Youngest Programer

[Candy]

Not sure whether this is going to help but:

5. first computer
7. Learned c64-basic
9. transferred to gwbasic
10. transferred to qbasic
12. learned assembly (without any other language, so that includes hand-translating to machine language for the bits I could do, since qbasic can't handle assembly)
13. learned VB
14. got interested in C, learned it
16. got interested in c++, started learning it
18. learned Java
19. learned proper SQL
21. Learned Haskell and Prolog
22. Learned VHDL

That list is not counting HTML, css, javascript, php etc. Just the programming languages.

I'm 22 now by the way, to be 23 on June 25th 2006.

My OSdev idea came somewhere around 14. I worked on the idea and the skill set with the language until around 19, then I started working it out. I've been a member here for 2 years and 4 months, and I've been a moderator here for one year and 2 months (hey... that's a coincidence).

[distantvoices]

Hehe, and I've sprouted that osdev idea of mine just a few months before my 25'th birthday - now I'm approaching the 31. What does this say to a certain tantrae-throwing-member, eh?

hm. I like having challenging projects in my life. they fill you out and give you this feeling of being able to do great things even if you are but a small peeble in the universe.

...and gods play with the fate of men. But first, they have to place the figures and to find the dice. In the meantime let's have some fun, eh?

[Kemp]

My first programming was a BBC Micro at 10 (abusing the school ones to start to learn programming). God knows when I started with the other languages. Would have been Delphi when I was about 12 (which I still use a lot, mainly as I know where I am with it having used it for so long), and Java at 18 when they forced us to at Uni >:( Thoughout the period between I was gradually picking up bits and pieces of C (for some reason pointers came naturally to me, I've heard that's one of the things new people get confused over, it was other things that annoyed me). Recently (20), I started on C++ and I much much much prefer it to C. I don't know when I started on assembly, would have probably been about 16 with the main part of my learning when I was around 18. Prolog I picked up at 19 (due to an AI module at uni), I was the only one in the class that grasped the different style of coding, I think my mind is upside down or something, lol. Python I picked up during the summer just gone and C# we're about to cover (though I personally don't like the whole .NET technology thing).

I think that's an almost complete list, an essay of my life, lol.

[Candy]

Prolog I picked up at 19 (due to an AI module at uni), I was the only one in the class that grasped the different style of coding, I think my mind is upside down or something, lol.

Hm... I got an A for that course too (dutch grade 9.8 actually, on a scale from 0 to 10)... Only got a 9.1 for Haskell however, made two very stupid errors (one completely wrong, one time I plain forgot adding a limitation).

Python I picked up during the summer just gone and C# we're about to cover (though I personally don't like the whole .NET technology thing).

C# I did also (hm... must've missed that however, that was also when I was 22, during a summer job). The language is like c++, like java and like all the others, more explicit and if you're used to stuff in c++ it's going to get your blood from under your fingernails. It's just a tad different on each possible thing. Also, the .NET environment makes for an environment that's specifically fitted for no applications. IE, you can make any generic application in it, but as soon as you make a specific one, it's too slow. All I wanted was a sortable, filterable database-ish view on a few million lines. It slowed to a lot worse than a crawl.

Also, it's still doing with Windows' ancient idea about threads (apartment should ring a bell, if not, be happy).

[Kemp]

Apartments do ring a bell, but only on the level of "I've heard the term before and know it was something to do with threads or permissions or something like that", nothing beyond that.

The main reason I don't like .NET is a mainly see it as M$ Java, and Sun Java is bad enough as it is.

"Code is compiled to an intermediate form that is platform independent"

That was the first thing I ever read about it, sound familiar? Saying that though, Visual C# looks to be a good tool if you just want to display some data from a database on a wepage.

[srg_13]

I just got Visual C# Express edition (its free here), and I hope to start learning that soon to make windows apps. It's supposed to be like a mix of Visual Basic and C++, of which I am familiar, so I hope I pick it up easily.

-Stephen

[Candy]

It's supposed to be like a mix of Visual Basic and C++

Well... It's a lot more like Java than any Microsoft-language. But since it doesn't sell as "Microsoft-Java clone" they've decided to tell you it's based on a mix between VB and C++.

All the expert features from c++ are kicked out. All the beginner helps from VB are kicked out. You end up with a language that's fit for people that are exactly from the middle type, which is people wanting to make click&play windows applications without large sets of data or anything. Imo, that's the home/pure-hobby developer market.

[Warrior]

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".

Of course I think I'm the greatest, I just didn't want to look bad by putting straight 10's (joking). Well yea I uh am ranking myself out of my general knowledge or so maybe how confident I feel with it might be a better definition.

[iammisc]

I think I started programming during late first-grade after my brother read a DOS book and found out about a command called QBASIC. So, we started up the windows 3.1 computer(this was 1998), and sure enough it worked. My first program:

10 PRINT "hi"
20 GOTO 10

At the time, I had no idea what I was doing. Then, after searching for a GUI supporting language, I came accross wxWidgets, which ultimately taught me c++ after looking at the minimal sample.

[Candy]

I came accross wxWidgets, which ultimately taught me c++ after looking at the minimal sample.

I seriously doubt you can learn all of C++ from one example. Especially a minimal example.

[bluecode]

I came accross wxWidgets, which ultimately taught me c++ after looking at the minimal sample.

I seriously doubt you can learn all of C++ from one example. Especially a minimal example.

Depends on how he defines "all of C++" ;D
I've been using C++ for some years now and I'm sure I don't know everything.
I started programming at the age of 13 or 14 and back then I had very strange ideas concerning programming. I started with Visual Basic and switch then to C++. After a while (16 or so) I learned a little bit of assembler and started my first OS. I'm now 19 and I'm working on LightOS for 3 month now.

[iammisc]

I didn't mean all of c++, just the basic things like classes and stuff. Overloading operators, templates, and that kind of stuff were a bit out of reach.