How did you first got into programming?

Since the website is orientated to people who have knowledge in computer programming, how did you first learn and got into coding? I'm new to coding so I would like input how people learned and got themselves motivated.

>>71193 1. I took a programming class at my high school, AP CS A. Learned from a book, made chess in Java 2. Between high school and college, I had an interest in fractals and cryptography. I wrote up some python to attack these. 3. Did a BS in CS. Classes though were practically useless compared to my self-study. I made a lot of stuff during this period just because I thought it was neat and even did some embedded work. If I were to give you advice on how to get into the thing: 1. understand that the world is malleable, you can change it (at some level) to your liking through creation. It is a divine process. 2. perceive, think, act. Computers are kind of like paper on steroids. You need worldly experiences to inform your generative use of the computer (although of course at some point one begins to manage the computer with the computer, etc.) This is how you "get yourself motivated". If you don't actually want to use the computer to do something, you simply don't, and that's fine. Doing the thing for its own sake is mostly nonsense to the beginner. Vigorously engage in life's activities and speculations and a place for the machine naturally presents itself. 3. As an absolute beginner, you will benefit from formal coursework in a standard programming language, like Python. I leave it to other lains to recommend good books since I'm not really a fan of them. That said I believe you should start with python. It has flaws, but it also has the most extensive library ecosystem. This makes it easy to attach to 2., the process in which you try to use a computer to, you know, actually do something.

>>71193 I tried following some tutorials for Basic and C++ as a child, got it to draw pictures on the screen and solve math problems. In highschool I made simple games for my graphing calculator, took a Java class, made a game with that, then got into making games with Flash. My main motivation at first was my love of videogames and wanting to make them, and to a lesser extent my dislike of spending time on math homework. Also I think I liked how it felt that I could do things with the computer that other people could not, and approval from my parents. Of course things have changed a lot since the early 2000s. I second >>71195, Python is the definitive beginner's language today. Also, ChatGPT is great for asking questions about correct syntax and how things work, I think I would have learned much faster having that resource rather than needing to wait for a teacher or someone online to have time to respond to my questions when I was completely stumped.

When I was in middle school, I learned some Actionscript 2.0 to make Flash games. Flash games also turned me onto Cheat Engine, which taught me about debugging, program memory and assembly. Then I learned some C until my mother deleted the compiler I was using because she thought it was malware. Then the interest in game cheats lead me to also learned some Java to bot in Runescape. At the same timez MySpace, geocities, and forums that allowed a subset of html inspired me learned some html/css/js. Then when I got older, I went to college majored in computer science. My advise is to find a community that focuses on the subset of programming that you enjoy and go be a positive member of that community. When I was starting, this was forums. Nowadays it's probably discord servers, but i don't use discord so I don't know.

My dad bought me a "Java for dummies" book and I made some dumb terminal games on his laptop. I didn't really get into programming until the 0x10c project got popular, I had a lot of fun writing little programs in that janky little assembly code.

Since a friend of mine was a geek, I ended up installing Ubuntu. From then on, I learned shell scripts and C.

I installed the ComputerCraft mod (specifically CC:Tweaked) to Minecraft and learned basic functional programming by making bots mine for me. Then I dived right in and made a game in the Unity game engine with C#. It took me several months and was only about 2 minutes of very buggy gameplay, but I learned a lot. Then I went through a little bit of the CS50x online Harvard course and got familiar with C, I also bought the K&R C programming book. I didn't finish the course but I got familiar enough with C to call it my main language. I also started to make a website but didn't finish it, then went through an intro web dev course, and then started making a website for a client. So I learned HTML, CSS, and JS through that. I also took a Networking class which taught me more about the interworkings of the interwebs. Recently I've been playing with Python in Blender to make procedurally generated art. I also need to work on the website for my client... hhhhhhhmmmnrggg... The deadline is so close I don't think I'll get it done in time... Honestly if you want to learn just start small and try things that seem interesting and just outside your knowledge. Then slowly you will learn more and more.

when I was little I saw some book on how to code in python with all these little pixel people on it which tingled my neurons in the right way

I read this https://automatetheboringstuff.com . Swapped to Linux. Got really interested in technology so I started writing basic C and Scheme stuff. Also shell scripting

Starcraft: Brood War Use Map Settings maps had basic scripting that basically introduced me to programming.

I have an extreme love/hate relationship with tech and tried learning to program a bunch of times. I just couldn't hack python, it's annoying and popular which made me hate it and I failed over and over again. Eventually I started learning stuff like assembly and C and I enjoy that a lot more. Still torn between loving computers and wanting to smash them to pieces and live in the woods.

>>71193 I never did actually. I use linux and know some basic shell scripting to make life easier, but there was never a time where I really wanted to create something for myself that couldn't be done with a shell script, so I never learned a proper programming language.

I was a kid when Lizard Squad DDoSed PSN servers and made me spend the christmas offline (instead of playing GTA V with my friends). Despite them ruining my christmas, I thought they were the coolest people ever. I wanted to become a haxxor. After looking around online, people told me to learn Python. I woke up an hour before school and worked through a book on python 2. The next year school began to teach programming but I was already miles ahead of my peers. I experimented with everything: Java and minecraft mods, SQL, webdev, even some C. This is also when I got into Linux and bricked my computer trying to uninstall Kali. I took a break for a few years and then came back to writing a lot of C.

Actually Serial Experiments Lain. She changed my life. Before that I was into modding zelda ocarina of time and was really interested in how the game worked but didn't do any coding.

>>71193 when I was 12 I played with Scratch in ICT class and thought it was fun, made me and my friend talk extensively about starting a game studio, and graduating to more serious tools that would let us make proper games to publish n stuff. Sad that we went to different high schools, nonetheless I continued the dream. I tried a bunch of typical normcore gamedev soykaf like making pixel art, making music, and of course programming. I was learning GML for a while which is a C-like language that you use in Gamemaker Studio if you dont wanna drag'n'derp your game. I had too much trouble getting Gamemaker to work at some point -- think they fuarrrked the licences at some point -- and since I enjoyed programming the most, I pursued that deeper, and decided I would fare best if I learned C++. I was about 15 at this time. Started from videos, dropped it, then picked back up with Stroustrup's Principles and Practice. Would use it now and then to do things like automate bits of my homework. Tried making a text-based Fallout RPG at one point too. All just for fun mostly. Once I graduated high school I started taking it way more seriously and eventually did a small IT course that was too basic, and then did, became a linux autist, and then sold my soul to a university to do CS. It's cool that you're starting on this learning journey. It's gruelling but so satisfying, and also very humbling, granted that you always are pushing yourself. I wish I could have started with people like the lainons on here to give me advice. Good luck dude

unironically roblox. the first time i ever wrote code was to make a dance floor in a horrifically bad roblox game when i was like 7. i had a terrible experience bc i was a retard but a few years later i picked up java and actually started learning

>>71193 I learned Batch and basic HTML 4 when I was on 5th grade of primary school. Then I learned basics of Python during the summer break between 6th and 7th grade. I recommend you learn HTML first, unless you have already started learning programming. C, Java, PHP, JS, etc. are bad languages to start with. Start with anyone of these: Lua, Python or Ruby. The reason is that they are simple enough and they give immediate feedback.

My dad was a software engineer. When I was a kid, he once bought me a book about Javascript and jQuery. Then I started to code some dumb games in JS. In high school, I wrote lots of Python scripts to solve math problems and sold them to my classmates. Writing code is not only fun but also makes money. Also, it is exciting to create something new. Now I'm studying AI at the university, but the courses are tedious. I learned C++, Java, and Lisp all by myself. Also, I switched to Linux. Just for fun. If you truly like programming, you will find it interesting. Start with some simple projects you're interested in and keep learning.

>>71193 boredom and wanting to mod my ps3. i wanted to write cheats for call of duty on my ps3, so i picked up c++. was too hard, so i started with C#. then moved to python, then golang, back to python and now i just rot in my room doing python stuff :)

My mom did avionics in the Navy, got associate's in EE, worked up through tech support jobs (AST back in the day), became a telco NOC tech (access transport, dealing with the equipment from the remote terminal to the central office -- for anyone going down a rabbit hole about it, this concerns SBC / ATT POTS and ADSL, not VDSL/Uverse). With this background she instilled in me the fundamentals of granularizing and troubleshooting. It took some time for this to coalesce into anything resembling programming skill. I started off with a copy of "The Complete Idiot's Guide to C++" and not even half a clue of how to use it -- I was over here trying to type the example code into Windows command prompt. I assume I didn't understand the part where it discussed the IDE, so I just glossed over it or something. Or I'm just terminally retarded, but if so, I have overcome my disability and made relatively miraculous achievements. I'm not what you would consider a real programmer, but I've ended up with enough to get by in sysadmin-ish roles in Linux / networking areas (read: support / escalations for enterprise firewall vendor, helping sys/net/sec admins unfuck the VPN, firewall policy/logging/virtualization, clustering, mysterious critical outages that need to be fixed yesterday but also need root cause analysis, elusive intermittent performance issues, so on). You know, bash, regex, sed/awk, the usual utilities, bit of perl, php, enough MySQL/SQLite/Postgres to be dangerous. Never any big projects, just a nice little pile of glue. My passion projects are more along the lines of spending half the day sculpting the perfect overwrought one-liner to do some incredibly specific thing -- half the time, something someone else was trying to do that caught my eye. also neopets also joining / staffing a linux shell server back in the day (was on anapnea.net but if anything is on that domain now it isn't anything I can vouch for)

Linux. My first laptop ever was an old laptop of my mom that was way too fuarrrking slow for windows so I found ubuntu and installed it instead.

>>71193 Was into video work and got tired of waiting for builds of x264, avisynth, etc. Setup the MSYS toolchain. Eventually moved to MSYS2. Was inspired by pngslim and made a file optimization batch script, multithreaded. More of a program than a script really. Learned C and C++. Forked pngwolf-zopfli, ended up basically rewriting it. I consider myself ahobbyist at most. That's about it for me.

>>71193 when i was a kid i started learning scratch in class. then i learnt html and css. in high school i had an html class as well but i already knew most of what the curriculum teached me. i also learnt a bit of python from school.

It was only earlier today that I got into programming and I am having so much fun! In the past five years I've had five solid attempts at learning programming (C and Python) and I think I'm finally getting it with this Zig course. Here is the course that I am enjoying: https://github.com/ratfactor/ziglings

Vidya games gave me the inspiration to try coding and my brother inspired me to get out there and get a degree and stuff. Feels good to finally talk about our work with each other. :) >>71402 LMAO one of my very first early coding experience came from roblox, too. I had absolutely NO idea what alot of the stuff I tried worked. I was really just copying what the others were doing. "Oh this guy made a block that kills on touch! I'll do that too!"

Was around 18 and wanted to get into hacking, gained an interest in RATs and other malware. Booted up Kali Linux and created a virtual lab, soon discovered that I was just a dumb skid and if I wanted to break into the big leagues I would have to put in work and study my ass off, started learning C followed by the Windows API and took a course in networking. From there my interest spread into other areas like non-malicious software and the workings of computers in general, finally enrolled at a university and currently completing my CS degree. This all happened in the span of 5 years or so.

>>71193 > How did you first got into programming? I WAS BORN IN IT OP IS A glitterboy

I wanted to write calculators for physics problems way over my head. I remember the first program I wrote was a center of gravity calculator. It would work based off of the weight of each tire or the combined weights of DS, PS, Front, and Back. I took an example general purpose JavaScript calculator and modified it to be a CoG calc. I still think this is a great way to learn. Find a program or script remotely like what you want and modify it to be what you want. I was in 3rd grade and wanted something I could use on the school computers. I didn't know at the time that you could run binaries off flash drives (nor had a flash drive), so I went with JS because all I needed was Notepad and IE

>>71193 >computer science class in 9th grade >play school version of minecraft with minecraft API hooked up >writing python scripts using the minecraft API to grief the other student's worlds and spam racial obscenities in chat ahh, i wish i could go back.

Spider bit me. Now I can easily pay my bills but have to deal with being attracted to dicks and wearing dresses.

html and css thanks to sites like myspace and piczo and then learning about xampp and hacking club penguin years ago

i could type dos commands well before i knew how to write on paper. after that i learned win 95, then linux - my father was a linux glitterboy, there are still hundreds of written distro cds at home, rest in peace, dad - but somehow never learned any programming. I think i decided in my teens that im dumb and uninterested in it. my only real skill is piracy and lurking on imageboards, and being skeptic with the state of the current internet. i worked gardening and construction jobs in my whole life, i hope ai will fuarrrk up computer science because im jealous of the people who earn at least 5 times than me doing bloated abstract stuff in their bed. sorry. and yeah, one time i even had problem with the police when used LOIC without any protection, fortunately i forgot the stuff by the time of the investigation (i think i was high at the tiime of "hacking") and remembered much later. lol

Linux. I never considered writing programs until I started messing with LFS and compiling packages and realized I could just peek into the source of programs, learn how they work and edit them. When I discovered every file in /usr/lib was a library and API full of functions I could use in my own programs, I remember being mind-blown and wanting to study all of them. My interest in programming finally 'clicked' there. I taught myself C first unsurprisingly, but I've been getting into C++ recently.