/tech/ - Technology★

There was something I wanted to exist.

I was bored in middle school and taught myself basic on a TI-84

A copy of QBASIC I found on an old Windows 95 CD.

I started programming because I like the idea of telling a computer what to do and automating tedious tasks.

I guess I started with AutoIT simply in order to automate repetitive tasks.

What's the point of this data mining thread? To steal stories from some else so you can larp better?

i took a programming class taught by mr. ramjesh in 9th grade

When I was 9, my father told me to do something useful when I sit in front of the computer instead of playing games, so he handed me a book about Q-Basic (this was 20 years ago).

I used to program games back then to play with him together using the glorious MS-DOS graphics mode.

Trying to make a cool Starcraft UMS map taught me the basics of programming without actually learning any syntax.

>>800962

I also started with Auto it. It has a very nice gui form maker and generally it's a stupidly easy language. There was this game I was moding and adding new items or monsters was really a hastle, each record having 30 or more variables, lots of flags crammed into one number. Each item could be upgraded from +0 To +9 so you had to do 10 copies, just with higher stats. First program I made was a generator for these kinds of things... some other converters and small tools. Now I program in c++ but I'll always have autoit in my heart

I just wanted to make a game like Sonic tbh

>>800942 (OP)

>How did you really start programming

Started by learning scripting languages in games I played as a kid. Did that for a while on multiple games and dabbled with HTML/CSS/JS. A little bit of C++ too when I wanted to try to learn SDL. Didn't get too far though. Only in the past few years have I gotten decent at C++ and Java

>>800942 (OP)

My dad told me stuff about batch files which I didn't think about until months later on new years I started actually doing stuff with it. From there the internet searches led me to the wonderful world of Linux, C, and C++, and various other languages.

>>800942 (OP)

Got into the game too late at university, haven't done anything programming related prior wasn't even doing a software major.

Python was the first programming language I was exposed to, didn't know squat so It was a bewildering experience that made me hate programming initially.

Only really came to appreciate programming when I started delving into the realm of digital electronics and embedded systems programming at a lower level and getting an idea of what is happening from the bottom up.

Initially we were messing around with 74 series chips playing with logic gates gradually moving up in complexity up to an 8 bit AVR micro controller development board learning to program it in assembly and C following the data sheets.

After that I started doing small hobby projects on the side, picked more programming electives, and taught myself some C++. Wish I was exposed to electronics and programming at an earlier age.

Mixing mechanical, electrical, and software engineering disciplines together is overwhelmingly broad but quite interesting, a lot of fun projects you could work on; robotics and automation in particular.

I used a piece of software that did things in retarded ways or not at all. I started hacking together solutions to those problems. Before I knew it most of my additions where in the software and I was asked to help maintain it.

Short answer: because the lady at happyhacker.org said I needed to to become a 1337 h4x0r

As a wee lad, I envisioned myself working in a cubicle. Those guys always have a computer in front of them, who knows what it's for? So I knew I would go to college because I'm not a loser, so when choosing a major, I flipped to the "C" section for computers, and picked the one that had the highest salary as listed in the Bureau of Labor Statistics. I had no idea what "Computer Science" was; my mom warned me that it was just programming, but I was like, why would I need all this math and science then? Luckily, even though mom was right, I was good at and loved programming.

>>800942 (OP)

RPG Maker. No, seriously.

After it piked my interest, I went to college and learned real programming. Not American so not pozzed crap nor crazy expenses

>>801753

>piked

lol

>>801753

the word you're looking for is "piqued".

I started writing games in Actionscript and also made some WADs using Action Doom Script when it came out. I moved on to C++ and Java. I majored in computer science in university, and now I'm working on my Master's. I can learn any imperative language in a few hours, and I know a few functional languages like LISP and Haskell.

I'm currently working on improving my process, because I'm too detail oriented and waste time fixing bugs that don't matter. I'm also bad at predicting how long it will take me to program something. These are things that you should really focus on improving to be professional. Don't just focus on code and architecture design like I did.

>>800946

Same, that's pretty much my attitude with everything. The key to winning with such an attitude is to use as many things that already exist to build the thing you want to exist. I am also incredibly obsessed with the Unix philosophy and keeping things small for this reason, and when I see a 5000 SLOC file it triggers my autism.

>>801761

>>801754

It's "peaked" you fucking autists.

>>801769

No, it isn't.

>>801769

v. To provoke; arouse: The portrait piqued her curiosity.

>>801772

>peaked

>verb

>to attain a peak of activity, development, popularity, etc.:

The anon's interest peaked in >>801753

>being at the point of maximum frequency, intensity, use, etc.; busiest or most active:

"His interest in programming was peaked because he was about to release his App on the App Store."

My mom showed me how when I was 6, got me a C64, and I used to type up and modify the BASIC source to games that you'd get in computer magazines back then (literally pages of printed code, often with typos...). I took to it and just started making everything.

I had an Atari XE as a kid. It was a failed semi-console that my cousin convinced me was going to be the next big thing. It came with a keyboard and could be programmed in a obscure Atari BASIC dialect. I sat plodding through all the examples in a book that came along and messed about with making flashing colors and sounds. I didn't have the peripheral you could use to save your shit, so I had a little book I wrote my programs down in so I could type them in again on later occasions.

Looking back what a fucking tortuous introduction to programming I had, but it really stuck with me.

piqued*

Thanks for the English lesson but don't get carried away so much.

>>801784

i'll get carried away as i fucking want to nerd

>>801790

The projection wasn't necessary

>>801769

You look so stupid and we're all laughing at you tbh.

>>801774

Grammatically correct, but clearly not the semantic intended by the original comment.

>>800942 (OP)

> because simcity 2000 got boring

I started in college when I found a computer lab with network/internet conntected computers.

My first "language" was called HTMLScript, later called MivaScript. That company sells ecommerce software now. miva.com.

>>801820

MODS MODS MODS MODS MODS MODS MODS MODS MODS MODS MODS MODS MODS MODS MODS MODS MODS MODS MODS MODS MODS MODS MODS MODS MODS MODS MODS MODS MODS MODS MODS MODS MODS MODS MODS MODS MODS MODS MODS MODS MODS MODS MODS MODS MODS MODS MODS MODS MODS MODS MODS MODS MODS MODS MODS MODS MODS MODS MODS MODS

I wanted to bot in RuneScape so I could be the cool kit at school with all the virtual items.