OSDev.org

I'm interested in people's first programming language here, and what got you interested in computers in the first place. I got a hand-me-down PC with a version of Windows 3.1 that my grandparents used, but it isn't around anymore. But this was also back in 1999 or 2000 (I was 9 or 10), so I didn't have the internet on that computer. I didn't actually know you can write code to tell the computer what to do until I was in 4th grade. Since then, I was looking around at theory of how it works, but I struggled to find answers about how to actually put it into practice (I didn't know exactly where to find the tools to do it at the time). So I only have been actually coding for a little 2+ years.

I must be a fool. :X

BASIC. Playing and then making computer games (actually, more like learning how they're made and making various parts, primarily graphics/rendering).

Which BASIC was that?

So besides FreeBASIC, is it popular to still use that to introduce themselves to programming anymore? Just thought I might be progressing too fast without getting my feet wet first.

Because I might just see if I can get my hands on one.

Hi,

My first was BASIC too (Commodore BASIC in my case).

SeanMc wrote:So besides FreeBASIC, is it popular to still use that to introduce themselves to programming anymore? Just thought I might be progressing too fast without getting my feet wet first.

The university I attended began with Alice, then moved on to (a sub-set of) Java, then covered more concepts with Java, then branched out into other languages. I'm sure most Universities do everything completely different.

The important part (initially) is to learn the concepts - things like expressions, functions/methods, structures, pointers, OOP, resource management, multi-threading/concurrency, etc. Once you're familiar with the concepts, most programming languages end up being mostly "same concepts, different syntax, different limitations".


Cheers,

Brendan

Although I had a Timex Sinclair, I'd say that I learned programming BASIC on the C64 close to 30 years ago. Ironically, it's not until I got into OS Development a few years ago that I actually learned what all those PEEK and POKE statements were actually doing though.

From there, I learned Visual Basic, C++, Java and finally C#.

SeanMc wrote:Which BASIC was that?

So besides FreeBASIC, is it popular to still use that to introduce themselves to programming anymore? Just thought I might be progressing too fast without getting my feet wet first.

Because I might just see if I can get my hands on one.

ZX Spectrum's ROM BASIC. It wasn't very much useful for me other than being the first language, in which one inevitably learns variables, subroutines, basic control flow (ifs, goto's, loops) and writes simple programs. I don't think for that sort of learning you need BASIC as there's better and more powerful stuff nowadays. However, it looks like there are some good modern implementations of BASIC. I think, the last I played with was qb64. There's a list with more.

My first programming language was "Extended Color Basic 1.1" on the CoCo 2 (Tandy / Radio-Shack TRS-80 Color Computer 2).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_BASIC
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TRS-80_Color_Computer

Pr1me BASIC on a timeshared minicomputer, circa 1980, typing programs out of the old David Ahl book (the yellow cover "Microcomputer Edition" reprint), though I ended up with no access to it after that when they shut down that high school and moved us to a different one the next year.

I eventually followed up in 1984 with Applesoft BASIC on a second-hand Apple ][+ and BASICA/GWBASIC on a true-blue (albeit used) IBM PC/XT my father bought for his home office the year after.

Vanilla JavaScript became my first programming language circa 2013. Me and my teacher of mathematics were working on a math-related game. Unfortunately, I lost the files some time ago. Then I learned C, C++, x86 assembly, Objective-C, Swift and Go to some degree. Last time I mostly use Swift and Go. I also experienced HTML and CSS, but I think that CSS is just plain ugly.

My first programming language was BASIC (QuickBASIC) after this I played with C (only stdio and math), but the language I got the most use out of was Java (SE). On the OSDev route I learned [more] C and ASM.

I'm not including scripting languages here.

And what got me interested in the first place, well that's a hard one to answer - it was so long ago. I was 5 (maybe 6) when I got *my* first computer - my dad was tired of having to format and reinstall ours so often as I would "mess things up". I've always been interested in "How Things Work", before computers I was messing with simple electronic circuits and plumbing...

Brendan wrote:The university I attended began with Alice, then moved on to (a sub-set of) Java, then covered more concepts with Java, then branched out into other languages. I'm sure most Universities do everything completely different.

Well, that's the same order that is taken here. BTW I really dislike Alice .


Best Regards,

B!



TL;DR; My interest in OSDev has helped me out in ways I would never have imagined, at-least when it comes to being a "Computer Technician", I understand so much more about how the internals of how a computer functions - which allows me to diagnose issues with more speed and ease. The only down side is that OSDev has also taught me to spot bugs and inefficiencies in applications that I would have been blind to - and that I can do nothing about them (closed source).

BBC Basic on the BBC Micro model B when I was 7. It's still the system that's closest to my heart.

I stayed with basic (gwbasic, qbasic, quick basic) until I was 12 (1993). It was the first time I met somebody else who programmed but in Pascal, a language I didn't about. Pre-internet era. So I learned turbo pascal, pascal for windows and then stayed with the Delphi line of RAD tools for over a decade. Wrote some commercial software using it. Fun times.

The last decade I've been trying and learning lots of languages. The most fun I've had with C. I never really programmed in it due to various reasons but I've been using it allot the last few months and it's been great.

Why I got started with it? Because it was new and wonderful. From the first time I ever saw a computer, a Philips P200T, I was hooked. I couldn't even imagine how my life would have been if I didn't grew up in that era. I don't want to sound like a grandpa because I'm no way near that old, I'm just 35, but it was so great for so many reasons.

FORTRAN in a summer course at Marquette University between my junior and senior years of high-school in 1968. My first exposure to BASIC was a dialect on a Supernova minicomputer in 1971. My first assembler was 6502 assembly on a Commodore 64 in 1983. I'm a moldy oldie!

The first programming language I learned was C++ some 14 years ago. Then my uncle taught me Perl. I started learning assembly a few years later.

I do not recommend this path.

my first programming language was when i was small boy and was Scratch i learnt it in school.

Basic on my TRS-80 MC10 then 6502 ASM on Atari 800XL/130XE on my own.
Then Pascal in college and ADA at University.
Now I'm mostly using C/C++, VB.Net and Python.