[Overv]

A simple question, but it might reveal some interesting stories. Let me take off with my own.

Back in 2005 MSN was all the rage and I decided to join my first internet forum in that time, which was about "Botje", a program written in Visual Basic 6 to make MSN bots. You could add sentences and regular expressions to it that the bot would reply to. This inspired me and I wanted to start making my own programs, so I started learning Visual Basic. Unfortunately I have no recollection of how I actually learned the language, but I would proceed to make a few interesting projects with it that are still on planetsourcecode.com today. Shortly after joining that forum and learning VB6, I went to the first class of a high school that had computer activities on Friday afternoons. We sometimes organized CS:S or Age of Empires LAN parties in the school's computer classroom. During one of these afternoons, I showed a Blackjack game I had made in VB6 to the IT guy who organized those afternoons and he was impressed. He told me that I should try to move on to C++ later, because that's what real programs were written in. I remember trying to learn C++ on cplusplus.com, but it was way too difficult for me back then. I thought I would never memorize all the things to type to make Hello World .

I must add that before quitting VB6, I've utilised it twice for evil behaviour. At that time, Internet Explorer was still the standard browser for everyone and the IE control in Visual Basic would retain the cookies and cache of the regular browser for some reason. So I wrote an application that, when run, defaced the profile on that first internet forum I joined. That got me an instant permaban, but the forum ceased to exist about 2 months later because of inactivity, so it didn't matter much. The other time was when I wrote a trojan and sent it to people on MSN as a fake WinZip self-extractor. Those were the days.

Now, tell me about your first endeavours in the incredible world of programming.

[Hexxeh]

I think I started with Yabasic back when I was like 6 or 7. Moved onto PHP a little while later.

[Chris220]

My father develops software for a living, I got interested in programming because of that. I don't remember the age exactly but I think I was around 10 or 11, and I literally just borrowed a gigantic book on C++ that he had and read it cover to cover, doing the examples and exercises as I went along.
From then on it was pretty much just practice practice practice!

[Dlaor-guy]

I wanted to make games back when I was around 9, so I just typed "game maker" in Google and then I found Game Maker 6. I started making incredibly simple stuff with it, but after a while I got the hang of it and I got better. I tried some stuff in GML and moved away from drag'n'drop. GML is pretty similar to C-like languages, but just a little bit simpler and shittier. After making more games I started to reach Game Maker's limitations and moved over to Processing, which was also pretty cool but I still wasn't satisfied. I occasionally still use Processing, but only for very simple graphics prototypes and stuff like that.

A few months later I heard some people talking about C++ and it being the best thing ever etc etc so I tried it (with Dev-C++ as IDE ), unfortunately that didn't work so well. Then I tried VB.NET, I liked it only for VS's GUI designer: I didn't like the language itself at all. Then I heard about C#, my first thought was that it was some kind of weird version of C++... but after trying it out I fell in love. I made a bunch of games in XNA with FlatRedBall, but after a while I started to use SFML.NET and then I made a bunch of more games.

And that's my story on how I became a C# addict.

[dajoh]

Can't remember what got me interested in it, but one day I borrowed a big ass book on PHP from a library when I was 10, brought it to school and read it every break I had.

A few months after that I read about C++ somewhere and decided to learn it. Armed only with Dev-C++ I conquered that beast.

[ROBO_DONUT]

Game Shark Pro for the Nintendo 64.
Then later there was a thing on Python on The Screen Savers.

Actually, I may have written or tried to write script for Morrowind before that. Also a little Quake C for the original Call of Duty.

[SiPlus]

At first, my dad bought me a CD with some IDEs. I started to code in Visual Basic 6, but nothing (except for text box cleaner) worked, so I abandoned programming for some years.
Then, in Spring 2010, I started to experiment with GMod Lua. In September of the same year, I released my first big project - Valkyrie Rockets for Garry's Mod.
Later, I decided to learn JavaScript, along with a bit of Visual Basic .NET, C# and PHP.
After that, I began to learn C, which is my favorite language now.

[danharibo]

I found out about Visual Basic 6 when I was about 10-11 I think, however I had found and IDE that I couldn't operate, and the syntax was just awful.

I then found Ogre3D (I think this is the order of events) which I found out was written in C++, I've not stopped using C++ since.

I've dabbled in Lua, Java, Python, C#, Javascript et al but I really do like C++ the most.

[Darkest_97]

My first language was QBasic in 10th grade. The course was just called Computer Programming 1 and there were 3 classes all together. The description for the 2nd and 3rd class were about making games, so I took the first class so I could eventually make games cause it sounded cool.

We started with basic stuff in QBasic obviously to learn to program, then eventually made Blackjack then Pacman.
Half way through the year we switched to small basic as an intro to dot based languages(or whatever you call them), and made little games in that.
The 2nd course was VB.net and all games. Then the third was C# and all games.
I learned html and some LUA my senior year also. Then java in my first semester of college. C# is by far my favorite though.

I entered my QBasic pacman into a nationwide programming contest for some college and got an honorable mention.

I originally wanted to be an architect and was taking CAD classes. Then I took my first programming course and was basically like fuck architecture I can make games and stuff.

[wingless]

I don't post in the Programming forums so much, so Hi.
My first endeavour into any programming was in SecondLife.
I'd dabbled with scripting for about a month before I met this friend, amazing programmer, still the best one I know. He taught me a shit load of things about scripting and programming in general, he told me LSL (The ingame scripting language) was based off and inspired by C#, so I went and picked it up. That was all the way back in 2006. I'm still using it, I love C#, I've never really properly tried to use anything else (Other than Perl, PHP and Javascript for web shit). I've still yet to create something stunning, I mostly use it to fuck with XNA and write tools to simplify shit (For example, for college before a certain class we have to go through this safety checklist, so I made a simple WinForms application, that simplified shit, took out the parts we didn't need to fill out and made it so it would email me the results in a simple fashion. It was just Name, Y/N, Notes but it saves me a shit load of time).

[swift and shift]

I've always been fascinated by technology and I started playing with computers at an early age. When I was in about grade 2 or 3 (7 or 8 years old), I decided that I wanted to create my own programs. As my dad had to maintain a few Perl scripts here and there as part of his job, he brought home a copy of Teach Yourself Perl in 24 Hours that he had at work and I started slowly reading through it.

I fooled around with Perl a bit and when I was about 9 or 10 I discovered Tripod, a free web host with a 20mb limit, but more importantly, one that let me upload CGI scripts to run.

This is an online game I wrote in Perl when I was 10. It's been untouched since 2004:

http://clapclap0.tripod.com/cgi-bin/index.cgi

[Sebixxx]

I was about 10 and started to make mods for a game called clonk planet
: http://www.clonk.de/classics.php?lng=en
The codelanguage is called "c4script" (kind of delphi) and was like:

#strict 2
public func Add(val1, val2)
{
  return val1 + val2;
}
protected func Initialize()
{
  var i = 7, j = 3, k = CLNK, h;
  if(i == j) Log("i is not j.");
  if(i != 4) Log("i is not 4.");
  if((h = Add(i + 1, j)) > (i * 2)) Log("i+1+j is bigger than i*2.");
  if(j - 5 <= h) Log("j - 5 is smaller or equal h.");
  if(k != CNKT) Log("In k is not the ID of the building kit saved");
  if(GetAction(k = FindObject(k)) == "Walk") Jump(k);
}

1 or 2 years later a friend showed me some good programming programs (like visual basic etc), and then it
began because I never knew before there where tools out there to make my own games.

[Overv]

swift and shift posted:

I fooled around with Perl a bit and when I was about 9 or 10 I discovered Tripod, a free web host with a 20mb limit, but more importantly, one that let me upload CGI scripts to run.

This is an online game I wrote in Perl when I was 10. It's been untouched since 2004:

http://clapclap0.tripod.com/cgi-bin/index.cgi

Oh yes, I learned PHP and MySQL by making little sites on tripod before I found out you can just run a local web server. The most advanced thing I made was a simple search engine that may still be around. Good times.

[ichiman94]

Discovered Comlogo in the elementary school (4th grade) but I didn't like it. Then I found a cd with FreePascal and Pascal tutorial on it (didn't have internet at the time), but after completing the tutorial I didn't want to touch that mess again. In 2008 finally got internet and then found SuperMarioWar which was made in c++ with sdl and then I tought why not try out c++, didn't understand everything, then in 2009 I found C# and everything started to really fall into place. Learned the .net framework and started experimenting with things. In the late 2010 found sfml and played with that but I didn't make anything better than a blank window with sprites in it because I wanted to make a game-engine. 2011 was the year of everything like OpenTK and OpenGL along with C++ again, understanded everything, but still game-engines and stuff like that.
Now I can say that I can code anything without any clutter or unnecessary stuff under Windows and Linux with C++ and C#, and my plan is to stay at C# and do a lot of practicing, because I'm restricted to use the pc max 2 hours per day, so I have to be quick with things.
I don't say that I'm a professional programmer, but I'm experienced enough to do anything that I want. I may be not the greatest programmer of all time, but if you want to start programming, then make sure you have lots of time every day, get enough motivation, and try out almost every programming and/or scripting language and stick to whichever you like the most.






I am a horrible person and worst programmer ever.

[Deco Da Man]

Macromedia ActionScript master race!

[eternalflamez]

I've always wanted to make games, and when I got one of those TI calculators, I used it to create simple programs to do math/physics formulas for me. (Quadratic equation, for example)

Later on I also made a simple snake game for it.
Game maker after that, 2007 or so, also got a book for it, "The Game Makers Apprentice" and made some simple games like that, and I love programming.

Edited:

Atm studying programming and i'm gonna do Game Design after this.

[Swebonny]

Started playing computer games when I was quite small, like 3.5 years old (blame my uncle), which got me hooked on computers. The interest persisted for quite a long while. I've always liked technology and computers.

My interest for programming is quite new, it started somewhere before I started high school. Just as most people I wanted to actually understand the computer and of course I also wanted to make games.

I took one programming course (we worked with C#) during high school, which made my interest for programming grow even more. There was so much more than just "programming games" in programming. I love the theory behind programming, the logic and math behind it. And also the fact that programming practically exists everywhere.

So after 3 years of high school I made my choice, I was going to study Computer Science and Engineering at our polytechnic university.

I'm now halfway done with my second semester, and I love it. It's fun, it's rewarding and it impresses people that doesn't know anything about programming

[geel9]

I started out at the age of 10 when my father, who is a programmer for Chase, signed me up for a Game Making class during the summer. After that was over, I looked up the program we were using (Game Maker) and used it until I was about 12 or 13. I then decided I wanted to move on, and went to ActionScript 2.

I made my shitty game in AS2, went on to AS3, and landed on C#. Been here ever since

[Serapth]

Mine was easy...


When I was 7 or so, my Dad bought me an Atari 800XL computer, we took it home, hooked it up, then he erased the DOS disks... so I had nothing else to do with it, except play with the ROMed version of BASIC. So, thats what I did and thats when I started to program.


That was also the day my dad developed a serious phobia of all things computer related.

[SteveUK]

Making shitty websites for my gaming clan in PHP/MySQL back in 2004.

[r0b0tsquid]

I started with this guy:

There was a workshop at a science museum where we programmed some of these to push cans out of an arena marked with black tape. I thought it was awesome, so I saved for about 8 months and got my NXT in year 6. I still have it to this day - I was using it for a little android project a couple of months back.
After that, I moved onto Autohotkey - it was my first non-graphical language, and at the time I thought it was incredible. I did a whole bunch of stuff with it, including a simple Runescape bot that would run between a bank and a mining site and fill my bank with something.
When my brother bought Gmod on steam, I got into Gmod and learned Expression 2 - I made some pretty neat stuff there, including some mech thing that stood up and walked around. That was my first introduction to Lua-like languages.
Not long after that, I discovered Micro Lua DS, which let me run Lua programs on my DS. There wasn't really much documentation at the time, so I learned everything I knew (about Lua as well as the library) by reading the examples. I spent entire weeks typing out applications on that little DS touchscreen. I still use it every now and then :) that was my first experience of applications programming, I've just sort of moved on from there really. It's been about five years since I got my NXT, if that puts anything in perspective.

Edited:

2^9 posts!

[uint64]

Fucking GTA 3 man.
I was in 7th grade and somebody got pirated version of gta 3 on school computers. It was amazing.
After hours of killing people I started to think how they made it.
Oh god, I thought all games where massive archives of images where next image to be shown is choosed by wasd keys. Imagine the disappointment.
Eventually, started to edit the .cfg files for gta3.
After that I modded/broke/edited loads of games.

When that phase ended, I tried vb6. Hated it, because it looked too much like english and didn't have that "cryptic coolness" factor (like cpp, for example).
And then, in 2007, I saw C#. Fuckin fell in love.
Even today, I am die hard .net fanboy.

[Bambo.]

Garry's Mod, I just fucked around creating random shit and after a couple of years I found löve and it kinda just developed from there onwards.

[cgt]

My dad taught me some HTML when I was 9.

[Icedshot]

Started off over on http://www.psp-programming.com/tutorials/ following that set of tutorials. Did a bit of PSP programming for a while. In retrospect, i was a terrible programmer

Then, i downloaded Pelles C and moved into PC programming, and used that for a while. Still my favourite IDE/compiler. After about a year of intermittent programming, I made the transition from C to C++

[12voltsdc]

Bordem.

[xThaWolfx]

Wiremod got me started :|

[fritzel]

I just ran my first opengl program :3

[jack5500]

I hacked my Advent calendar when i was 10, so i could acces the 24th instantly. From there on my way was clear.

[Map in a box]

It all started with gmode. Then I started with Visual Basic 6, then realized it was incredibly out of date and went to VB10, it sucked so I went to learn HTML/Javascript and had fun with it but wanted to do more, worked on an engine with a friend that was written in Java(which let me read java) and I'm just now starting to work with C++.

[Kopimi]

Hexxeh posted:

I think I started with Yabasic back when I was like 6 or 7. Moved onto PHP a little while later.

well thats ok i didn't need self esteem anyway

[DrLuke]

I wanted to learn Lua when I was 14 or so, so I could make mods for GMod. I never got around making one, but instead I really started making mods for Cortex Command. After that, I went on to Love and Electronics, especially C++ with Arduino, and C with AVRs. Today I prefer to program on AVRs with direct C due to obvious space and speed reasons.

[DeanWinchester]

Started with watching an IT teacher coding in QBASIC back when I was 10, that got me interested so I asked him about it, he taught me the basics, then I bought (had my parents buy me) a few books about making games in BASIC, which wasn't really applicable to QBASIC with the knowledge I had back then. A few months later I find out that the father of a friend used to sell ZX Spectrums and had a bunch stored that he didn't know what to do with, so I asked him one for my birthday and got working on those books.

After that I tried to learn Pascal but that was a failure for me, around 2005 I got my interest reignited with Java, that was taught in my High-school but eventually learned C++ and C# too. Nowadays I mostly stick with C# since I really enjoy the Java-like syntax without the "burdens" of Java.

[KmartSqrl]

I got started by learning scripting in the Neverwinter Nights world editor. The first thing I ever made was a chest that you could put your money in to and take money out of. Then I started doing web development because I wanted to make websites for the worlds I was making and it just kind of spiraled from there.

[ief014]

At 12 years old I started with Flash MX. I would show my friends all these little things I would make like Snake games and little games like that, and it would impress them. It inspired me to continue programming!

[acpm]

I started out with web development when I was about 8 or 9; it wasn't much more than me wanting to know how websites were made so I used Google like a good school boy should. I used free webhosts and that whole deal, a little PHP learning here and there, and reading up on Javascript so I could do ~cool~ stuff on the browser.

I remember going to Dynamic Drive a lot. lol

[ZenX2]

When I was in 3rd grade (8 years old) I found game maker and made some little games in it, but I couldn't figure out gml.

Then, I got gmod when I was around 10-11 and eventually found out about lua, tried to learn, got confused, and gave up.
My father's a programmer, and he tried to teach me but I was too busy playing other video games.
A short time later, I threw my self at the gmod lua tutorials again (I think the one that really helped me is gone from the wiki now, although I have a physical copy) and learned lua by force. I continuously tried making things in gmod with a moderate amount of success. My most successful project on garrysmod.org was something similar to portal gun, which Kopimi actually helped me with. I also made a gun that shot rainbows. It was the third swep in toybox, and garry though that the rainbows didn't last long enough.

Simultaneously, I dabbled and learned C#. I've made some stuff with that, but I don't use it that much anymore.

Then came Love. I learned how to actually do interesting stuff independent of gmod or other programs, and I've been working with it for almost two years now. I started really getting into it at the beginning of my freshman year in high school, and now at the end of year 2 I've become quite adept at this. Coinciding with my dive into independent game programming was my immigration to here, in the programming section. I don't regret coming here at all, seeing the projects in WAYWO is what really got me going.

Edited:

Also I never touched VB or php and I do not regret that either

[Phreebird]

Back when i was around ten, i found Runescape private servers, so i eventually made my own server and started customizing it using Java.

[Mr.Heal]

I started back in Grade 7, when I heard of a programming club after school I decided to join it because why not? The kid was in High School and he taught us True BASIC. I played around with that for duration of the club, along with a few months after the club. It died off and I never touched it again.
Later I find game maker, not impressed and dump it. By Grade 9 I dive into 3D Modelling, worked on a few mods for Gmod, then eventually became tried of creating art and I dropped it.
Grade 10 took a course in Turing and fellow back into love with programming. 10, 11, 12 I take all of the programming courses available at my school. Learn Python and Java. I've recently broken into C and C++ but its slow going with other things on my plate.

[pepin180]

This my first post (good for presentation, because it's a bit autobiographical) so hi everybody :D

I started at 10 (so much people started at 10), i always loved computers and started to think about making my own programs (drawing the interface and writing each button's action :P). Then my dad shown me Visual Basic 6, he didn't know how to use it, but bought me a book about the languaje. I really liked programming so i started learning new languages, first x86 assembler (with help of a teacher) and after that C++, Java and a little of php, action script...

Nowadays I'm studing first course of Mathematics and Computer science, and I love programming (much more than maths :P)

I feel happy of being part of this community (seem to have an awsome movement), i'll try to help you all and post everything i discover (Happy ideas for a good starting).


PS:: By the way, feel free of correct my grammar errors ~my native language is Spanish~