How did you come to program

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This is basically a survey asking how many of you guys were initially introduced to programming at school (i.e. as a subject) and those who found it as a hobby.
I found it as a hobby in the 6th grade.
I was introduced to programming on CS lessons in school in 9th grade and liked it. After graduation I have looked into it further, found out that we were taught wrong and malevolent techniques and started learning from scratch again to get rid of old habits.
closed account (G309216C)
I started to program when I was 10 years old. I learnt to program as a hobby because I though programming will be a very good thing to do as I can program games and such. but I do not know how and why but for some reason I went into Security Field.

Well I got introduced to programming with BASIC in 7th and 8th grades. I'll spare you the boring story of how I picked up C++, but I picked it up when I was 15 or 16 years old as a freshman in high school. I've dabbled in other languages since though.
I am 54 , computer did exist as ibm terminals in banks when I was at school, I learned it as hobby after my study at the university, I bought my first Olivetti with the first money I earned and bought pascal. Then a gap of 20 year working , then I started again with visual studio for domotica purposes, I thought a good starting point to learn it again with practical use. I started with vb.net then aspx with brought javascript to attention, I bought a spider which uses c# microframework but now I want to use c++ for 3d rendering after being disappointed with 3d in webpages.
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I always had the curiosity of wanting to create games, so I started learning how to code 2 years ago (started creating games right off the bat, and re-coded them once i learned a more efficient way of doing them, or ran into something i could not do with my prior code, until I got the knowlege to not have to recode, besides prototyping and reorganizing), so i could learn, and become ahead of most people when it comes to learning it in college (I'm 17 now and a self-learner), i currently know c++, javascript, css, html5, and a few other program languages.
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I decided my high school based on the fact that it had an "experimental course" for programming. At that time I had never touched programming by myself (no internet and no idea of where to start from) but games where made with it so it seemed super interesting. In the next 5 years we had something like 3 lessons on how to use excel and 2 on how to put a button and a label in a Visual Basic program.
In the end I guess my answer is hobby.
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I wanted to create my own games back when I was in 9th grade. All of the game creation programs I found advertised something along the lines of "create great games without writing a single line of code!", so naturally I decided to learn to code instead. I heard of C++ from the creator of a modding tool I had used before, so I Googled for a tutorial and found the one on this website. I still program games today as a hobby.
ModShop, your story sounds almost identical to me. I started wanting to create games after playing Mortal Kombat on the SNES. I wanted to be the guy behind the curtain entertaining gamers just like the guys at Midway (NetherRealms Studios now). Never realized that dream, but I suppose not everyone ever really gets what they want dream wise.
I wanted to make games and work with computers. Didn't do much until my friend printed out a C++ tutorial and I went from there.
Drugs. Drugs drove me to program.
closed account (N36fSL3A)
Well ever since I played a game I wanted to make one. I started to use RPG Maker 2000, 2003, XP, and VX, but I wanted a better game. I learned Ruby to script with. Then, finally I decided that wasn't powerful enough and looked for alternates. I was thinking Java because Minecraft was made in it, but I looked up C++ and fell in love. That's how I started.

Just think, if I picked Java I'd be a RAPIDCODER + Fredbill30.

Just imagine that scenario.
Fredbill30 wrote:
Just think, if I picked Java I'd be a RAPIDCODER + Fredbill30.
It is extremely bad etiquette to talk about another member that isn't even participating in the thread. It amounts to talking about someone behind their back. Pretty immature.

I feel like the only one who didn't start programming just to make games.
closed account (N36fSL3A)
no as in rapidcoder i meant biased towards Java. Not really an insult unless you take it the wrong way.
Fredbill30 wrote:
no as in rapidcoder i meant biased towards Java. Not really an insult unless you take it the wrong way.
Please don't insult my intelligence.
closed account (N36fSL3A)
I am not. Why are you taking it the wrong way?
Fredbill30 wrote:
I am not. Why are you taking it the wrong way?
So it's now appropriate to redefine a users screen name at will, OK. You are being a real Fredbill right now!
I think I learned what programming was from a Minecraft forum.
http://www.planetminecraft.com/forums/modding-f90.html


From there my software engineer cousin told me to learn C++.

Add me to the I-wanna-make-games bandwagon.

However I should note that I never actually got around to making anything substantial using SFML. I made a crappy board game and started making tools such as a sprite sheet animator, but that kinda stuff is simple and boring. I want to make something good but that requires knowledge of physics which I don't have. I'll just wait until I learn physics in high school and continue learning C++. Right now my goals are to learn finish learning C++ and C, learn computer architecture, and learn x86 assembly.
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closed account (N36fSL3A)
I don't take any offense to that.
Well, I always wanted to learn how to code and such... I recall trying to work through learning how to use Blender (the 3D graphics software) in 7th grade, but most of that was out of my league at the time. Eventually, I stumbled on my dad's old C Primer Plus book, and installed a C IDE. At this time, I already knew of C++ and wanted to code, but never knew where to look for answers. Of course, this was a book for C, not C++, and I found myself wanting to move on to bigger and better things. I bought a C++ book... which turned out to be crap. Then I bought another... again, turned out to be crap. Nearly gave up outright... until I stumbled upon this site after someone else pointed me here. Read through all of the documentation, and found myself in a position where I was actually able to create functional code. All it took was several years of poorly-written books (the second book sometimes gave code examples that weren't even functional), only to discover that the best resource for me was one that was free.
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