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  3. What is your WHY in CODING?

What is your WHY in CODING?

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  • R Randy Ga

    When did you first learn to code and why? I learned in 2012 and my WHY is to hopefully be successful one day in helping millions.

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    EbenRoux
    wrote on last edited by
    #29

    I started programming in 1984 (standard 4 / grade 6 - age 12) on a Commodore VIC20. I just always enjoyed it. Couldn't believe that one could get paid to do something so enjoyable :)

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    • R Randy Ga

      When did you first learn to code and why? I learned in 2012 and my WHY is to hopefully be successful one day in helping millions.

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      Ravi Sant
      wrote on last edited by
      #30

      It was year 1999. There was huge incentive before Y2K and market was prospering and shedding money who could code HTML. But to make my fundamentals strong I started with C language and fell in love with it. I then wrote code in C, C#, Java, JavaScript, Web languages and frameworks, windows app development and Silverlight, etc.

      // ♫ 99 little bugs in the code, // 99 bugs in the code // We fix a bug, compile it again // 101 little bugs in the code ♫

      Tell your manager, while you code: "good, cheap or fast: pick two. "

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      • R Randy Ga

        When did you first learn to code and why? I learned in 2012 and my WHY is to hopefully be successful one day in helping millions.

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        Tomaz Stih 0
        wrote on last edited by
        #31

        1982. I was 10y old. In primary school. My neighbor got a British made ZX Spectrum microcomputer. I consider the day he brought it to my place the luckiest in my life. That night, knowing only five BASIC commands - LET, INPUT, PRINT, GOTO (yes!), and IF - I wrote my first code. On paper, using graphite pencil, of course. And I knew this was what I wanted to do. Why? Were you ever asked by your girlfriend or your wife (or both?) why you love her ( of course you were -- it's a standard let's have a fight trap ) Not an easy question to answer. I suppose it is the creation of new, the individual self- dependency, the freedom to do whatever you want and the responsibility to fix bugs, the adolescent loneliness, the instant gratification of software - simply a good match to our characters. Later in life I met a lot of people who never found themselves. Never knew what they want to do in life. It lead to realization of how lucky I was. Life gives you many boons and bones. But it's all easier if you have passion for your work. We, who do, are the lucky ones. We are the privileged few. :laugh: :java:

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        • R Randy Ga

          When did you first learn to code and why? I learned in 2012 and my WHY is to hopefully be successful one day in helping millions.

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          ClockMeister
          wrote on last edited by
          #32

          Back in 1976 I took a FORTRAN course at Georgia Tech. The first time I saw that I could make a machine do THAT the lid was off. I was hooked on it and still am.

          If you think hiring a professional is expensive, wait until you hire an amateur! - Red Adair

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          • R Randy Ga

            When did you first learn to code and why? I learned in 2012 and my WHY is to hopefully be successful one day in helping millions.

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            BryanFazekas
            wrote on last edited by
            #33

            1979 on Commodore PET 8k computers. Why? Because it was interesting. I went to college for computer science because I had no idea what else to do. Looks like it worked out for me. :-D

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            • R Randy Ga

              When did you first learn to code and why? I learned in 2012 and my WHY is to hopefully be successful one day in helping millions.

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              Tim Carmichael
              wrote on last edited by
              #34

              When: In 1980, our high school was picked as one of the 'test' high schools in the province to have computers: 3 Commodore PETS - 16K models. Pretty much self-taught on Commodore BASIC and then 6502 Assembler. Why: I had taken a data processing course before where we studied the history of computers, then, in the last term, we wrote programs using mark-sense cards. That peaked my interest. From there... it was college and over 30 years of professional work.

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              • R Randy Ga

                When did you first learn to code and why? I learned in 2012 and my WHY is to hopefully be successful one day in helping millions.

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                CodeZombie62
                wrote on last edited by
                #35

                I started in high school back in 1979 when I was a junior. We had three teletypes connected via modem (rotary dial phones and acoustic couplers) to the minicomputers across town at UND. The actual computers were a PDP-8 and a PDP-12 and we were learning BASIC. They wouldn't let us save anything on the computers but the teletypes were able to punch holes in paper tapes and read them. In my senior year they actually got an Apple II. I spent a lot of time in the computer lab and found that I really liked working with the computers. After I graduated from high school we moved down to Florida and I went to college. I just really enjoyed working with computers and I was able to get paid doing it as well. It's always nice when you can get paid for doing something that you like doing.

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                • R Randy Ga

                  When did you first learn to code and why? I learned in 2012 and my WHY is to hopefully be successful one day in helping millions.

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                  Joan M
                  wrote on last edited by
                  #36

                  I saw a computer at a trade fair when I was a child and even it was green letters in black background I had it clear I loved that... I started at an academy when I was 9... since then I've never stopped. I started professionally at 1998 (some years before I did small jobs in different companies but the first serious thing was 1998). I specialized in the industrial/mechanical environment where robots and special machines live... :cool:

                  www.robotecnik.com[^] - robots, CNC and PLC programming

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                  • P phil o

                    My first lines of codes were written in 1983 or 1984; at that time I had a Texas Instruments TI-99/4A computer, and the language was (extended) BASIC. Why? Because coding is just awesome :)

                    "I'm neither for nor against, on the contrary." John Middle

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                    gritter55
                    wrote on last edited by
                    #37

                    Yup. I'm with you, Phil. I played around with a Timex Sinclair a little before that. Being able to build things was the hook that got me.

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                    • R Randy Ga

                      When did you first learn to code and why? I learned in 2012 and my WHY is to hopefully be successful one day in helping millions.

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                      Gary Wheeler
                      wrote on last edited by
                      #38

                      I started learning to code in 1977, when my stepfather bought a COSMAC ELF[^] single-board computer. It ran a 6502 processor with 2K of RAM. Our ELF was a deluxe model, and included a hex keypad for program entry. We found a Tiny BASIC interpreter that only took 1.5K of RAM. Adding a KSR-33 teletype gave us text I/O, and we were in business. I learned BASIC and wrote a lot of programs on that thing. For the "WHY", we have to go back a lot further to the early 60's. We always watched the Gemini and Apollo launches. While the launch itself was great, I was mainly fascinated by the control room video and the idea that such machines were controlled by people pushing buttons on a panel. I eventually learned about computers being at the heart of things, and it's been all downhill ever since :-D.

                      Software Zen: delete this;

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                      • G gritter55

                        Yup. I'm with you, Phil. I played around with a Timex Sinclair a little before that. Being able to build things was the hook that got me.

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                        phil o
                        wrote on last edited by
                        #39

                        Around these years there was a publication dedicated to computer code called Hebdogiciel. In it you could find codes for various computer systems like HP41, PC 1251, PC1500, TRS 80, Thomson TO7/MO8, MZ 80, TI-99/4A, Apple IIc/e, ZX 81, Sinclair, Spectrum, Commodore, ORIC 1/ ATMOS, Alice, Atari 520/1024 ST, and I surely forgot some. All these names still ring the bell of nostalgia to me.

                        "I'm neither for nor against, on the contrary." John Middle

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                        • G gritter55

                          Yup. I'm with you, Phil. I played around with a Timex Sinclair a little before that. Being able to build things was the hook that got me.

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                          phil o
                          wrote on last edited by
                          #40

                          Here a small sample code for SPECTRUM found in my archives:

                          1 REM **MUSHROOM** SPECTRUM 48K: REM PE et H CELLARD:
                          2 GO SUB 800: LET ba=0
                          3 DIM h$(5,3): FOR x=1 TO 5: LET h$(x)="AAA": NEXT x
                          4 DIM h(5): LET hsc=10: FOR x=1 TO 5: LET h(x)=0: NEXT X
                          5 BORDER 1: LET a$="A": LET c$=" "
                          6 LET t=15: LET pa=3: LET te=.4: LET b$="I": LET ni=0
                          ...

                          "I'm neither for nor against, on the contrary." John Middle

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                          • R Randy Ga

                            When did you first learn to code and why? I learned in 2012 and my WHY is to hopefully be successful one day in helping millions.

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                            MKJCP
                            wrote on last edited by
                            #41

                            1980, Commodore 64s and a TRaSh-80 in math class, 11th grade. It was fun. Wrote an Asteroids style game on the 64. It was crude and sooooo slooooow but cheaper than 25 cents for the real thing! Now I do programming for the money and it's still fairly fun. Outside of work, I don't much like computers.

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                            • R Randy Ga

                              When did you first learn to code and why? I learned in 2012 and my WHY is to hopefully be successful one day in helping millions.

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                              Alister Morton
                              wrote on last edited by
                              #42

                              About 1975 and I thought it would be a useful skill as computers were going to be everywhere. Started on a dial up to the local university, with BASIC. My school had a teletype that we used to communicate with the HP mini at the OU. Later we built a Nascom.

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                              • R Randy Ga

                                When did you first learn to code and why? I learned in 2012 and my WHY is to hopefully be successful one day in helping millions.

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                                Gary Huck
                                wrote on last edited by
                                #43

                                1981 - Montana State University, CS 151, Pascal, Honeywell mainframe. Always like solving problems. Almost 40 years later, I still enjoy the challenge and the creativity.

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                                • R Randy Ga

                                  When did you first learn to code and why? I learned in 2012 and my WHY is to hopefully be successful one day in helping millions.

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                                  Asday
                                  wrote on last edited by
                                  #44

                                  When I give a computer something it doesn't like, it tells me clearly and plainly what I did wrong, and when I fix it, it doesn't hold a grudge. I'm (a bit) autistic, so this is the only time I _really_ feel like I have some sort of connection with something.

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                                  • R Randy Ga

                                    When did you first learn to code and why? I learned in 2012 and my WHY is to hopefully be successful one day in helping millions.

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                                    Greg Lovekamp
                                    wrote on last edited by
                                    #45

                                    When: 1979, High School What: Ohio Scientific Challenger II microcomputer, BASIC Why: Video games were COOL even if the best that could be achieved was a CARET firing a PERIOD at an X! Result: College degrees, but never published a game. I'm more DBA than coder these days, but it has been a fascinating journey that I have loved and continue to love everyday!

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                                    • R Randy Ga

                                      When did you first learn to code and why? I learned in 2012 and my WHY is to hopefully be successful one day in helping millions.

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                                      Bruce Patin
                                      wrote on last edited by
                                      #46

                                      I wrote a FORTRAN program in high school to calculate chess moves. It was an eight-level nested loop. My Dad had to punch it in cards to run on an IBM 360. Somehow, he came up with the program needing more seconds to run than there are atoms in the universe. From there I went on to learn IBM 360 machine and assembly language and got access to a large mainframe to make the bell ring. My WHY is that computers were cool, and might somehow help me with physics to build my flying saucer. Later, the WHY was changed to helping our country be more of a democracy than a republic, then changed to simply manage work flow in offices. Now, my WHY is to keep my health care after retirement.

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                                      • R Randy Ga

                                        When did you first learn to code and why? I learned in 2012 and my WHY is to hopefully be successful one day in helping millions.

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                                        mthomas TwinNetworks
                                        wrote on last edited by
                                        #47

                                        I started with a commodore 64 and basic, moved to a Tandy with basic. Maybe 1980? I was fascinated and took all the basic programming classes in Junior High and High School. Majored in Math in college and took all the programming classes they offered, all the guys in the class were spending 20-30 completely the Pascal coding assignments at one point and it was just so easy for me. I loved it! In those days I was the only girl in the class, but I grew up on a construction site working for my dad. I was in my zone! Programming was a big puzzle and still is, and yelling at the code when it doesn't do what I want is a bonus... because that just means I need to figure out what I am actually telling it to do. I stay a programmer because I love the challenge!

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                                        • R Randy Ga

                                          When did you first learn to code and why? I learned in 2012 and my WHY is to hopefully be successful one day in helping millions.

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                                          bmcD99
                                          wrote on last edited by
                                          #48

                                          1973 - HP 2000C timeshare on an ASR-33 terminal. I loved the Star Trek game and wanted to learn how to create my own. Went over to the University Bookstore in LaCrosse, WI and bought the programming reference manual. We had 8k of ram and 100k of program storage and kept our own programs on punched paper tape. Still have the Star Trek game on a roll of punched paper tape.

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