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  3. How did you become a professional programmer?

How did you become a professional programmer?

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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.

    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.

                                  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
                                    Ravi Bhavnani
                                    wrote on last edited by
                                    #21

                                    Accidentally fell into CS at university (was studying EE at the time), fell in love with programming, and made that my career after graduating.  There's nothing else in life I'd rather do than build software. /ravi

                                    My new year resolution: 2048 x 1536 Home | Articles | My .NET bits | Freeware ravib(at)ravib(dot)com

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                                    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
                                      Rosenne
                                      wrote on last edited by
                                      #22

                                      In 1960 as a young conscript the Israeli army decided that I am suitable and I started programming in assembly language for the Philco 2000 (AKA Transac 212). I went on to Fortran, COBOL, VB, C, Java and C#. Still at it.

                                      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.

                                        J Offline
                                        J Offline
                                        Jonas Hammarberg
                                        wrote on last edited by
                                        #23

                                        After doing my tour in the military, I wasn't in the mood for hearing incompetent people telling me what to do, eg. not interested in returning to school. Being good at three things; * Dogs, not much of a market those days. * Blowing stuff up, not much of a market there either. * Programming, there was a large market and they were prepared to pay me :omg: So, still doing it 29 years later :cool: (and working with dogs on the side :laugh: and occasionally blowing stuff up :-D )

                                        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
                                          Gary Wheeler
                                          wrote on last edited by
                                          #24

                                          Actually, I'm a professional smartass. I have a coffee cup on my desk to prove it.

                                          Software Zen: delete this;

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