Youngest Programer

[Fixthestar248]

I think I`m not THE youngest, but I did start at sevn with BASIC, and then Learned C, C++, and Assembly when I was nine(and I am now) I going toward HTML, JAVA, and your so-called, high-butlow-level(I think) language Forth. ;D ;D

[Eero Ränik]

If you found time to brag about it, you could also find time to find a thread on Programming board, where everybody already posted about this.

[Cjmovie]

You're right, you're not the youngest. I started shortly after my 6th birthday.

But that's besides the point. I think it would be easier if people didn't let these 'reoccuring' topics bounce up so much...stuff like "post your pic!" and whatnot.

[Rainer]

I started when I was in my mother's womb.... beat that!

[Fixthestar248]

Hey Euro Rankin, I don`t intend to brag, there for I didn`t!

[Candy]

Hey Euro Rankin, I don`t intend to brag, there for I didn`t!

If the world was that simple... You are in fact bragging.

Plus, you misspelled his name. Reminds me of a quote on Niklaus Wirth, who claimed that where European people call you by name (Niklaus Wirth) American people call you by value (Nickles Worth). You completely misspelled his name. If you can't type it, at least copy/paste it.

[Solar]

And it's so little to brag about. With PCs, dev environments and internet tutorials readily available about everywhere.

If I would claim to have started at seven, I'd have had to have an Apple II, PET 2001, TRS-80 or Atari 400 / 800. I would have had to have that, at a price tag of >$500, as my dad surely wouldn't have one sitting on his desk for me to use.

Does your dad buy you >$500 gifts?

Besides that, I seriously doubt you started at seven, because I seriously doubt any kid at that age (except the occassional wonderkid) has the mental capacity to do non-trivial programming in "mainstream" languages.

Then again, the maturity you display in kicking off a thread like this surely points to a nine-year-old... congrats. ::)

[bubach]

C, C++ and Assembly at age 9.. Forget it. Maybe copy&paste..

[distantvoices]

programming at that age doesn't necessarily imply skillfulness. Your Da's bunny can achieve as much with a mouse.

Software development involves experience and /dev/brain more than your approx da's bunny is capable of providing. (know this coz I myself got frustrated with programming sometimes, when a complicated problem rose up --- it's been far more interresting outside - having stroll, playing soccer, riding the bike .. such are the innocent pastimes of my youth ...)

Just don't sweat it, lad, it's not worth the breath to mention, ok?

[Kon-Tiki]

Qbasic when I was 8-10, here (dunno which age exactly). It had no use of variables, and was only set up with if-statements, some drawing and sound functions, ASCII art and after a few months cursor input (that one was a hell to get to work). I could blindly find my way through the Nibbles code to hack it in any way I wanted, though.

Anyways, first step in programming, is learning about variables. Without those, you'll never get further than being a code monkey. I highly doubt any kid of 7'd understand the principles of variables, no matter how simple they are.

[Solar]

I started at 12 or so. For years I considered 'A' to be superior to 'A%' (in BASIC 2.0) because it took one character less to type and allowed for fractionals.

Only after I dug into C for some time I realized that 'A' is a double and 'A%' an integer. No wonder my progs ran out of RAM and took ages to run.

That's what I mean with "mental capacity". You can toy around with it (like I did in the beginning, typing in the progs from the ZX-81 manual and trying to hack them before the 1k RAM ran out) for some time, but that ain't programming. It's about tackling a non-trivial problem and dividing it into subproblems until you know where to begin. (Hint, hint...)

[Fixthestar248]

I give up! Cut me some slack. My dad didn`t do anything for me to learn this exceptloan me a dollar for the tax for the books. I don`t intend for bragging, okay? I get that by my friend every day. I thought I could inform people. Here`s the stop sign for my talk on this topic. STOP.

[srg_13]

I started on Qbasic at age 6. Then C++ at about 11, and then OS programming in C at thirteen.

I also did a bit of HTML at around eight or nine, and PHP now, but I guess they aren't strictly programming

-Stephen

[Warrior]

HTML @ 12, PHP @ 13 VB @ 13, C @ 15, Java @ 17

Skill chart: (Out of 10)

HTML: 6
PHP: 8
VB: 7
C: 7
Java: 6

Currently learning: C#
Current Age: 17 (18 in March 28th WHOO)

[Solar]

No problems there. There's a world of difference between a nine-year-old and someone in his mid-teens. (Although I expect Nelson's skill chart to redefine "10" a couple of times as he gets more experienced. )

Personally, I'd have ranked myself as "7 or 8 out of 10" in my favourite language ever since I was, uh, 15 or so. Consistently. Not because I didn't improve as a programmer, but because I always found there's yet more to it to make a "10".