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  3. How did you learn to program?

How did you learn to program?

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    Code2326
    wrote on last edited by
    #1

    How did you learn to program? Is it from the internet? a book? If from internet wut site and if book, wut book? I'm trying to learn any language like C++ or C# and i dont have any materials and dont know where to get some good sources. When you first learn your language, was it hard and how long did it take you to start to create simple programs? I'm sry if this is too many questions but im new here and i want to understand some of the experiences you had.

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    • C Code2326

      How did you learn to program? Is it from the internet? a book? If from internet wut site and if book, wut book? I'm trying to learn any language like C++ or C# and i dont have any materials and dont know where to get some good sources. When you first learn your language, was it hard and how long did it take you to start to create simple programs? I'm sry if this is too many questions but im new here and i want to understand some of the experiences you had.

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      l a u r e n
      wrote on last edited by
      #2

      z80 reference manual an assembler lots of stress and swearing :)

      "there is no spoon" {gagfoot} {me}

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      • C Code2326

        How did you learn to program? Is it from the internet? a book? If from internet wut site and if book, wut book? I'm trying to learn any language like C++ or C# and i dont have any materials and dont know where to get some good sources. When you first learn your language, was it hard and how long did it take you to start to create simple programs? I'm sry if this is too many questions but im new here and i want to understand some of the experiences you had.

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        Ed Poore
        wrote on last edited by
        #3

        From my father initially and one of his books on VB6, from then on internet and a couple of good books. And CP of course.


        I have no idea what I just said. But my intentions were sincere.

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        • C Code2326

          How did you learn to program? Is it from the internet? a book? If from internet wut site and if book, wut book? I'm trying to learn any language like C++ or C# and i dont have any materials and dont know where to get some good sources. When you first learn your language, was it hard and how long did it take you to start to create simple programs? I'm sry if this is too many questions but im new here and i want to understand some of the experiences you had.

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          Mike Ellison
          wrote on last edited by
          #4

          To begin - as a kid, I learned just watching an older brother of mine (who was very talented at this) and picking up on what he was doing. Through high school, college, and beyond, mostly by reading books, web sites, and journals.

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          • L l a u r e n

            z80 reference manual an assembler lots of stress and swearing :)

            "there is no spoon" {gagfoot} {me}

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            Stuart Dootson
            wrote on last edited by
            #5

            Crikey - that's hardcore! I learnt (Sinclair) BASIC before I even thought of assembly language. I have since then gone through 680x0, VAX, PowerPC and 80x86 assembly language - all trying to catch up on a slow start :-)

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            • C Code2326

              How did you learn to program? Is it from the internet? a book? If from internet wut site and if book, wut book? I'm trying to learn any language like C++ or C# and i dont have any materials and dont know where to get some good sources. When you first learn your language, was it hard and how long did it take you to start to create simple programs? I'm sry if this is too many questions but im new here and i want to understand some of the experiences you had.

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              Bob X
              wrote on last edited by
              #6

              book, CP :D :badger:

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              • C Code2326

                How did you learn to program? Is it from the internet? a book? If from internet wut site and if book, wut book? I'm trying to learn any language like C++ or C# and i dont have any materials and dont know where to get some good sources. When you first learn your language, was it hard and how long did it take you to start to create simple programs? I'm sry if this is too many questions but im new here and i want to understand some of the experiences you had.

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                Stuart Dootson
                wrote on last edited by
                #7

                Sinclair ZX BASIC, 1981 or 2. I learnt from the manual that came with the computer (they were actually useful back then!). I guess it took a few months, as I didn't concentrate on programming.

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                • C Code2326

                  How did you learn to program? Is it from the internet? a book? If from internet wut site and if book, wut book? I'm trying to learn any language like C++ or C# and i dont have any materials and dont know where to get some good sources. When you first learn your language, was it hard and how long did it take you to start to create simple programs? I'm sry if this is too many questions but im new here and i want to understand some of the experiences you had.

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                  Colin Angus Mackay
                  wrote on last edited by
                  #8

                  Code2326 wrote:

                  How did you learn to program?

                  My answer remains the same from your post in the C# forum[^]


                  Upcoming Scottish Developers events: * Glasgow: Tell us what you want to see in 2007 My: Website | Blog | Photos

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                  • L l a u r e n

                    z80 reference manual an assembler lots of stress and swearing :)

                    "there is no spoon" {gagfoot} {me}

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                    Lost User
                    wrote on last edited by
                    #9

                    Ditto except for the swearing ;)

                    The tigress is here :-D

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                    • C Code2326

                      How did you learn to program? Is it from the internet? a book? If from internet wut site and if book, wut book? I'm trying to learn any language like C++ or C# and i dont have any materials and dont know where to get some good sources. When you first learn your language, was it hard and how long did it take you to start to create simple programs? I'm sry if this is too many questions but im new here and i want to understand some of the experiences you had.

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                      Gary Kirkham
                      wrote on last edited by
                      #10

                      Code2326 wrote:

                      How did you learn to program?

                      By doing...you might call it the brute-force method.

                      Gary Kirkham Forever Forgiven and Alive in the Spirit He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose. - Jim Elliot Me blog, You read

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                      • S Stuart Dootson

                        Sinclair ZX BASIC, 1981 or 2. I learnt from the manual that came with the computer (they were actually useful back then!). I guess it took a few months, as I didn't concentrate on programming.

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                        Mike Dimmick
                        wrote on last edited by
                        #11

                        Likewise from the ZX Spectrum manual (a little later than you, we didn't get our Spectrum until Christmas '84), plus some other books my Dad picked up. He worked for ICL (and still works for Fujitsu Services, which is what's left of ICL) as a programmer, so he already knew various languages anyway. I can't now recall if he bought the Z80 machine language books for himself or for me, but I certainly got use out of them! That was around 1990, IIRC. I took a bit of a look at C at this point but really didn't get it. I did some stuff with Visual Basic 1.0 in the early 1990s. I recall picking up a Pascal (Object Pascal) textbook from a library in about 1995, and that was the first time I really 'got' pointers (in retrospect, I must have understood them in assembly but not correlated the concepts). Then I went to University in 1996 and learned to program properly ;) Well, to be a bit more systematic about it anyway. While at Uni I picked up Ada, C, C++ and SQL (and a few more languages that I've never used again - actually you could count Ada in that).

                        Stability. What an interesting concept. -- Chris Maunder

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                        • C Code2326

                          How did you learn to program? Is it from the internet? a book? If from internet wut site and if book, wut book? I'm trying to learn any language like C++ or C# and i dont have any materials and dont know where to get some good sources. When you first learn your language, was it hard and how long did it take you to start to create simple programs? I'm sry if this is too many questions but im new here and i want to understand some of the experiences you had.

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                          Ryan Binns
                          wrote on last edited by
                          #12

                          Reading a few books, but generally just experimenting. I started on a C64, just after the Reformation :)

                          Ryan

                          "Punctuality is only a virtue for those who aren't smart enough to think of good excuses for being late" John Nichol "Point Of Impact"

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                          • C Code2326

                            How did you learn to program? Is it from the internet? a book? If from internet wut site and if book, wut book? I'm trying to learn any language like C++ or C# and i dont have any materials and dont know where to get some good sources. When you first learn your language, was it hard and how long did it take you to start to create simple programs? I'm sry if this is too many questions but im new here and i want to understand some of the experiences you had.

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                            Roger Wright
                            wrote on last edited by
                            #13

                            First lesson - an outdated book on FORTRAN II from the library. I read it 'cause I'd heard there was a computer at the college I planned to attend. Second lesson - a course in FORTRAN IV at college, with simple I/O and number crunching. Third (and most important) lesson - an Intel 8080 databook with opcodes in octal and binary. Wrote an OS, then an Assembler, entered via 1's and 0's on a panel full of toggle switches. Programming has got a bit less interesting since then, but much easier.:-D

                            "...a photo album is like Life, but flat and stuck to pages." - Shog9

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                            • S Stuart Dootson

                              Crikey - that's hardcore! I learnt (Sinclair) BASIC before I even thought of assembly language. I have since then gone through 680x0, VAX, PowerPC and 80x86 assembly language - all trying to catch up on a slow start :-)

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                              l a u r e n
                              wrote on last edited by
                              #14

                              i never was a lil wallflower ;)

                              "there is no spoon" {gagfoot} {me}

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                              • L Lost User

                                Ditto except for the swearing ;)

                                The tigress is here :-D

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                                Roger Wright
                                wrote on last edited by
                                #15

                                The swearing was my favorite part! Well, second to trying to minimize the number of clock cycles required for an integer multiply...

                                "...a photo album is like Life, but flat and stuck to pages." - Shog9

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                                • C Code2326

                                  How did you learn to program? Is it from the internet? a book? If from internet wut site and if book, wut book? I'm trying to learn any language like C++ or C# and i dont have any materials and dont know where to get some good sources. When you first learn your language, was it hard and how long did it take you to start to create simple programs? I'm sry if this is too many questions but im new here and i want to understand some of the experiences you had.

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                                  Joe Woodbury
                                  wrote on last edited by
                                  #16

                                  I started to learn programming using the Apple II Basic manual. I continued with a Fortran class in college (using punch cards) and then a Z80 assembly class. But I really learned how to program by doing it. For example, assembly language didn't click for me at first; I just couldn't wrap my brain around it. Then I wrote a small Apple II assembly program for something my brother needed and somewhere in the middle of it, everything fell into place. (Seriously, it was like a light turned on and suddenly everything about assembly language became crystal clear.) Years later, I was writing assembly code professionaly and needed to manage some data sets. I figured C was a better way to do that, so I grabbed the Turbo C manual and asked my boss a few questions and started coding. Two days later the light went on--C is nothing but a really great macro assembler! (I gather I'm one of the few people who never had a problem grasping pointers, but maybe not.) C++ took a little longer, but again, it took actually writing code for the proverbial light to go on. Same with MFC and Windows programming. So; get a good basic book and write code. Lots of it. Tons of it. Write yet another notepad or calculator or touch program (and then, please delete them--we aren't interested.) Also, write a test app; a simple framework and write code to test specific things. What to know out __strtoul() works, write a bunch of tests and step through them! Use the scientific method; hypothesis what a code snippet should do, write it, test it, analyze what it actualy did. If it failed, figure out why it didn't match your hypothesis. (Sometimes, I even have to figure out why it worked!) Repeat. And repeat. And repeat. Bottom line: You become good at anything by practice; lots of it. Be honestly self-critical and find a harsh critic. (Theory is nice, but nobody came, say, a great pianist by studying theory--they became great by practicing hours and hours a day and by submitting themselves up to criticism by those who are already great.)

                                  Anyone who thinks he has a better idea of what's good for people than people do is a swine. - P.J. O'Rourke

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                                  • C Code2326

                                    How did you learn to program? Is it from the internet? a book? If from internet wut site and if book, wut book? I'm trying to learn any language like C++ or C# and i dont have any materials and dont know where to get some good sources. When you first learn your language, was it hard and how long did it take you to start to create simple programs? I'm sry if this is too many questions but im new here and i want to understand some of the experiences you had.

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                                    P Offline
                                    peterchen
                                    wrote on last edited by
                                    #17

                                    It all started with a weird obsession, reading all "computer" books I could get hold of, and fighting for computer access time. I worked out a lot on paper, and hacked it in / tested it on limited time. In a case I was lucky that the available books were few and terribly detailed. In todays culture of hug and plush education I would have drowned in talk without saying. Similary, the Internet might have killed my desire with (a) to much information and (b) to specific answers. Add multiple phases of jumping-into-the-water and throwing-myself-into-the-water. My first programs were written quickly and easily. Through all steps (roughly BASIC, Databases, Pascal, C++) the first steps were easy andthe posibilities seemed endless. Keeping a large project going is something completely different. So, I'm self-educated. I always dug in deeply. Many books, and a lot of internet in the later years. Read read read read, and filter.


                                    Developers, Developers, Developers, Developers, Developers, Developers, Velopers, Develprs, Developers!
                                    We are a big screwed up dysfunctional psychotic happy family - some more screwed up, others more happy, but everybody's psychotic joint venture definition of CP
                                    Linkify!|Fold With Us!

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                                    • C Code2326

                                      How did you learn to program? Is it from the internet? a book? If from internet wut site and if book, wut book? I'm trying to learn any language like C++ or C# and i dont have any materials and dont know where to get some good sources. When you first learn your language, was it hard and how long did it take you to start to create simple programs? I'm sry if this is too many questions but im new here and i want to understand some of the experiences you had.

                                      C Offline
                                      C Offline
                                      Christian Graus
                                      wrote on last edited by
                                      #18

                                      Code2326 wrote:

                                      If from internet wut site and if book, wut book?

                                      How did you learn to spell ? :P I learned from this site, and from various books.

                                      Code2326 wrote:

                                      When you first learn your language, was it hard and how long did it take you to start to create simple programs?

                                      My first language was Applesoft BASIC.  6502 assembler is the only language I ever found hard, although it takes time to become a good programmer, and then it takes time to really learn a new language.

                                      Christian Graus - C++ MVP 'Why don't we jump on a fad that hasn't already been widely discredited ?' - Dilbert

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                                      • C Code2326

                                        How did you learn to program? Is it from the internet? a book? If from internet wut site and if book, wut book? I'm trying to learn any language like C++ or C# and i dont have any materials and dont know where to get some good sources. When you first learn your language, was it hard and how long did it take you to start to create simple programs? I'm sry if this is too many questions but im new here and i want to understand some of the experiences you had.

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                                        C Offline
                                        Chris Losinger
                                        wrote on last edited by
                                        #19

                                        C64 Programmer's Reference Guide (it even came with a schematic) + various PC magazines + years of playing around writing C64 BASIC and 65xx Assembler. there was no internet in 1985.

                                        image processing toolkits | batch image processing | blogging

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                                        • C Code2326

                                          How did you learn to program? Is it from the internet? a book? If from internet wut site and if book, wut book? I'm trying to learn any language like C++ or C# and i dont have any materials and dont know where to get some good sources. When you first learn your language, was it hard and how long did it take you to start to create simple programs? I'm sry if this is too many questions but im new here and i want to understand some of the experiences you had.

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                                          J Offline
                                          Jerry Hammond
                                          wrote on last edited by
                                          #20

                                          Once I found CP and undstood more fully the concept, and proceedures for Cut&Paste I became a top notch, highly paid, but poorly qualified programmer...

                                          Epitaph: Foolish humans, never escaped Earth.- Vernor Vinge

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