Hey programmers out there, I'm curious. Where did we all start? I know from talking to other programmers that most of us didn't start in a classroom, so it's always interesting to find out where it all began.

I know for me personally, it started when I was playing RuneScape back in 2004. I couldn't afford a bot program (don't judge me, I changed since then), so I began to learn coding for Scar Divi. After about a few weeks, I actually was able to create a bot(I take pride that I never got banned), and in the following months I created bots for many different applications.

Then I wanted to develop small video games for my friends and I, and I used Game Maker. I started with the drag and drop interface, but eventually evolved into using GML when I found that there was just so much more available to those who could program. I ended up creating a few "games" that were actually entertaining, and impressed my young friends!

Years later (or years ago), I ended up trying unity. I learned a little Javascript, but ultimately began learning C#. I'm still not proficient with C#, but I definitely have a good idea of the direction I'm going.

If you are interested in programming but it looks intimidating, trust me, it's awesome. It'll be difficult, but after you're done making your "hello world" script, you'll be feeling like a king. There just simply isn't a better feeling than proving to yourself you can make something totally awesome.

So, where did we all begin? Did we start on a rainy day during the summer, or in a loud classroom that you were forced to take? Let's talk!

That is very interesting, I started a few months ago with python... I started on a windows computer, but I quickly learned that that was not the best option... Due to that, I have started using a linux computer which has helped substantially... I too, am not yet proficient, however I am slowly working towards it....

I started programming from school. Actually, I wanted to start programming before school, but didn't know where to start. Anyway, I was at school, looking at a list of, uh... recreational activities (no idea how they are called in English, I actually used Google Translate for this one) that can be done at school. And one of those on the list was a programming course. I started participating.
There, I learned Scratch, but never mastered it. I went on to Lua, but never mastered it. Then I chose Python, abandoned it, went on to C++, concluded that this is way too difficult for me, tried Java, failed, went to C#. After a long period of C#'ing, I was convinced by some guys in the #haskell IRC that Microsoft and .NET are both evil abominations. I then abandoned C# and tried out Pascal. I never mastered it. And then, I picked up C++ again, and that's what I'm learning rift now.

Meanwhile, everyone else who participates in the programming course uses Scratch. I'm such a special little snowflake hurr durr.

DerAxeEfekt :
Awesome story! I see you've been around and you know a little bit of a lot of the languages! C++ is a good language to learn, so it's good you came back to it. Yeah, everyone who's in the programming course is pretty limited. I've read some of the material from my sisters course and I kind of shake my head. If we're going to teach them how to do more than a Hello World script, we should probably go ahead and teach more. You're just a special snowflake I guess

fire emblem10604 :
I use a Windows computer because I'm lazy. Don't judge me haha. Linux require a lot of knowledge and it just takes so long to do anything lol. I respect you for choosing the linux route though!

Skilledtree : Yes it is definitely more difficult however it is better in the long run... Linux is actually made for programming while Windows is kinda just....there... I mean you CAN program on it, but from what I have learned it would be better to transition over to Linux as soon as possible.

fire emblem10604 :

That's really neat man. I think if I ever take programming more seriously, I will definitely end up doing so. I guess it's kind of like driving a manual instead of an automatic, like yeah the manual has so much more control but I really just want a smoother ride. At least for now, that is.

Skilledtree : Hello again....

That makes sense... I am not taking it extremely seriously right now either, but I am just trying to provide myself the materials needed I suppose... Forcing myself to use a command prompt on a regular basis will probably make me more apt to continue programming... That was my overall philosophy, but I see and understand yours too... I guess it is whatever floats your boat....

Hey tree! I remember seeing this thread and starting to write a reply the day you made it. Sadly I was pretty much done with the reply when my chrome crashed and I kind of lost inspiration to keep writing it because it was all gone lol. It was a pretty long reply too, I'd say easily 400-500 words. This one isn't going to be that long, for better or worse lol.

I remember when I was in 9th grade I wanted to start programming and learn a new skill basically. I felt useless being the kid that just plays minecraft and pretty much nothing else so I had the idea in the back of my head at this point. Come 10th grade and there is a new English teacher at school. Half way through the year I hear a rumor that there is going to be a programming course the next year. I ask who is going to be the teacher and I was pretty surprised that it was my English teacher because at the time he didn't strike me as someone who knows a lot, or anything for that matter, about computers. He gave me the website codecademy.com and I started to learn html and css. I felt accomplished, but now that I look back at it... html and css are literally nothing compared to other languages. I moved on to javascript after completing the html and css course, and I just couldn't understand it. functions, methods, what are these things? I took a break for a month or 2. I asked my teacher what language we'd be using and he said maybe visual basic or some other basic language for the first year. Fast forward to 11th grade (mostly because my programming career was pretty dormant at the time). FINALLY THE TIME HAS COME. Programming 1! yay I was so excited and looking forward to the class. We used visual basic and visual studio. All is well, my programming skills are advancing and I'm having a good time because I comprehend the content easily and I was able to help my classmates. Fast forward to some time at the end of the year. I ask what language we'll be using and I'm answered with C#. Again, I was pretty excited to be learning a more complex (more complex looking at least) language. I don't do anything to advance my programming knowledge all summer, I become somewhat bored of it. Then comes the week before school starts. Suddenly I get a burning passion for programming and since I ha experience with visual studio, I already knew where to start. I learn pretty much every basic aspect of C# in 1 week. I know... I had absolutely no life on that week. But I go into school and my programming class is my first period. I'm itching to show off my new skills to everyone. Everybody is all impressed and stuff, and this was a class literally filled with nerds. I am not even joking, there were literally no girls in the class. So the year progresses and I learn more advanced programming concepts on my own since I already knew everything we were doing in class. It's kind of sad that I literally learned the whole years curriculum in a week before school even started. Walking into school, I didn't know it at the time, but I knew everything that we would learn in that class that year. My teacher then has me take in personal programming missions basically and I'm exempt from the rest of the project and even the final exam. I actually made a game with another kid that was like guitar hero but like a typing game for the middle school. Ya it was pretty cash tbh. So to end it all, I'm currently attending my local community college for computer programming. I haven't actually gotten to take a programming class yet, but that should be next semester.

So.... ya

That ended up being like 600 words.

Honestly, it started out in the classroom.
Now, I've always had a real interest in programming, making video games, web sites, programs, and the sort. I saw countless opportunities in the field, and always liked the idea of it. However, I didn't really know where to start.
Fast forward to a couple months a go, and we got a mandatory class. Which is programming. And it takes a good chunk of our school hours (10 hours every week, in total I have 35 hours so it's a decent amount) and that was like an enzyme, kick starting my love for programming.
Visual basic. Program I started with (Which we use in class, but I already know a good amount so it's a total breeze). First time using it, no idea what anything did. A week or two later, I was adept at it just from studying on my own time. In around a month and a half I already surpassed the teacher (Sounds like a big accomplishment, but the teacher wasn't that skilled in Visual Basic, enough to teach it but not enough to be considered an expert on the subject, since she's more specialized in general computers not just programming but I'm getting off track) So yeah, pretty much I get my work done in around 20-30 minutes and have the rest of the time to myself, which honestly I just use to help everyone.

Fast forward a month after that, of learning HTML, and I've gotten pretty alright at it. Enough to make simple but effective websites at least, and am still learning it. Really, I just like the whole idea of programming. It's become one of my favorite hobbies to do and learn, and it's never boring since when you learn something new you find more ways to improve yourself drastically, which really motivates me.

May I answer this one in my usual long-way-around fashion?

Okay, so back in 2012 I was really into music, and I went on a spree downloading Mp3s (before I understood legal and illegal downloads. oops), and among the roughly three hundred songs I downloaded I found one by my favorite group (Red) called "Shadows". I really fell in love with the song, and listened to it all the time. There was something haunting yet beautiful about not only the words, but the very melody (I still don't understand that to this day). I began building a story for a game off of this song as well (and I still plan to use it eventually). Now this was nothing surprising as I had toyed with potential game stories while listening to Feed The Machine (also by Red), but this story stuck with me.

Then in early 2013 I met a user on here who I became best friends with (he's gone now, sadly), and we began tossing ideas around for a hack that we could make. We began forming plans for it, and he said he would begin studying programming during Summer break, but since I was free right then, I began studying right away. I learned simple things like Hexidecimal values and how they worked, as well as RGB and how that worked with Hex. I began looking for tools to program with but ended up with all duds as I knew nothing about what I needed. The best I found during this time was Game Maker, but again, I knew no programming languages and so I soon abandoned it.

Later that year I made another friend who, after the first friend was gone, began discussing game development with me, and despite neither of us knowing a lick of programming aside from how to color font in html (lol), we found a free forum site and I started a forum called Redhand (leaving out the rest of it as it contains the name of another forum based site, and advertising or whatever). That friend was GenesisJunkie on Vizzed. We then began recruiting members, we wound up recruiting four more, of whom only one remains today, but we have brought in two more. Our current members are all on Vizzed, and are (in order of their joining) mrfe, yoshirulez!, and juliet.

But when we started I didn't know what language I needed to know, and being the intended head programmer that was a problem. Go figure, right? lol So I looked around and found out that one of the languages that Android used (we're starting with Android because it's super cheap and accessible) was Java. With Java being the ONLY language on the list of Android languages that I had heard of at the time, it seemed to be the best choice. Yeah...I actually expected to make a full blown 16 bit style game with Java...

Well upon finding this out, I looked up Javascript lessons (which I found on YouTube by Derek Banas, whose website - newthinktank.com - I ended up using in place of YouTube) thinking Java and Javascript were the same thing; thankfully after a few days of this, a programmer friend set me straight on that and I switched to Derek's Java lessons. When I finished my last Java lesson, I found out that I needed something else if I planned on making use of graphics. Derek suggested C++, but since C++ doesn't run on Android, I was at a dead end again. Then I found an interview video that he posted. In it he spoke with a mobile game developer who suggested Unity. I heard "multiplatform" and I was sold.

So I headed to Unity's website, took some of their Unity and C# lessons, and was relieved to find C# similar enough to Java that I understood it, but different enough that I didn't despise it. And here I am today, building a game in Unity using C#. I'm still very inexperienced as I've done so much hole filling with lost members of our team and their work that was left undone that I haven't gotten to study as much as needed, but I'll be getting there soon...hopefully.

I started learning c++ in school, but since the course was held by the most awkward and confusing teacher, it ended up in a disaster. It was really hard keeping tracks of terms, as the Swedish and English terms were often mixed up. It wasn't very sequential either, as he could start explaining things with terms that we still hadn't learned.

We also got a book to read, but it was mostly fully in Swedish, and often skipped important information. For an example, I didn't learn about namespaces until much later. I feel very unsettled when writing lines I don't know the purpose of. Luckily, I made it through the class by reading through the tutorials on cplusplus.com, and now, I'm reading through "Beginning c++ through game programming" by Michael Dawson for a bit of repetition and to fill in some of the gaps. It's also more motivating to read, as it teaches you in the context of game programming.

I'm right now taking a course in C# too, with the same teacher. But this time I'm more prepared, as I know how much independence you need when learning. I'm not sure if I'm going to get as deep into c# yet, though. As it's not as fast as c++, and pretty much only necessary when scripting.

After I'm done with the book I'm currently reading, I'll start reading about the API, "SFML". Which is both multi-platform and multi-language, and got a lot of features, which means it will probably still be useful if I switches to a new language or platform. I've also heard it's pretty good performing.

So my first ever language.. was C. Yeah, i know right. The most annoying language ever to use. But what I actually liked about learning C first, was that when i started learning Java, C++, etc., it was a piece of cake. But, i still don't like C lol.

I started when I wanted to make a game. I started with batch, and will probably stick with batch. I'm too lazy to learn any other programming language XD.

Mine was from school. I was still a newbie with things and not being able to understand how to use computers fully well back then. I started to learn quickly of what I wanted to do. Either in for my own learning or if it was just out of leisure that I do them. I remember I wouldn't have the good knowledge or some or most programming if I didn't try to improve from school. '-'