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How did you become a professional programmer?

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  • J Offline
    J Offline
    jpg 0
    wrote on last edited by
    #1

    When I was about 13, 1992, one day I can't remember why but I bought a book like "teach yourself c++ in N days", the book ships with a floppy that includes a borland C++ ide, I follow the instruction line by line to install the ide, then copy line by line the sample source code, and had my first Hello World program compiled and run successfully. But honestly, I found myself can't actually understand what pointer is after reading the pointer chapters over and over for N times, so I gave up, in fact at that time, I don't even know what I was doing, what is compiling, what is linking, what is parsing, I have no idea, to me, I just write some code, then press a button, wow, I have a running program! Later I move to Visual Basic, I found that for people who first learn to program, having an immediate visual respond is really a big plus and encouragement to keep learning. I did keep learning Visual Basic for many years, from the very basic up to finding a need to call into Win32 api. After .NET was first introduced, I fall in love with C#, it is clean, easy to understand, and powerful, I love this language. When I feel that I can make a living by providing C# based solution, I started a company to do so. The business is still doing fine at this point.

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    • J jpg 0

      When I was about 13, 1992, one day I can't remember why but I bought a book like "teach yourself c++ in N days", the book ships with a floppy that includes a borland C++ ide, I follow the instruction line by line to install the ide, then copy line by line the sample source code, and had my first Hello World program compiled and run successfully. But honestly, I found myself can't actually understand what pointer is after reading the pointer chapters over and over for N times, so I gave up, in fact at that time, I don't even know what I was doing, what is compiling, what is linking, what is parsing, I have no idea, to me, I just write some code, then press a button, wow, I have a running program! Later I move to Visual Basic, I found that for people who first learn to program, having an immediate visual respond is really a big plus and encouragement to keep learning. I did keep learning Visual Basic for many years, from the very basic up to finding a need to call into Win32 api. After .NET was first introduced, I fall in love with C#, it is clean, easy to understand, and powerful, I love this language. When I feel that I can make a living by providing C# based solution, I started a company to do so. The business is still doing fine at this point.

      N Offline
      N Offline
      Nish Nishant
      wrote on last edited by
      #2

      Yeah, you either get pointers or you don't. There's no "in-between" there. Not a big deal though. At least on Windows platforms, a large majority of people write decent code without ever explicitly using pointers (or with minimal pointer usage).

      Regards, Nish


      Are you addicted to CP? If so, check this out: The Code Project Forum Analyzer : Find out how much of a life you don't have! My technology blog: voidnish.wordpress.com

      A P 2 Replies Last reply
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      • J jpg 0

        When I was about 13, 1992, one day I can't remember why but I bought a book like "teach yourself c++ in N days", the book ships with a floppy that includes a borland C++ ide, I follow the instruction line by line to install the ide, then copy line by line the sample source code, and had my first Hello World program compiled and run successfully. But honestly, I found myself can't actually understand what pointer is after reading the pointer chapters over and over for N times, so I gave up, in fact at that time, I don't even know what I was doing, what is compiling, what is linking, what is parsing, I have no idea, to me, I just write some code, then press a button, wow, I have a running program! Later I move to Visual Basic, I found that for people who first learn to program, having an immediate visual respond is really a big plus and encouragement to keep learning. I did keep learning Visual Basic for many years, from the very basic up to finding a need to call into Win32 api. After .NET was first introduced, I fall in love with C#, it is clean, easy to understand, and powerful, I love this language. When I feel that I can make a living by providing C# based solution, I started a company to do so. The business is still doing fine at this point.

        C Offline
        C Offline
        CPallini
        wrote on last edited by
        #3

        When I fooled my first employer saying him I already was. :rolleyes:

        If the Lord God Almighty had consulted me before embarking upon the Creation, I would have recommended something simpler. -- Alfonso the Wise, 13th Century King of Castile.
        This is going on my arrogant assumptions. You may have a superb reason why I'm completely wrong. -- Iain Clarke
        [My articles]

        1 Reply Last reply
        0
        • J jpg 0

          When I was about 13, 1992, one day I can't remember why but I bought a book like "teach yourself c++ in N days", the book ships with a floppy that includes a borland C++ ide, I follow the instruction line by line to install the ide, then copy line by line the sample source code, and had my first Hello World program compiled and run successfully. But honestly, I found myself can't actually understand what pointer is after reading the pointer chapters over and over for N times, so I gave up, in fact at that time, I don't even know what I was doing, what is compiling, what is linking, what is parsing, I have no idea, to me, I just write some code, then press a button, wow, I have a running program! Later I move to Visual Basic, I found that for people who first learn to program, having an immediate visual respond is really a big plus and encouragement to keep learning. I did keep learning Visual Basic for many years, from the very basic up to finding a need to call into Win32 api. After .NET was first introduced, I fall in love with C#, it is clean, easy to understand, and powerful, I love this language. When I feel that I can make a living by providing C# based solution, I started a company to do so. The business is still doing fine at this point.

          J Offline
          J Offline
          Jacquers
          wrote on last edited by
          #4

          The course I studied was for both networking and programming. I actually wanted to go into the networking field, but my first job was as a programmer and thats the way it stayed... so far :)

          1 Reply Last reply
          0
          • J jpg 0

            When I was about 13, 1992, one day I can't remember why but I bought a book like "teach yourself c++ in N days", the book ships with a floppy that includes a borland C++ ide, I follow the instruction line by line to install the ide, then copy line by line the sample source code, and had my first Hello World program compiled and run successfully. But honestly, I found myself can't actually understand what pointer is after reading the pointer chapters over and over for N times, so I gave up, in fact at that time, I don't even know what I was doing, what is compiling, what is linking, what is parsing, I have no idea, to me, I just write some code, then press a button, wow, I have a running program! Later I move to Visual Basic, I found that for people who first learn to program, having an immediate visual respond is really a big plus and encouragement to keep learning. I did keep learning Visual Basic for many years, from the very basic up to finding a need to call into Win32 api. After .NET was first introduced, I fall in love with C#, it is clean, easy to understand, and powerful, I love this language. When I feel that I can make a living by providing C# based solution, I started a company to do so. The business is still doing fine at this point.

            P Offline
            P Offline
            Pete OHanlon
            wrote on last edited by
            #5

            I'm a professional programmer? Holy freeholey.

            Forgive your enemies - it messes with their heads

            My blog | My articles | MoXAML PowerToys | Mole 2010 - debugging made easier - my favourite utility

            C 1 Reply Last reply
            0
            • P Pete OHanlon

              I'm a professional programmer? Holy freeholey.

              Forgive your enemies - it messes with their heads

              My blog | My articles | MoXAML PowerToys | Mole 2010 - debugging made easier - my favourite utility

              C Offline
              C Offline
              CPallini
              wrote on last edited by
              #6

              Relax: you aren't. :-D

              If the Lord God Almighty had consulted me before embarking upon the Creation, I would have recommended something simpler. -- Alfonso the Wise, 13th Century King of Castile.
              This is going on my arrogant assumptions. You may have a superb reason why I'm completely wrong. -- Iain Clarke
              [My articles]

              N 1 Reply Last reply
              0
              • C CPallini

                Relax: you aren't. :-D

                If the Lord God Almighty had consulted me before embarking upon the Creation, I would have recommended something simpler. -- Alfonso the Wise, 13th Century King of Castile.
                This is going on my arrogant assumptions. You may have a superb reason why I'm completely wrong. -- Iain Clarke
                [My articles]

                N Offline
                N Offline
                Nish Nishant
                wrote on last edited by
                #7

                CPallini wrote:

                Relax: you aren't.

                :laugh: Yeah Pete, don't worry about it. :-D

                Regards, Nish


                Are you addicted to CP? If so, check this out: The Code Project Forum Analyzer : Find out how much of a life you don't have! My technology blog: voidnish.wordpress.com

                P 1 Reply Last reply
                0
                • N Nish Nishant

                  CPallini wrote:

                  Relax: you aren't.

                  :laugh: Yeah Pete, don't worry about it. :-D

                  Regards, Nish


                  Are you addicted to CP? If so, check this out: The Code Project Forum Analyzer : Find out how much of a life you don't have! My technology blog: voidnish.wordpress.com

                  P Offline
                  P Offline
                  Pete OHanlon
                  wrote on last edited by
                  #8

                  Thank goodness for that. I was worried for a moment there.

                  Forgive your enemies - it messes with their heads

                  My blog | My articles | MoXAML PowerToys | Mole 2010 - debugging made easier - my favourite utility

                  N 1 Reply Last reply
                  0
                  • J jpg 0

                    When I was about 13, 1992, one day I can't remember why but I bought a book like "teach yourself c++ in N days", the book ships with a floppy that includes a borland C++ ide, I follow the instruction line by line to install the ide, then copy line by line the sample source code, and had my first Hello World program compiled and run successfully. But honestly, I found myself can't actually understand what pointer is after reading the pointer chapters over and over for N times, so I gave up, in fact at that time, I don't even know what I was doing, what is compiling, what is linking, what is parsing, I have no idea, to me, I just write some code, then press a button, wow, I have a running program! Later I move to Visual Basic, I found that for people who first learn to program, having an immediate visual respond is really a big plus and encouragement to keep learning. I did keep learning Visual Basic for many years, from the very basic up to finding a need to call into Win32 api. After .NET was first introduced, I fall in love with C#, it is clean, easy to understand, and powerful, I love this language. When I feel that I can make a living by providing C# based solution, I started a company to do so. The business is still doing fine at this point.

                    C Offline
                    C Offline
                    Chris Losinger
                    wrote on last edited by
                    #9

                    i applied for the job and got it. and at that moment, the sky split open, golden light poured down upon my head, and i became a Professional Programmer.

                    image processing toolkits | batch image processing

                    P A 2 Replies Last reply
                    0
                    • C Chris Losinger

                      i applied for the job and got it. and at that moment, the sky split open, golden light poured down upon my head, and i became a Professional Programmer.

                      image processing toolkits | batch image processing

                      P Offline
                      P Offline
                      Pete OHanlon
                      wrote on last edited by
                      #10

                      And ever since then, something else has rained down upon your head.

                      Forgive your enemies - it messes with their heads

                      My blog | My articles | MoXAML PowerToys | Mole 2010 - debugging made easier - my favourite utility

                      H 1 Reply Last reply
                      0
                      • P Pete OHanlon

                        Thank goodness for that. I was worried for a moment there.

                        Forgive your enemies - it messes with their heads

                        My blog | My articles | MoXAML PowerToys | Mole 2010 - debugging made easier - my favourite utility

                        N Offline
                        N Offline
                        Nish Nishant
                        wrote on last edited by
                        #11

                        :laugh:

                        Regards, Nish


                        Are you addicted to CP? If so, check this out: The Code Project Forum Analyzer : Find out how much of a life you don't have! My technology blog: voidnish.wordpress.com

                        1 Reply Last reply
                        0
                        • J jpg 0

                          When I was about 13, 1992, one day I can't remember why but I bought a book like "teach yourself c++ in N days", the book ships with a floppy that includes a borland C++ ide, I follow the instruction line by line to install the ide, then copy line by line the sample source code, and had my first Hello World program compiled and run successfully. But honestly, I found myself can't actually understand what pointer is after reading the pointer chapters over and over for N times, so I gave up, in fact at that time, I don't even know what I was doing, what is compiling, what is linking, what is parsing, I have no idea, to me, I just write some code, then press a button, wow, I have a running program! Later I move to Visual Basic, I found that for people who first learn to program, having an immediate visual respond is really a big plus and encouragement to keep learning. I did keep learning Visual Basic for many years, from the very basic up to finding a need to call into Win32 api. After .NET was first introduced, I fall in love with C#, it is clean, easy to understand, and powerful, I love this language. When I feel that I can make a living by providing C# based solution, I started a company to do so. The business is still doing fine at this point.

                          R Offline
                          R Offline
                          R Giskard Reventlov
                          wrote on last edited by
                          #12

                          I started a business that needed a database and application so set to it. Up until then computers had just been a hobby.

                          "If you think it's expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur." Red Adair. nils illegitimus carborundum me, me, me

                          1 Reply Last reply
                          0
                          • J jpg 0

                            When I was about 13, 1992, one day I can't remember why but I bought a book like "teach yourself c++ in N days", the book ships with a floppy that includes a borland C++ ide, I follow the instruction line by line to install the ide, then copy line by line the sample source code, and had my first Hello World program compiled and run successfully. But honestly, I found myself can't actually understand what pointer is after reading the pointer chapters over and over for N times, so I gave up, in fact at that time, I don't even know what I was doing, what is compiling, what is linking, what is parsing, I have no idea, to me, I just write some code, then press a button, wow, I have a running program! Later I move to Visual Basic, I found that for people who first learn to program, having an immediate visual respond is really a big plus and encouragement to keep learning. I did keep learning Visual Basic for many years, from the very basic up to finding a need to call into Win32 api. After .NET was first introduced, I fall in love with C#, it is clean, easy to understand, and powerful, I love this language. When I feel that I can make a living by providing C# based solution, I started a company to do so. The business is still doing fine at this point.

                            L Offline
                            L Offline
                            Lost User
                            wrote on last edited by
                            #13

                            I was born that way :sigh:

                            I know nothing , I know nothing ...

                            P B 2 Replies Last reply
                            0
                            • N Nish Nishant

                              Yeah, you either get pointers or you don't. There's no "in-between" there. Not a big deal though. At least on Windows platforms, a large majority of people write decent code without ever explicitly using pointers (or with minimal pointer usage).

                              Regards, Nish


                              Are you addicted to CP? If so, check this out: The Code Project Forum Analyzer : Find out how much of a life you don't have! My technology blog: voidnish.wordpress.com

                              A Offline
                              A Offline
                              Anders Molin
                              wrote on last edited by
                              #14

                              I miss pointers and all the other fun stuff in C++... Most of my time goes with C# now, and it SOOO boring :( Last week I had to make a small C++ project, and I remembered why programming was so much fun.

                              - Anders

                              O 1 Reply Last reply
                              0
                              • L Lost User

                                I was born that way :sigh:

                                I know nothing , I know nothing ...

                                P Offline
                                P Offline
                                Pete OHanlon
                                wrote on last edited by
                                #15

                                It's such a shame that it all went downhill for you since then. ;P

                                Forgive your enemies - it messes with their heads

                                My blog | My articles | MoXAML PowerToys | Mole 2010 - debugging made easier - my favourite utility

                                1 Reply Last reply
                                0
                                • P Pete OHanlon

                                  And ever since then, something else has rained down upon your head.

                                  Forgive your enemies - it messes with their heads

                                  My blog | My articles | MoXAML PowerToys | Mole 2010 - debugging made easier - my favourite utility

                                  H Offline
                                  H Offline
                                  Henry Minute
                                  wrote on last edited by
                                  #16

                                  Ah, fond memories. The good old Mushroom Framework.

                                  Henry Minute Do not read medical books! You could die of a misprint. - Mark Twain Girl: (staring) "Why do you need an icy cucumber?" “I want to report a fraud. The government is lying to us all.” I wouldn't let CG touch my Abacus! When you're wrestling a gorilla, you don't stop when you're tired, you stop when the gorilla is.

                                  1 Reply Last reply
                                  0
                                  • C Chris Losinger

                                    i applied for the job and got it. and at that moment, the sky split open, golden light poured down upon my head, and i became a Professional Programmer.

                                    image processing toolkits | batch image processing

                                    A Offline
                                    A Offline
                                    AspDotNetDev
                                    wrote on last edited by
                                    #17

                                    Chris Losinger wrote:

                                    golden light

                                    Is that what you kids call it these days?

                                    Chris Maunder wrote:

                                    Fixign now.

                                    But who's fixing the fixign?

                                    1 Reply Last reply
                                    0
                                    • J jpg 0

                                      When I was about 13, 1992, one day I can't remember why but I bought a book like "teach yourself c++ in N days", the book ships with a floppy that includes a borland C++ ide, I follow the instruction line by line to install the ide, then copy line by line the sample source code, and had my first Hello World program compiled and run successfully. But honestly, I found myself can't actually understand what pointer is after reading the pointer chapters over and over for N times, so I gave up, in fact at that time, I don't even know what I was doing, what is compiling, what is linking, what is parsing, I have no idea, to me, I just write some code, then press a button, wow, I have a running program! Later I move to Visual Basic, I found that for people who first learn to program, having an immediate visual respond is really a big plus and encouragement to keep learning. I did keep learning Visual Basic for many years, from the very basic up to finding a need to call into Win32 api. After .NET was first introduced, I fall in love with C#, it is clean, easy to understand, and powerful, I love this language. When I feel that I can make a living by providing C# based solution, I started a company to do so. The business is still doing fine at this point.

                                      A Offline
                                      A Offline
                                      AspDotNetDev
                                      wrote on last edited by
                                      #18

                                      I had this crazy idea of what programming was back in high school. Took a programming class (9th or 10th grade), which smashed that concept, but presented an equally fantastic activity. Didn't care much for VB, so I spent a great amount of my free time in QuickBasic. You are right; it was all about the immediate visual feedback. Programming for fun kept me occupied for years, and I was one of the lucky ones who knew exactly what major he wanted to persue in college (computer science). My first year in college, I got a federal work study job (paying a whopping $8/hour) making a website for the humanities department of my college.

                                      Chris Maunder wrote:

                                      Fixign now.

                                      But who's fixing the fixign?

                                      1 Reply Last reply
                                      0
                                      • J jpg 0

                                        When I was about 13, 1992, one day I can't remember why but I bought a book like "teach yourself c++ in N days", the book ships with a floppy that includes a borland C++ ide, I follow the instruction line by line to install the ide, then copy line by line the sample source code, and had my first Hello World program compiled and run successfully. But honestly, I found myself can't actually understand what pointer is after reading the pointer chapters over and over for N times, so I gave up, in fact at that time, I don't even know what I was doing, what is compiling, what is linking, what is parsing, I have no idea, to me, I just write some code, then press a button, wow, I have a running program! Later I move to Visual Basic, I found that for people who first learn to program, having an immediate visual respond is really a big plus and encouragement to keep learning. I did keep learning Visual Basic for many years, from the very basic up to finding a need to call into Win32 api. After .NET was first introduced, I fall in love with C#, it is clean, easy to understand, and powerful, I love this language. When I feel that I can make a living by providing C# based solution, I started a company to do so. The business is still doing fine at this point.

                                        N Offline
                                        N Offline
                                        Nemanja Trifunovic
                                        wrote on last edited by
                                        #19

                                        .jpg wrote:

                                        I fall in love with C#, it is clean, easy to understand, and powerful, I love this language.

                                        I don't understand how anybody can "love" languages like C# (or VB or Java). Sure, it pays the bills, but it is boring and verbose. Of all languages I've worked with C# is the least joyful - I prefer even "ugly" languages like Perl and JavaScript.

                                        utf8-cpp

                                        J 1 Reply Last reply
                                        0
                                        • J jpg 0

                                          When I was about 13, 1992, one day I can't remember why but I bought a book like "teach yourself c++ in N days", the book ships with a floppy that includes a borland C++ ide, I follow the instruction line by line to install the ide, then copy line by line the sample source code, and had my first Hello World program compiled and run successfully. But honestly, I found myself can't actually understand what pointer is after reading the pointer chapters over and over for N times, so I gave up, in fact at that time, I don't even know what I was doing, what is compiling, what is linking, what is parsing, I have no idea, to me, I just write some code, then press a button, wow, I have a running program! Later I move to Visual Basic, I found that for people who first learn to program, having an immediate visual respond is really a big plus and encouragement to keep learning. I did keep learning Visual Basic for many years, from the very basic up to finding a need to call into Win32 api. After .NET was first introduced, I fall in love with C#, it is clean, easy to understand, and powerful, I love this language. When I feel that I can make a living by providing C# based solution, I started a company to do so. The business is still doing fine at this point.

                                          G Offline
                                          G Offline
                                          GenJerDan
                                          wrote on last edited by
                                          #20

                                          Nobody else wanted to do it.

                                          The enemy of my enemy of my enemy of my enemy is Kevin Bacon. My Mu[sic] My Films My Windows Programs, etc.

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