What is your WHY in CODING?
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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.
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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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.
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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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.
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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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
Oh the memories. I bought my Timex Sinclair with Paper Route Money, had it for 1 week, and returned it to Kmart! Went for the TI/94-A eventually with a PEB. I worked with my buddy who was into music, and I wrote software that played Christmas songs. I learned enough about music that I could setup the DATA to be (Note,time) pairs so I could READ It out loud and he could match it to the sheet music, and vice versa (I could type as he read). We must have done his entire book of Christmas songs... I had a Radio Shack Model I (That I bought used, and the seller ripped me off, selling me a broken floppy drive... I was just a kid... Who does that to a kid?). The TRS-80 Came out, and we learned to forcibly change the master password on ANY Floppy: - Insert your disk, choose change master password - Enter your current password - Prompt for new password - Swap disks with the TARGET disk - Type new password, press enter: Writes password over other password without checking. LOL. My buddy got a PC (with a floppy only). HDs wire like 5MB back then... Too expensive. We wired up an Analog to Digital Converter to the serial port, from the HAM Radio output he had. And in the course of a day, we wrote code that converted the Morse Code to text on the screen, adapting for speed dynamically! This was all in High School, Circa 1982-1985... Then we got into the DEC PDP/11 running RSTS/E and BASIC-PLUS running the main Runtime/OS. (Most programs for the entire operating system were written in BASIC PLUS!). We also had COBOL and Fortran to learn, as well as Assembler (which matched the C syntax wonderfully, I would learn later on when I took to C like a fish to water!) I spent 8-10hrs/day, 6 days a week at school, in the computer room my Junior and Senior year. When I found out that they PAID PEOPLE to do this (as I was getting brought in to install and fix things), I was blown away. When I found out they PAID WELL for these skills... I grew a perma grin! There is a certain amount of empowerment knowing at a young age (15-16) what you want to do for the rest of your life! I feel bad for people who are still looking AFTER college! Find something you LOVE doing, and then find someone stupid enough to pay you to do it! LOL
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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.
I learned to program on a HP 2115 minicomputer whose primary IO methods were paper tape and a teletype. One evening while trying to get something to work, I typed "why" at the command prompt. The computer replied "Why not". Since HP published the source code for the basic OS (HP Assembly Language), I dove in to see if I could find where "why" was being parsed as a legal command. As I remember, it was very well obfuscated using octal constants for both data and executable code. I guess I'll have to go with the HP2115's answer to the question Why? Why not!
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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.
In 1978 at college I made my first contact with a computer and programming language, BASIC. I didn't get it, failed. Then in 1980 at a different college I took a FORTRAN class, got the technical aspect of it, aced all the tests, but had to use punch cards to produce programs, which was a pain, so I 'borrowed' punch card stacks. Again, didn't really get into the whole computer and programming thing. Jump forward to 1986, after changing schools again and changing majors from Aeronautical Engineering to Electrical Engineering to Architecture to Art to Forestry then to Jewery/Silversmithing, thru a few part time jobs, in and out of college then back in, I came to the realization that my brother graduated in CompSci and was making good coin. So my whole reasoning for jumping back into CompSci/programming was "If my brother can do it and make money then I can to." No other reason. So I reluctantly jumped back in, had courses in BASIC, Pascal, Assembler on DEC-PDP11 w/ giant floppy disks, C, but what really REALLY hooked me was a graphics class using Turbo Pascal on a PC. I could visibly see results from my coding efforts. So after 10 years of wandering the planet I finally graduated in 1988 in CompSci, and now 30 years later, I still code C/C++, creating data entry tools that generate code for others so they don't have to. Which is really sad they miss out on programming but that's a whole new topic...
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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.
Apple ][ with Apple BASIC -- Why? Because there were almost no useful programs then; it was the pre-VisiCalc era. Then I added a CPM card and a roaring-loud hard disk drive the size of a shoe box. Followed that with Compaq PC, Borland's Turbo Pascal and Turbo Prolog.
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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.
I was stationed in Italy from 86 to 90 (Vicenza, airborne infantry) when I found Tandy computers at the PX. I bought one with two floppy drives and the disk had gwbasic on it. I started messing around with it and reading everything I could about working with computers and programming. I haven't stopped yet. Being able to get the computer to do something makes it worthwhile.
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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:
We are indeed privileged. I look forward to working, and like others have said I am amazed I get to be paid (well) for it too.
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I remember the Kaypro!
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity RAH
Mycroft Holmes wrote:
Kaypro
Yes! And the Osborne!
The difficult we do right away... ...the impossible takes slightly longer.
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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.
I was in college to become an EE (back in the 70s) and came across Byte magazine. Started reading about these new things call microprocessors and decided I could build a board with one of these, so I did (with a z80 processor). It was finished the day after my last final senior year. All I did for the next 3 weeks (until the start of my new job) was learn to program it. I had a whole 4K of RAM and a 2K EPROM containing the Zapple monitor program. There was no programming language so I was programming machine code by the numbers, poking values into memory, executing code at specified address, dump memory, etc. It was fascinating! At the new job, they were just starting to design a microprocessor base (Motorola 6800) smoke detector tester/calibrator. When they found out I had a computer at home, they asked me if I wanted to work on that project (of freaking course!!). I've been designing/programming ever since, mostly embedded systems.
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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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I went the same path but started with a commodore 64 and went via SuperBase before I got into VB.
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity RAH
This might be of interest to you: The Official C64 website – The World’s Best-selling Home Computer – Reborn![^]
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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.
I taught myself BASIC from a book my dad had on Dartmouth Basic back in 1978. Why? Why do you do anything when you're 14 -- because I wanted to.
I live in Oregon, and I'm an engineer.
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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.
My first coding was was in 1981 when some office donated a boatload of Commodore Pet 2001 Series computers to the school district I was in. My middle school math teacher ended up with them in his room, and offered to stay an extra hour after school every day to give anyone access to them that wanted it, in exchange for $20 a head, while letting us all know he knew nothing about them. One of my friends manages to get his hands on a manual from his dad's office, and we all started teaching ourselves Commodore Basic. The next year, we all signed up for the "all new" computer class at the High School. They didn't really teach us anything. The teacher just came in and told us to do whatever we wanted, as long as we each turned in one "educational game/program" each quarter that could be handed over to the grade schools in the district so they could do something with the donated computers. My Sophomore year, I consulted for the district to put their 5x7 index card attendance system into a database program. They bought the database program, and I designed the system (with its amazing 5.24" floppy based data transfer system) and trained all of the attendance secretaries in the district on how to use it. That was also when I learned the value of getting signed contracts before doing any work. :mad::mad: They originally promised me $2000 for the job, but when everything was done, they told me that as a government entity they could not legally pay money to a minor as an independent contractor, but would make sure that I received an A grade in the computer class as compensation for my efforts (as if I wasn't already getting one). Lesson learned. Money makes the world go round ... but documentation moves the money.
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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.
You mean something like: y:=0; y=0; y<-0 set 0 as y Y is in there somewhere. Oh something else. I start in 1983 in High School with an Apple IIe. From there onto Pascal, C, C++, FORTRAN, Lisp, Java, VB.NET, C#, SQL, JavaScript, Python and the list goes on. Of all the WHY in CODING: WHY: FORTRAN code must start on specific column (older one). WHY: VB.NET required _ for line break. WHY: Python code blocks by indentation. WHY: JavaScript "this" is the most confusion of all.
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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.
I took a programming class at Cal Poly when they got their 1st computer (1964-an IBM 1620 w/20K BCD bytes memory), and I got hooked (there was no way I was going to make a living as a Math major). Fortran II and assembly (I still have the instruction set manual-it was small). If you put a handheld radio up next to the console and ran a particular program, it would play 'Flight of the Bumble Bee'. :-)
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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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Randy Ga wrote:
When did you first learn to code and why?
Back in the early 90s, I took a computer class in High School because I knew computers would become a big thing and I thought it would be good to help me get into college. It turns out it was a Pascal Programming class and for the first 3 weeks the computers weren't ready so we did everything on the whiteboard. I was so lost and confused, I had no clue what we were doing. Nothing made sense at all. Once the computers were ready and I saw the Pascal compiler and where we were typing in the commands, it all made sense and I've been doing programming ever since.
Everyone is born right handed. Only the strongest overcome it. Fight for left-handed rights and hand equality.
In the early 80s I just wanted to try something new and via a family member I had an opportunity to try my hand at coding. Over time I learned BASIC (of course), then came writing glossaries for the Wang OIS[^] (you're really old if you remember Wang), Lotus 123 macros and dBase II. Made some money, had some fun, but eventually grew tired of being in an office all day and went back to trucking. Nowadays I just write apps for my own use or the occasional CP article.
Sometimes the true reward for completing a task is not the money, but instead the satisfaction of a job well done. But it's usually the money.
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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
I had a 99. Still have the BASIC manual as a keepsake. In its day it was a great gaming machine.
Sometimes the true reward for completing a task is not the money, but instead the satisfaction of a job well done. But it's usually the money.
