming when I was 13 years old. I remember I am in eight standard and I have started from Q-Basic then I shifted to Word-start, Lotus, Q-Pro ten Foxpro, HTML, MS-Office then Oracle, HTML, VB 6.0 then ASP, ASP.net 1.1 and 2.0, Vb.Net 1.1 and 2.0, C# 1.1 and 2.0. Regards Shabbir

                                Shabbir Kanchwala Software Developer

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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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                                  SheepYNesS
                                  wrote on last edited by
                                  #125

                                  I got interested in it a the age of 13. 386, 4mb Ram, QBasic (messed around with the code in Nibbles and Gorrilas..hehe). I also worked a bit in Edlin (batch/menu language for dos... 3.x i think). I officially started when I went to go study it @ 18years old. One thing i love about programming... the only thing that limits you is your imagination. Anything is possible... Anything! Happy Coding SheepYNesS :wtf: Let's face the obvious: yesterday we were nerds, today we're the cognitive elite. Let's conquer. (Chester G Edwards)

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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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                                    Ven Phil
                                    wrote on last edited by
                                    #126

                                    I was 27, on an IBM 360/67, using ALGOLW and cards. There were no such things as personal computers then. There were some minis (PDP-x) made by Control Data (?). A couple of years after the 360/67 was installed, we decided we needed more memory (it had 356K). We couldn't afford IBM's prices, and shopped around a little bit. We eventually found a 256K memory box that used TRANSISTORS, of all things, for memory. It was housed in a 3 foot square by 4 or 5 foot high box (perforated metal for cooling, and had to be cooled by the air conditioning used for the mainframe. It cost $250,000 -- one dollar per byte. IBM was not pleased, but we had no trouble with the box. I do remember a desktop something or other made by IBM. You could program in APL or Basic, depending on some module you put in the computer. I think it had 8K of RAM, and no permanant storage, though you could get an extra tape drive to store programs on. This was in the mid-70s I think, about 8 years into my programming career. I bought one of the original IBM PCs in 1982 or 1983: 128K RAM, two 5.5" floppy drives, and an 8086 chip. I also got an Epson dot matrix printer which accepted 17" wide computer paper. The total cost was $5,500. I have never paid anywhere near that price for a computer, monitor, and printer since. The 128K RAM had been achieved by soldering extra RAM chips piggy-back onto the existing RAM chips. I guess there was an extra hole somewhere for the extra bus address wire that one of the chip wires got soldered in to. I spend hours on that machine, writing compilers mostly. A couple of years later we got IBM XTs at work. They had 10MB hard drives on them (I think). They hard drives were rumored to be VERY fragile. Sneezing on them could cause them to stop working. It turned out that it was the controller chip that was faulty. Occasionally the clock would change frequencies for a few milliseconds, and if you were writing to the drive, you instantly created something that could not be read, and the unit generated a fault. I think it took me 6 months to fill up the hard drive. Somewhere around that time Apple introduced the Lisa computer, which looked really neat. It just didn't have any application software on it, nor was any available. They modelled the screen design on work done by Xerox PARC in Palo Alto, which Stanford graduates (like me) were familiar with. The Lisa was a demo unit that our engineering group was lent for a few weeks. I don't know of anyone who ever bought one. But then the Mac came out ... Today I use a D

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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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                                      micmanos
                                      wrote on last edited by
                                      #127

                                      Started at 14 using a home micro branded "Laser ..." something that run a BASIC v1.1 version. It had no storage medium, connected on the TV and had 32KB ram. It's speed must have been lower than 50KHz. Later i got my first XT Desktop which had two 5.25" floppy drives, 14" monitor, CGA (4 color 320x200), 512KB ram, NEC-V20 CPU and tripple speed configuration (changeable by Alt+Ctrl+1/2/3) at 4.77, 8 and 10MHz. Up to this moment (I'm 34), I still try to figure out if there was any app/game that runned too fast at 10MHz and would require a slowdown at 4.77 ??????:laugh:

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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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                                        topcatalpha
                                        wrote on last edited by
                                        #128

                                        Lol, i was also 12 when i had my VIC20 and on my 14 th i had a Commodore 64.. writing basic, peeking and pooking was my live... :-) greetz.. Kurt

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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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                                          Fla_Golfr
                                          wrote on last edited by
                                          #129

                                          I got started when I was 20 in the service, didn't have Personal Computers back then. Only mainframes. Carc punches and readers, and tape. Using CoBOL and FORTRAN. Still making a pretty good living at coding. However, I can say I have put more than 20 applications into production, i.e., out the developer door where the "owner/client" could sell it to someone for usage and make a profit. I found that a lot of younger coders now-a-days are smart, got their certificates, etc. and they know their subject matter, but it seems like that once they have identified the saddle, bridal, and horse, they don't know how it all goes together so they can ride the horse, so to speak. I guess and more important question is how many actual out the door to be sold applications have you done and are you still doing it?

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