The day you realized you were a programmer ...

[I Record]

I remember my dad bringing home an IBM PS2 machine that he'd "borrowed" from work when I was about 6. I wrote a batch file options menu for my games, so I didn't have to 'cd' to the appropriate directory. When I was 15, my now brother-in-law showed me Turbo Pascal that he was learning at college, I then wrote a pong game before I started college (the same course as him). Through my 4 years of college I was always showing everyone else how to make the boring program we had to write more interesting, generally through boredom of completing it within a few mins. I thought I was a programmer, then I went work for a company using AS400s and RPG3/ILE, I realised how little I knew. I now write internal web applications for a school in .NET, all alone.

You don't have to be mad to live here [UK], but it helps.

[Rich Leyshon]

John M. Drescher wrote:

2k RAM vic20.

You do it a dis-service - there was a huge 3,583 bytes free at power-up! I only ever got the 3k expansion pack though. Best thing I ever did with a Vic 20 - me and a mate made a box of tricks that linked the Vic's parallel port via triacs (and a huge heatsink!) to ontrol some stage lighting (got up to 8kW) via the use of an assembly program that interpreted a "language" of lighting instructions to control eight channels of lights. It gets worse. When I got the C64 I did a new version that allowed up to 256 channels and full dimming control along with some faders that could have any channel (or group of channels) assigned to them for a bit of manual control. Alas, this one only ever reached demonstration stage with 2 or 3 working channels and one fader! But it did work! Rich

[destynova]

That was how I realised I'd caught the programming bug as well - wherever I was going, I'd bring a notepad for writing ideas and snippets of code for first C64 Basic, then GFA Basic for the Atari ST (which made C64 Basic look like a cruel joke). Of course, for the first while, what I wrote was complete nonsense :)

[Karl Sanford]

I new when I was in 8th grade (11 years ago). We were learning quadratic equations and I hated it, so I learned how to program my TI-83 calculator to do it for me. Then the teacher got wise and realised what I was doing, so he started marking me down for not showing my work. I replied by going back and changing the program to show me the line by line work as well. I've been addicted ever since.

"It's like the sixties, but with less hope."

[Dan Neely]

... 8 sheep 9 sheep A sheep B sheep C sheep D sheep E sheep F sheep ... oh god I'm channeling a kiwi!

Today's lesson is brought to you by the word "niggardly". Remember kids, don't attribute to racism what can be explained by Scandinavian language roots. -- Robert Royall

[Dan Neely]

Karl Sanford wrote:

he started marking me down for not showing my work.

MY defense to accusations that I was cheating by not showing work was to do one of the problems for the teacher without showing any work while spectated. None of them were ever able to prove I was copying answers out of the back of the book. :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

Today's lesson is brought to you by the word "niggardly". Remember kids, don't attribute to racism what can be explained by Scandinavian language roots. -- Robert Royall

[Stuart Rubin]

This may not have been the "first" time, but it hit home pretty hard. When Sudoku puzzles first became popular a few years ago, my father thought I would like them and challenges me to do a "difficult" one (something like 4 out of 5 points of difficulty). Withing a few minutes, I had worked out a simple algorithm, complete with annotations in the boxes and margins, and solved the puzzle just like a computer would, systematically working through the grid eliminating options, until the puzzle was solved. It was not fun, but effective. Even as a human, I knew that the "brute force" solution was the way to go. Unfortunately, I was both the programmer AND the computer! BTW, that was the last sudoku I have ever done!

[Richard Jones]

When I was 16. Entering ASM as hex code on the 6502, and debugging it at the same time.

"Neque porro quisquam est qui dolorem ipsum quia dolor sit amet, consectetur, adipisci velit..." "There is no one who loves pain itself, who seeks after it and wants to have it, simply because it is pain..."

[Steve Naidamast]

I can't recall mine either... It was close to 35 years ago. I think I was just absorbed by the "Dark Side"...

Steve Naidamast Black Falcon Software, Inc. blackfalconsoftware@ix.netcom.com

[FanatiX]

This happened when I was on holidays in spain and found me coding the whole day instead of going to the beach... ...and every night when hundreds of lines of code are running through my brain... ...and everytime I look through the screen or elsewehere like a zombie, just thinking of the next piece of code to write... But i feel fine ;)

[cpkilekofp]

destynova wrote:

That was how I realised I'd caught the programming bug as well - wherever I was going, I'd bring a notepad for writing ideas and snippets of code for first C64 Basic, then GFA Basic for the Atari ST (which made C64 Basic look like a cruel joke). Of course, for the first while, what I wrote was complete nonsense

LOL...My first wife quickly got used to me suddenly staring off into space then grabbing a napkin and asking for a writing implement if an idea came to me while we were out to dinner...my boss would be amused when he saw that crumpled napkin sitting on my desk, 'cause he'd seen me do it at lunch...I'd just tell 'em "when creativity happens, you gotta write it down."

[cpkilekofp]

Steve Naidamast wrote:

I can't recall mine either... It was close to 35 years ago. I think I was just absorbed by the "Dark Side"...

For me, it was in 1974, when that cursed teletype printed out the results from my first successful bubble sort (described for me without code example). GE's "Apple" time-sharing system running Dartmouth Basic. Then I had a hiatus during which I had no access to a computer. I didn't get my first programming job until 1985, then my first permanent programming job came in 1988.

[CDMTJX]

Way back in college in my first programming class for FORTRAN. The teacher wasn't exactly giving intro material. I ended up going to the library to figure out functions and subprograms. I was the only one who handed in the last assignment on time. Teacher held my listing (olden days) up and waved it around for the class. In spite of a lousy teacher and lousy text book, I still figured out how to do the assignment...

[cpkilekofp]

I'll raise a different topic: the first time I WANTED to be a programmer. You see, after a little exposure to programming in BASIC using a teletype for input and output, I thought "Is this all there is?". Thus, while I was clearly talented enough to pursue it, it didn't grab me, and thus I didn't consider it a worthy field of endeavor. Same thing when I took more BASIC in college.... Then came 1983 and Able-1 Communications. They had a system constructed of a hodge-podge of components, from DEC Rainbow SSSD floppies to a VT100 terminal to rows of lead-acid batteries for a UPS. They'd developed a very cool screen editor for placing and organizing instructions on the screen. I was the salesman for this answering service, but after seeing this system in operation for a while, I wanted to be the guy who built, maintained, and enhanced this system. This is when I acquired the desire, as opposed to recognizing my capability.

[DarrollWalsh]

A man after my own heart. There is nothing like opening a book first to play a computer game.

Darroll

[mborigin]

When I first read a Holerith card without having to pass it through the deck reader!, and could cut and paste Fortran by eye on the punch tape printer - and physically Cut the tape, and paste to the other tape lying in the box that it dropped into. We dreamed long and hard back then - about what were the best scissors for cut and paste!

[jtvberg]

It was either: When I was 12 I wrote a program to password protect all of my 'computers' teacher's discs beacuse she wouldn't let me opt out of the class. I told her if she couldn't figure it out I should be allowed to opt out. I opted out. --or-- When I was 9 or 10 and my Dad gave me his 8086 to play with and all I could think to do with it was to write a program in BASIC that replicated the tune the horn on the 'General Lee' made from the 'Dukes of Hazard.'

[azonenberg]

Wow - you were pretty fast. My dad got me started in C when I was 9, but I wasn't too into coding until just before I turned 11, when I got started in C++. I can't say when I first realized I was a programmer, but I do know that a few years ago I suddenly discovered that I was a crypto geek. I was sitting down with my laptop, writing an AES implementation for my TI-89, when it hit me: Instead of playing on my Xbox like many of my friends were, I was playing with S-boxes!

[Lost User]

Dalek Dave wrote:

Wandering around with a 5.25" made me feel special!

I know it's an old post, but I only just saw it, and simply had to reply. I don't hink any comment is necessary. :laugh:

___________________________________________ .\\axxx (That's an 'M')