OSDev.org

I personally learned to code when I was 9, for some weird reason I decided to pick up a book that was on a shelf somewhere in the house (My dad is a coder so he had loads of manuals hanging around) and I decided to learn how to program in C and ever since then, I've never turned back....
Now I notice that at school people though they normally accept it as one of those weird things that make each person individual, they don't understand why I'd want to sit down and program something (Mainly an OS...).
So I was wondering what keeps you people going...
There are few people that I know that understand me and I don't know anybody of my age (16) that codes, so I was wondering, has nobody ever told you that what you did was weird and that you kind of felt really bad about it?
and what keeps you wanting to code, I personally have had moments where I which I hadn't had that moment when I was 9 and that I was still blissfully clueless and 'normal' like other people and that I couldn't code...

Jules

P.S. Sorry for the bad phrasing, but I couldn't think of a better way of doing it...

I've never felt bad when people have called me, and what I do, weird. In fact, I've been called weird a lot. 'Inhuman' is another one. Personally, when I get that response for something I've done, I generally accept it as a complement.

I don't have any motivation for much of anything I do. I just find relaxation in it. For example, when I'm painting something, I can just sit for hours, painting. Whatever task I have the next day, or errand that I have to run, just melt. Nothing at all matters. Ecstasy.

I am weird, so thats normal

I love the idea of having (almost) full control of the machine, and that would be my main motivation for doing this. Being self-taught makes me like the subject more, for some reason (maybe because I have gathered this knowledge and put it together myself), and I love what I do.

But who needs a reason?

-JL

I find it's not the programming that people find weird; they seem to be in awe of the fact that I can do it (apart from my coder friends, who see me as normal anyway). They seem to find my constant perfectionism weirder (and probably far more annoying). I guess why I write system code is a combination of these things: the constant search for perfectionism in my computer.

That said, I haven't actually written any system code for a while; I just haven't had enough hours in one block to sit down and code an OS. I only have an hour here, an hour there, to play with. So I do things like edit the wiki instead to help other coders in their search for perfectionism. The most worrying thing is that I now enjoy doing that more than writing an operating system.

I'm pedantic in other ways too: I spent half my spare time this week tidying the cables inside my computer. It looks sweet now, but I don't even have a window in my case, so there wasn't much point at all. But I know that the airflow is the best it can be. I guess that's sort of the same with a kernel: 99% of users don't give a **** about the code that makes up the kernel, other than it works the best it can.

The problem is with the rest of the world not you, they all want quick fix's, they do not want to put any effort into learning anything.
Show them your OS that you have been working on for years and they will turn there noses up at it.
But show them this .bat file and they think your supper cool

In the end, it is not useful being concerned about what other people think. You are an independent free person, and everyone in the world has a right to find something in life that interests them. Most people take many decades to find a "hobby". You found one early in life. This is a mark of wisdom on your part, that other people around you are failing to match. Enjoy your hobby. It is even one that can easily become financially rewarding -- even a career.

My personal motivations? I don't want to add value to Bill Gates' OS every time I spend a day creating some lovely new software. I do not want to have to deal with Windows quirks making all my perfect software work wrong. I want my machine to stop crashing. I want my machine to run faster. And programming is one of the best types of brain exercise you will ever find.

suthers wrote:Now I notice that at school people though they normally accept it as one of those weird things that make each person individual, they don't understand why I'd want to sit down and program something (Mainly an OS...).
So I was wondering what keeps you people going...

In some weird way, I have come full circle.

My first experiences with computers was the C64, where you could do stuff like LOAD "$",8 and LIST and RUN and I wanted to understand so I could do it myself.

I liked what I learned, so I learned more, made it my hobby, and in the end, my job.

I code at the office to earn my living.

I code at home to work on something that's mine, done in my time, with (almost) no outside pressures, and in the way I think code should be done.

As to why I liked coding in general, I'll let the lyrics of "World inside the crystal" speak for me.

i code because i enjoy it. Especially OS development, as it is exploring the internals of an architecture as you work. So double win

i also code because it gives me a way to relax and forget about the pressures life has - it's almost like a type of meditation.

there are a few other motives - namely to create a tool i can use or share, or because i want to make something better and more unique than an existing tool/product.

and then theres the fact that no one else i know (personally - not online) under the age of 28 can code as well as me, so it gives me a good feeling inside

lukem95 wrote: and then theres the fact that no one else i know (personally - not online) under the age of 28 can code as well as me, so it gives me a good feeling inside

I really enjoy coding to, its like peace, its the only thing that allows me to completely get rid of boredom....
Yah also I don't no anybody under the age of about 25 (My cousin) who can code...., the closest you get to a coder at school is somebody who thinks he's incredible because he can make batch files...
Oh and nice song lyrics...
Jules

My first experiences were with a BBC Model B. I was about 5 and was watching some disks being formatted. I therefore knew how they got wiped, but wanted to know how the programs got on the disk in the first place.

Luckily, the BBC had some really simple (aimed at children) programming books around at the time. What has kept me going is that I love being creative through programming (after all, I'm no good at art and other creative stuff). I really enjoy the learning too. When I get on a computer, I never know whether to load up a game or start programming, because I enjoy both.

I didn't want to make computers my career - I wanted to continuing coding and learning in my own time, of which I seem to have less than ever!

Cheers,
Adam

The first ever language I learned to program in is Java, which I started when I was 9. When I was 10 I bought a C# programming book, which taught me lots about OOP and (obviously) C#. I have only just started learning C and Assembly, because I have always wanted to make a small operating system.

I'm only in middle school, and I'm the only one that can code there.