What got you into programming?

For me it was Botball really. I joined botball, and was not interested in doing the building part of it, but yet the idea of programming interested me. Well, that and since there was no one who knew anything about programming the bots, that also made me want to try, lol. And well, from that I got addicted. I went and tried to make a couple games and what not, and came to where I am now. Pretty comfy, no?

Nice! What got programming in my head was way back in 7th grade when I was in Botball that year I got interested in programming but never got a chance with the robots and it kinda went dead from there. Then, at the beginning of my Junior year of high school, I got my 1st graphing calc, a TI-84+ SE. When I found out, shortly thereafter, that I could program on it (TI-BASIC, Z80 Assembler) I figured I'd give it a try. I've been hooked since and have since moved on to computer and web programming and programming robots in Botball (check that out! It went around full circle!). I'm now currently in the process of starting my own web-based software company, thus my name here on the forums, Excimer Sun Software.

Well i just started trying to learn C++ this summer, I'm going into my first year of high school this year. The Powder Toy really started my interest. For the moment I have realized that going straight into C++ on my own, with no classes or courses is more than I want to do, I could do it, but with no help it is to much work, so I want to either find some courses in my area, which I doubt are available, so I guess I'm going to be forced into learning a simpler language first, then learning C++. That was a mouthful! Anyways, if anyone can think of any better options, i would consider them.

I would reccomend learning a simpler language first. BASIC, while a simple language, can contribute to the development of bad programming habits (lbl, goto). I personally reccomend my favorite programming language, Python. It's learning curve is very gentle and it's very easy to learn and read but is also a very powerful language. Once you learn one programming language, moving to most others becomes much easier, since the basic commands are the same (if, else, for, while, etc.) , making the only thing that you have to learn for a new language the syntax. This applies to most languages except for esoteric ones, such as Brainf*** (replace the asterisks), the 'hello world!' for which looks a lot like:
++++++++++[>+++++++>++++++++++>+++>++++++++>+<<<<<-]>++.>+.+++++++..+++.>++.>+++++++.<<.+++.------.--------.>+.>>.

(I had to read that off of a piece of notepaper which I had to dig out of my stack of papers from this past school year. There's no way I could do that on the fly! )

Ouch! Whereas Python looks like: print "Hello World!" : and C looks like:
#include <stdio.h>
int main() {
printf("Hello World!");
}

Well that's what other programmers I have talked to have said, I guess the way I see it is, I have already learned if, else, for while types of things, in C++, so I guess I already got that down, but I guess in the end, the best option is still to go with a simpler basic language, I will look into Python, it sounds interesting.

Well, if you want my honest opinion, if you are going into OOP you should start with OOP. Just saying, I have a book for Java that is just wonderful, it starts you learning OOP while learning the Java language. I would need m book to tell you so that you can see if you can get pdf copy. And if you are ever thinking of looking for course materials to teach yourself things, check out the MIT website, they give out their info on their classes, like course materials, and sometimes pdf versions of the books(never seen any of those pdf's but I have seen the slide shows if anything.) Talk to me sometime and I can give you more pointers.

well at the moment, I don't really know what I'm going to do, java would be interesting. I think I will have to do some research on the languages. once I know what I'm going to do, ill definitely talk to you.

I was screwing around with powerpoint and found it quite poor on the 'interaction' part. I was basically building programs as presentations. I got this really old book from the library and downloaded QBasic ('cause that's what it was about). Once I could do that I moved to VB.Net and then more recently C#.

Now I'll have to do some php work, quite messy as far as I'm concerned.

Well, I guess I won't lie here. The Fellow actually got me into programming. I am currently working on making my first game for my company (My username) using a combination of Python, Blender (3D art rendering programming), and GIMP. I am just starting on OOP in Python. Anyone interested in learning Python can check out my Python tutorial section in the Beginners' section of the Programming forum.

I started with yabasic at age 16, now, at 21, (lol) i can code (rusty) in C++, python, and java. i dont know much for the outside ones, but im good with python

i can use windows command prompt to make a bomb virus and then install it throught a VNC i can plant on your computer... dont mess with me, lol.