Programming, a task most daunting... or is it?

desolathor · 2010-10-23 00:35:08

May be a bit misleading title and likely in the wrong forum section. For that I apologize.

Primarily I wanted to start a discussion about programming and how you - the people of the forum - got familiar with it. What inspired and/or motivated you? Where did you start and why?

Admittedly, I am a newb, and a bit tipsy at the moment as well but I am interested in this topic and I would very much like to learn.

-Tomas

tlvb · 2010-10-23 00:49:53

Well, it is difficult to motivate why one thinks something is fun, I remember starting out with QBasic on msdos,
but not exactly why, and on that road I have been since. If you like logic puzzles and how to make the
computer do your bidding in more complex ways than simply clicking on the 'do that' button, programming might
be for you.

Check out the General Programming Forum; there are
some different threads on what programming language to choose and how to start.

Last edited by tlvb (2010-10-23 00:50:24)

drcouzelis · 2010-10-23 01:16:56

QBasic on MS-Dos. I wonder how many more people are going to respond with that. Well, actually it was Basic on an IBM Model Old (or whatever they're called), but whatever. I'm convinced that the "modern" version of that is a simple Arch Linux installation and Python. If my children are interested in learning to program I think I would start them with that.

I became interested in it because I wanted to make a video game. I wanted something that I created and that I could explore. I wanted to "create other worlds".

I don't think it's daunting. Just learn little by little.

Last edited by drcouzelis (2010-10-23 01:18:36)

karol · 2010-10-23 01:27:49

Just like when you need e.g. a table: you have wood, hammer, nails and a saw, so the materials and the tools are there. You have to figure out how to use them to build what you need.
My needs are modest: it may be a script that generates html templates or a one-liner that downloads pictures from a webpage. I'm not sure if this deserves to be called 'programming' ;P

hume's doona · 2010-10-23 02:31:42

another dos/basic-y from days gone by... for loops kinda fascinated me back then.

I did a small post gradcertificate in IT, covered python and C++.

In terms of how, it's just play. I found playing with a python shell the most useful.

why? who knows? there are more pointless things out there, and certainly less fun. It's a bit like having 1/2 a song stuck in your head... I tend to watch it on youtube just to see how wrong I was, so it is with programming

stqn · 2010-10-23 14:55:32

I started by copying (typing) games written in Basic. At the time there was magazines full of games listings, or source code as we call it now . On a ZX81.

As to "why"... I'd like to say that if you're not compelled to program stuff, then don't. And if you are, you're doomed.

Last edited by stqn (2010-10-23 15:02:35)

shwick · 2010-10-23 15:13:03

i was 6 or 7 and i used an infinite loop to keep writing "<my brother's name> is an idiot" on the screen on our commodore64 i guess my primary motivation was to make fun of him
But later when i was in grade school my computer teacher liked me and let me stay in the lab all the time, and she taught me basic so i can go on school competitions and i really liked it and continued tinkering with it, and now I'm studying software engineering. Programming usually relaxes and focuses me and i like doing it so yeah

pyther · 2010-10-23 15:51:03

I wanted to know how to create web pages and programs. I was only 12-13 at the time, so I got books from the library mainly copied and pasted the code. Over time I learned some basic coding. Then in high school I took C++ and Java. During that time I was also playing around with bash and python.

Now I just write some scripts and a few simple web apps. I have basic programming knowledge and skills and luckily have a friend who helps me with the more advance stuff. I program as a hobby, but would never consider a career in it. I get into a "programming mode" and I'll typically complete a small project or two and then I don't bother to program for a few months (for fun, anyways).

I am more of a network and sysadmin guy, than a programming guy.

ewaller · 2010-10-23 16:15:30

Jr High school using an 110 Baud ASR-33 Teletype with an acoustic coupled modem talking to a time shared MicoData Reality computer in Dartmouth BASIC. We saved our programs to punched paper tape. (circa 1975)

Now get off my lawn

Awebb · 2010-10-23 16:30:13

ewaller wrote:

Now get off my lawn

A cave 10.0000 BC, carving symbols in stone. We needed to wait a bit for the archaeologists to find and interpret it. The good old times, you know, when bite code was teethmarks on bones...

I mostly write scripts for small tasks comming up every day. All this FOSS makes me lazy, basically everything big I need is in the repos or just a few hours worth compiling time away. Ironically, the only projects I ever felt the urge to write a patch for and give it upstream are beeing made in languages I don't know much about.

kachelaqa · 2010-10-23 16:54:38

Awebb wrote:

A cave 10.0000 BC, carving symbols in stone. We needed to wait a bit for the archaeologists to find and interpret it. The good old times, you know, when bite code was teethmarks on bones...

you had bones? you were lucky.

in my day we had nothing but a soup of chemicals to work with, and our programs were built out of polynucleotide chains...

BaconPie · 2010-10-23 18:40:21

I started with Java and then moved onto C (microprocessors and embedded systems). Java is really nice to start with because it's VERY focused object oriented programming. The basics of both are really easy to learn and you can do it online too.

bones · 2010-10-24 09:46:48

kachelaqa wrote:

Awebb wrote:
A cave 10.0000 BC, carving symbols in stone. We needed to wait a bit for the archaeologists to find and interpret it. The good old times, you know, when bite code was teethmarks on bones...
you had bones? you were lucky.
in my day we had nothing but a soup of chemicals to work with, and our programs were built out of polynucleotide chains...

Hey Leave me out of this

tomk · 2010-10-24 10:01:56

Moved to General Programming.

Cyrusm · 2010-10-25 13:08:49

desolathor wrote:

Admittedly, I am a newb, and a bit tipsy at the moment as well but I am interested in this topic and I would very much like to learn.

curiously enough, this is exactly how I started down the path to programming! a little bit tipsy and a lot curious.

I started by taking some university classes, this is where I got the basics down (you could probably get the same from buying a textbook and doing the problems and projects, I don't think it matters what language you start with, this matter has been debated several times before and I've concluded pick one out of a hat, or one with a name you like. whatever. just start programming!) then I started exploring/tinkering with/reading about a variety of languages and what they are useful for/good at doing. Now I primarily write programs in C and assembly for micro-controllers, and write small scripts in several different languages (python,bash,zsh,perl etc.) as utilities to make my life just a little easier.

my only suggestion is to start with baby steps. you aren't going to write the next big game/operating system/graphics design program as your first program! start with "Hello World!" and SLOWLY work your way from there concentrating on learning fundamentals and patterns and HOW to properly apply them.

o1911 · 2010-10-25 13:18:49

projecteuler.net is a great place to learn a new language. Also great for maths problems, if you're into that sort of thing

Awebb · 2010-10-25 16:39:09

o1911 wrote:

projecteuler.net is a great place to learn a new language. Also great for maths problems, if you're into that sort of thing

You're the devil... I have work to do :-P

joven · 2010-10-25 17:16:33

o1911 wrote:

projecteuler.net is a great place to learn a new language. Also great for maths problems, if you're into that sort of thing

Wow. Super cool. http://codekata.pragprog.com/ is sorta similar but not actively maintained the last time I looked.

I started programming in highschool mainly because I wanted to control the computer instead of the other way around. My first job was cleaning the attic over a small electronics company. Thats where I was first exposed to programming, both embedded and on the desktop. Watching real engineers over their shoulder was a great learning experience. Went to college and minored in CS. Forgot about my major as soon as I graduated and have been writing code ever since.

otterfox · 2010-10-26 03:16:05

I was 16 and after I decided that I no longer wanted to be an architect.
I discovered that I was already really good with computers started looking at programming. At school they tried to teach us VB but even the teachers didn't understand what was happening so I brought some programming books off amazon and started learning C from The C Programming Language.

o1911 · 2010-10-26 03:40:21

Awebb wrote:

o1911 wrote:
projecteuler.net is a great place to learn a new language. Also great for maths problems, if you're into that sort of thing
You're the devil... I have work to do :-P

I'm very sorry for your loss

Trent · 2010-10-26 04:13:59

Cyrusm wrote:

my only suggestion is to start with baby steps. you aren't going to write the next big game/operating system/graphics design program as your first program! start with "Hello World!" and SLOWLY work your way from there concentrating on learning fundamentals and patterns and HOW to properly apply them.

Emphatically agree. Many new programmers are discouraged by how much (and I quote, sarcastically) "boring stuff" there is; they want to go from no knowledge to writing video games in the first month or so. (Perhaps more unfortunate is the fact that some curricula try to appease this desire, and end up skipping the fundamentals in order to teach the fine points of GUI creation... but don't get me started on what's wrong with programming education, I'll never finish.) Learn to program properly; it takes time and effort, but is tremendously rewarding.

@otterfox: your story is remarkably similar to mine.

xweb · 2010-10-27 03:31:22

started programing on the color computer ( a supped up TRS-80 sold by radio shack) at the time it came with basic as a built in rom and i had a limited selection of software so i just started experimenting.

later i got into web developing which led to php which led to other programing languages such as ruby and python. i think its the joy of creation that keep me programing.

if you want to start just skip the hard stuff like c and go straight to something like ruby. You can always come back to the compiled stuff latter. Interpreted languages ( stuff you don't have to compile) give you that instant gratification you need to keep you motivated and help you under stand the relationship between what you type and how the program works. You get to play with different ways of doing things without having to do the whole write -> compile -> debug - rewrite cycle. plus most of the concepts you learn are transferable.

dmz · 2010-10-27 04:23:10

I tried a couple of languages but none really made an impression on me.
I made all them examples, and then I had nothing to do with the knowledge I had
gained. I guess I wasn't motivated enough. This was when I was running Windows
though.

Shortly after I found out about GNU/Linux and espescially the shell, I started
glancing at Perl. It looked a bit scary at first, but I decided to port *ALL* of
my shell scripts to Perl, to learn. And on that way it is... My first bash
script that was a really ugly interface to MPD at ~10 lines is now a fully
fledged MPD client at ~1600 lines of Perl. And it rocks!

Now, I read, write, talk and dream about Perl. This got to be love, if
something. I suppose she's like the woman I never met.

Oh. And Perl rocks.

akephalos · 2010-10-30 10:07:40

I began serious programming with application scripting (3D). But some posts remind me how I truly began: Basic and some Assembler on Z-80 .
Now I use C, Tcl and SQL to work on a certain project, pragmatic choices but I feel at ease with them.

3]) · 2010-10-31 22:05:51

I wanted to understand how these "computer scientists" made these programs that I used everyday, to understand its inner workings, and ofcourse to see some of my code become "alive", in the sense that it has a function.
If you want to start, Python all the way.

Arch Linux

#1 2010-10-23 00:35:08

Programming, a task most daunting... or is it?

#2 2010-10-23 00:49:53

Re: Programming, a task most daunting... or is it?

#3 2010-10-23 01:16:56

Re: Programming, a task most daunting... or is it?

#4 2010-10-23 01:27:49

Re: Programming, a task most daunting... or is it?

#5 2010-10-23 02:31:42

Re: Programming, a task most daunting... or is it?

#6 2010-10-23 14:55:32

Re: Programming, a task most daunting... or is it?

#7 2010-10-23 15:13:03

Re: Programming, a task most daunting... or is it?

#8 2010-10-23 15:51:03

Re: Programming, a task most daunting... or is it?

#9 2010-10-23 16:15:30

Re: Programming, a task most daunting... or is it?

#10 2010-10-23 16:30:13

Re: Programming, a task most daunting... or is it?

#11 2010-10-23 16:54:38

Re: Programming, a task most daunting... or is it?

#12 2010-10-23 18:40:21

Re: Programming, a task most daunting... or is it?

#13 2010-10-24 09:46:48

Re: Programming, a task most daunting... or is it?

#14 2010-10-24 10:01:56

Re: Programming, a task most daunting... or is it?

#15 2010-10-25 13:08:49

Re: Programming, a task most daunting... or is it?

#16 2010-10-25 13:18:49

Re: Programming, a task most daunting... or is it?

#17 2010-10-25 16:39:09

Re: Programming, a task most daunting... or is it?

#18 2010-10-25 17:16:33

Re: Programming, a task most daunting... or is it?

#19 2010-10-26 03:16:05

Re: Programming, a task most daunting... or is it?

#20 2010-10-26 03:40:21

Re: Programming, a task most daunting... or is it?

#21 2010-10-26 04:13:59

Re: Programming, a task most daunting... or is it?

#22 2010-10-27 03:31:22

Re: Programming, a task most daunting... or is it?

#23 2010-10-27 04:23:10

Re: Programming, a task most daunting... or is it?

#24 2010-10-30 10:07:40

Re: Programming, a task most daunting... or is it?

#25 2010-10-31 22:05:51

Re: Programming, a task most daunting... or is it?

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