Why do you program? When did you start?

[Pixel_Outlaw]

I would like to pose a simple set of questions that have complex answers.

First what made you decide to start programming. Did you have a moment that really solidified the decision and to aside time to start learning something that the average person has little interest in?

Secondly, Why do you program? I realize that all of my work is done in a virtual world that has little impact on the real world save spreading fleeting moments of wonder, frustration and happiness.

Thirdly, has the time you've spent honing your skill cost you anything in any concept of time or intangible things?

Finally, why have you chosen to learn the programming language(s) that you know?

Just some questions that interest me at the moment.

[benny!]

I would like to pose a simple set of questions that have complex answers.

You really start interesting topics, Pixel_Outlaw. Thats cool IMHO !!!!

First what made you decide to start programming. Did you have a moment that really solidified
the decision and to aside time to start learning something that the average person has little interest in?

Well, having a computer mainly for playing games when I was young - I more and more got interested
in how such games are produced. In addition, the movie Wargames has an big impact on me and
I got highly interested in that sort of sub-culture 

Secondly, Why do you program? I realize that all of my work is done in a virtual world that has little
impact on the real world save spreading fleeting moments of wonder, frustration and happiness.

Personally, I do programm because it is creative work for me. It's like you ask a painter why he paints ?

Thirdly, has the time you've spent honing your skill cost you anything in any concept of time or
intangible things?

Well, on the one hand I guess I missed some cool parties because I prefered to sit at home in
front of the computer when I was younger. On the other hand - since I do programming for a
living now I think I learned in that nights quite a lot - maybe more than I did learn at
university 

Finally, why have you chosen to learn the programming language(s) that you know?

I am still learning new languages. And I am learning them because some of them are better
tools for certain solutions. In addition, if you know some basic syntax of common languages
it is rather easy to learn a new language. Besides learning new languages, you also have to
face with new APIs of certain frameworks and other packages. Learning a new API of a
framework can be as time consuming as learning a new language.

[Shockwave]

I would like to pose a simple set of questions that have complex answers.

Great topic! I will look forward to seeing people's answers.

First what made you decide to start programming. Did you have a moment that really solidified the decision and to aside time to start learning something that the average person has little interest in?

Years ago I used to type listings into the computer from magazines, invariably there would be some typographical error that stopped the program working so I guess that I learned to debug listings on my Vic 20.. Then it was natural I suppose for me to write small programs that animated little scenes etc..

Secondly, Why do you program? I realize that all of my work is done in a virtual world that has little impact on the real world save spreading fleeting moments of wonder, frustration and happiness.

I program partly because I can! Secondly and more importantly I am a member of the scene group Surprise ! Productions and |I'm probably one of the most active coders in that group so Nuke is always keen for me to develop my little intros and release them for the group.

Some day I will code something for a competition at a scene party. Also coding for our little challenges here is good fun!

Thirdly, has the time you've spent honing your skill cost you anything in any concept of time or intangible things?

It gets me in trouble with my missus sometimes when I am up late on the computer.

Finally, why have you chosen to learn the programming language(s) that you know?

I've sort of drifted into the languages I use, the languages I use are mainly dictated by the main focus of the dbf community.. If everyone started using pascal or asm or purebasic I'd have to switch languages again so I could be of more help on the board.

[combatking0]

I started to program to make my own games. I played a round a bit with BASIC in the 1990s, and was introduced to HTML and JavaScript in 1999. When I got a PS2 in 2002, I started to pick up YABASIC, which led me to the now abandoned YABASIC forum, and later on to here.

I program not only to make games, but to learn how computers work, and to create systems for processing maths and logic.

Sometimes I go down the wrong path, and waste loads of time on a program in an unsuitable language. I spent a year learning ASP, and then I looked at PHP and realised it could do all of the same things but easier.

I have chosen mainly interpreted languages, as they require no compilation and as such they are very easy to test. Also I am a tight-wad and I refuse to shell-out £50+ for something I won't use too often.

[benny!]

I would like to pose a simple set of questions that have complex answers.

...

Just some questions that interest me at the moment.

Btw. Where are your answers ;-)

[Pixel_Outlaw]

I would like to pose a simple set of questions that have complex answers.

First what made you decide to start programming. Did you have a moment that really solidified the decision and to aside time to start learning something that the average person has little interest in?

Secondly, Why do you program? I realize that all of my work is done in a virtual world that has little impact on the real world save spreading fleeting moments of wonder, frustration and happiness.

Thirdly, has the time you've spent honing your skill cost you anything in any concept of time or intangible things?

Finally, why have you chosen to learn the programming language(s) that you know?

Just some questions that interest me at the moment.

1. The moment I decided to start programming could be 3 or 4 different moments depending on what you would call programming.

a. Logowriter in elementary school. We mostly drew shapes and such from input commands. I hated it then.

b. The day I started making drag and drop games in Game Maker by Mark Overmars. ( I don't call that programming at an intimate level)

c. The day I got fed up with the Game Maker Forum and attempted to learn some C++. I got to making those "cat" and "pen" objects that the books all call for. Then I quit, realizing that C++ by itself could not produce graphics. Honestly using Game Maker ruined my whole concept of OOP. It took quite a bit to overcome the damage done by "GM".

d. Shortly after joining Shmup-Dev the original owner Matt McFarland told me about Blitzmax. It took me two days of cashiering at Wal*Mart to pay for the $80.00 program.

e. It was in highschool and then college that I took up cheating by using my TI-83 as a programmable tool. After all, students don't know anything about those calculators beyond the scope of the class.

2 I program because I feel that it is an art form that requires no real supplies. I used to like to make furniture and other wooden things for my House, however since I still live with my parents (I go to collage here) I don't have any more room for my projects. Also I used to draw and do a lot of origami but all of these things require space to store your artworks. Now I pretty much stick to storing my programming art (games) on a single hard drive. I have near limitless space for my virtual art.

3 Programming has cost me a lot. Hundreds of dollars in books (mostly C++ which I haven't really cracked much) and that $80.00 that I put down on the Blitzmax program. It has also cost me a social life and sent me into an unhealthy sleep cycle a few times. I get yelled at all of the time to go to bed but sleep is an inconvenient truth. If I get asked,"How can you spend HOURS in front of that computer every day" one more time I'm going to kill somebody. It is very frustrating when people just see the surface of my actions and have NO concept of what I'm really doing. I'm not "playing on the computer" I'm expressing my ideas through mathematics and logic.

4 This is an embarrassing question.
a. Barely any C++
b. TI-83 calculator (lol again)
c. Blitzmax (pretty comfortable)
d. OpenGL with Blitzmax (still learning but getting better (I hope that you will like my entry in the current game contest))

[benny!]

...
It is very frustrating when people just see the surface
of my actions and have NO concept of what I'm really
doing. I'm not "playing on the computer" I'm expressing
my ideas through mathematics and logic.
...

So true. Nearly nobody of my childhood friends are
into computers - just normal computer users. It was
impossible to explain it to them and they did not under-
stand why I was e.g. fascinated by demos / cracktros.

But I guess that's the way it is ... 

[zawran]

1. The decision to start programming came quickly after my grandma bought me a C64 when they first came on the market. I only got the computer itself with no games or anything. So I started reading through the book that it came with and typed in various code examples. After a couple of weeks, I managed to convince my parents that I would need the tape recorder so that I could save the programs I made, and not have to redo them again. I learned a lot of stuff from those magazines with code listings you could type in. I was facinated with the fact that the instructions I gave to the computer made things happen on the screen. It was something of my own doing.

2. I mostly program for the mental challenge of it. Its something to keep my mind busy on otherwise quiet and boring times. Sometimes I program because I cannot find the right tool for the job and I have my own ideas about how it should be done.

3. I was very introvert as a kid, especially from around 10-12 years of age. Even with 3 brothers, I was spending more time alone than out playing. Having the computer, and spending a lot of time using it has contributed to being less outgoing and less socially active throughout my teens and into my early twenties. Its something that I have since then overcome to a degree that it does not hinder me much today, but at that time, it certainly did have its cost, but I cannot blame spending time at the computer entirely, it was just a tool to keep me occupied while being by myself.

4. I started out learning Basic on the C64 because it was what I had and it was fun. I later on picked up assembly on the C64 because it offered much more choices for doing something cool with effects and demos. I was part of a small demo group in the late 80s and early 90s. We were affiliated with The Silents in the way that a couple of people from my group also did stuff for them. Being in that group I quickly went to assembly on the Amiga because I was so luckly that my parents bought me one for a birthday when it came onto the market. I was resonably skilled with assembly on both C64 and the Amiga. I had a big break from programming around 92-93ish. I had gotten tired of the scene at that time and the only other computer was the PC, but I did not feel like getting into assembly for it, so I just dropped it all together.

Somewhere after 2000 I came across Blitz Research and their BlitzPlus / Blitz3D products and thought that it looked like something that could be fun, and I was feeling really retro and wanted to get back to my beginnings of programming. So I ended up buying the BlitzPlus product, and it turned out to be a great choice because I have had lots and lots of great hours with it. And I have done a ton of retro styled demos many of which I think was fairly well recieved by those who saw them. I dabbled a little bit with the Blitz3D later on, but never really felt like stepping into the hardware driven 3D stuff, but was still more inclined to stick with the retro software rendered, do it all yourself kind of thing.

I have had a couple of long break during my time with BlitzPlus. Sometimes I just get tired of it and feel like doing something else with my sparetime, so I do tend to take breaks from whatever hobbies I have every now and then. But once BlitzMax came around, I was hooked again and its the language that I have stuck with since then. (I did dabble with FreeBasic for a while, but just was not completely happy with the syntax) BlitzMax is a really great tool for doing both games and applications. I feel that I am fairly competent using it and I have done a number of programs which I am quite pleased with, most recently programming my own media center software because I felt the other options on the market at the moment just did not do what I wanted out of one.

I doubt that I will be using any other languages for a long time, and I am really enjoying what little time I do have at the moment using this, so I hope that I can keep myself motivated in future to keep it going.

[Pixel_Outlaw]

I've enjoyed the thoughts and history so far!

Shame I was born on the tail end of the 80's. I might have been a better programmer by now. In 87 I was far too young to even know what letters were, let alone type a line of code.

I think that it is important to really get a feel for everyone's personality and history.

[Jim]

If you haven't already seen it, try reading this thread How did you start?
I quit my full time job last year and moved into contracting, so I end up programming all kinds of systems in any range of languages.  They're all pretty much the same at the end of the day, programming is the skill, not the specific languages.  Right now I'm doing a finance based contract, mostly in C#.

Jim

[relsoft]

First what made you decide to start programming. Did you have a moment that really solidified the decision and to aside time to start learning something that the average person has little interest in?

I started late ( I was 19) when we had a computer literacy program for Nursing Students. Since I was interested in making games, I asked my instructor about making games and he shoved me a manual for BASICA.  Then I taught myself how to program.  Stopped programming after the semester for 5 years though mainly for lack of a computer.  Then after I got a job at the hospital, I saved I saved me enough to buy a used 486. :*)

Secondly, Why do you program? I realize that all of my work is done in a virtual world that has little impact on the real world save spreading fleeting moments of wonder, frustration and happiness.

It's fun.

Thirdly, has the time you've spent honing your skill cost you anything in any concept of time or intangible things?

Lot's of time and nagging from my wife.

Finally, why have you chosen to learn the programming language(s) that you know?

BASIC : I started with BASICA(at the comp lit. program), then QB(win95 on my 486 had it), then FB.

ASM: Having  only a 486 at that time when everybody was using 750mhz duronsand P3's, I needed to lean ASM to make my games playable on my comp.

Pascal: Some student's approached me for a project and that was it for pascal (turbo pascal 7.1 in one week. *)) Never bothered with language again.

C,C++: I got fed up with Qbasic and it's limitations so, I read about C then C++, I only use C++ occasionally though.  That's when I get paid to program.

[b0ib0t]

First what made you decide to start programming. Did you have a moment that really solidified the decision and to aside time to start learning something that the average person has little interest in?

Secondly, Why do you program? I realize that all of my work is done in a virtual world that has little impact on the real world save spreading fleeting moments of wonder, frustration and happiness.

Thirdly, has the time you've spent honing your skill cost you anything in any concept of time or intangible things?

Finally, why have you chosen to learn the programming language(s) that you know?

1. I started programming in the mid 90's. QBASIC was my first language. At the time I had not "decided" that I was a programmer.  At the time I was just tinkering with it to see what I could make it do.  I wanted to learn more so I asked my high-school technology class instructor if he could help me learn more. I was turned down and very discouraged.  After that I didn't do any programming for a few years.

A few years had passed, and I was a hard-core gamer. I played Unreal Tournament non-stop and had a passion for computer hardware, and building pc's.  My friends at a lan party were talking about how games were coded in different languages. That discussion that night had reminded me of my time with QBASIC and planted a tiny seed in my mind.  A few weeks afterward I was browsing my local Hastings store, looking for new games.  I came across a box, with a particularly scary looking monster on it, in bold print on the front of the box it said "DarkBASIC". 

Here is a picture of this box.


I quickly snagged the box, and walked over to the books section in Hastings, and sure enough I found this...


Needless to say, I bought them both. Along with a copy of a game nobody has probably heard of, Firestarter. An excellent fps game I might add! After I started working my way through this book I was hooked. DarkBASIC and that book were what solidified my decision for programming.

2. In short I program for fun. I enjoy seeing the fruits of my labor.  But, now for the longer and more complex answer ...

There are a few reasons why I program really. One is, I like making my own utilities. For example, I have coded and use my own audio player. Second is, after I have been programming for so long, doing anything else seems intellectually stale. I get bored easy when I'm playing games, or things like that ( I still pay tons of games, don't get me wrong). I enjoy the mental challenge of writing software. Third is most complex of all. I have always enjoyed playing independently developed games, especially lately they seem to be getting better and better. I would like to develop my game engine and perhaps get in the business of professional game coding.  That probably makes me sound like a sell-out, and for that I am sorry haha!  But in my mind, to contribute to the professional independent dev "scene" will help it to grow stronger.  I like the idea of buying a game for 10.00 from a friend, or a group of real people who are not millionaires.

 3. One failed relationship sadly. I was with this girl for 4 years, and somehow it all fell apart. Of course it is not only due to my programming and computer habits, but I definitely know it is something she did not like about me.  Now days, I think I have struck a perfect balance! My girlfriend is fine with me coding for long hours, as long as I don't babble technical details to her haha! She to spends long hours at her computer. 

4. I started with DarkBASIC, after that I took on c++. I did come C++ professionally for a year or so. Out of boredom, I came across Basic4gl, then shortly after that I found this nice community haha! Also I got a book for xmas

I am planning to buy a copy of Blitz3D.

[Paul]

It was in highschool and then college that I took up cheating by using my TI-83 as a programmable tool. After all, students don't know anything about those calculators beyond the scope of the class.

hehe, The 'solver' is great for tests even if just to make sure you've got the right answer. I have a trigonometry program that is pretty nifty too

1. Started programming a few years ago when i got a demo of B2D with a pc magazine. I started a game then that has had a couple of reworks and actually it's my current project

2. err... why? because i want too? I suppose i like creating things, but i don't really know

3. Maybe lost a bit of time that was supposed to be spent on homework :S

4. Blitz, because thats were i started. C++(a little) to do what blitz can't.