I started 'programming' when I was in my 3th year of secondary school (don't know how it is called in england). I wasn't that good in remembering formula's for physics classes, so I wrote a program on my calculator that would let me select what I needed, what variable I was missing and then gave the result + formula.
From that moment I knew that programming would be my future :p.

Still a future that needs work though. I'm now programming for three years. I've started with c++, but I didn't really like that. I've switched to java, c#, php etc in the years after that.
My favourite langauge until now is java.

What would you consider an experianced programmer?

Every programmer who can be called a programmer is experienced with something. Edward would call a programmer experienced in a specific area if he's worked on more than one project focused on that area that isn't trivial. Demos, test programs, and toy programs would be trivial in this case.

>>What would you consider an experianced programmer?

My answer would be someone who knows his math and can see the thin line between programming and mathematics.

Someone who no longer has to ask that question.
When you have done some programming at school you're NOT an experienced programmer.

When you've done it full time as a job for 5 years you probably are.

Basic: 30 years
Assembly: 23 years
C: 18 years
C++: 10 years

I started on a weird HP machine which had a tiny printer for output instead of a screen. I was 13 at that time. Next came the C64. I continued with Basic and later moved on to Assembly. In the late 80's I got to work with PC's, though it took a while before I started programming on them. I never used basic on PC's but moved to C instead. Only in 1998 I started programming for Windows, for which I used C++.

This is fascinating! Blows my mind how many computer languages there are out there!

I started programming in 1978, while still in college. At that time, an MIS major was called "Data Processing for Business". Does that date me a bit? In my sophomore year, I was hired to develop and write a system to calculate the local economic indicators for a professor in the Economics Department. That was my first professional job, although I was paid minimum wage for it.

4 years now
begin c++ console programming for 18 month
c# for 1 month simple programs
java one year make some apllications
feel to learn more and more

hneel seems to be the most experience programmer at DW any competitor ?

Serious on the Job programming since a Couple of years now,
Java is my main bread and butter getter,
I had done basics in C/C++ in college and loved it. Now I am luckily working on creating real world applications using it.