Hey guys,
I am curious about how many teen programers there are here.

I am 16 and I have been hobby programming for about three(3) years now.
I have looked around and I haven't found any forums for teen programers,
but I know there are a fair number of teen programers out there.

So, if you are a teen programer and would like to say so here that would be cool.
And if you are a teen programer and don't want everyone knowing it, that is
absolutely fine as well!

Or, if you are NOT a teen programer but have some cool info or advice for/about
teen programers it would be great if you'd post it here!

Btw, I'm pretty sure I'm not breaking any forum rules with this one, but if I
am please tell me and I'll get rid of this post ASAP.

- WolfShield

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I'm past my "teens" a while now, but I started programming on a C16 (basic) when I was ?-teen.

I was 8 years old when i dipped my toes into programming with LOGO, I am 20 years old now writing hardcore ARM C and assembly code ^^

started dabbling in GW Basic as a teen. Was the only thing available to me. Didn't get an actual compiler until years later, good old Turbo Pascal.

I'm turning 19 next month.I'm still studying, however I am on my final year of studies.
I know VB, java and SQL.
I also take web development, but over all software development is much better in my opinion.

Like I've mentioned before,
I started my programming venture at about twelve or thirteen years old with Liberty Basic.
Then I found Python and I'd say that was my first REAL programming language. After I programmed
that for a while I got into creating a web site with a friend, so that would be XHTML, CSS and a tiny bit of JavaScript.
In between all of this (here and there) I looked into many different programming languages,
and experimented with them for about a day, languages like: Perl, Ruby On Rails, LISP, and SQL but I never learned the languages fully.
Then, between six months and a year ago I started programming in Java. I've probably created the most programs in Java but I am surpassing it in C# right now.
Before I started C# though, I tried C++ (I like Object Oriented Programming), but it was a
little to cryptic for me to want to try at this point(well, the GUI programming was).

So, I've done a little experimenting, trying to find the language I like best. So far
I think it best just to know a few languages like: Java, C#, C (I still plan on learning it), Python, HTML, JavaScript.

Anyway, that's my bio.

So, do any of you coders have any advice you think will come in handy for us as programmers?

Thanks for the input!

- WolfShield

I started GW Basic programming when I was 6th grade, approximately when I was 10.
But that's not skills that need to be a good programmer.I still lack the
skills that need to label myself as a good programmer in front of a job
interview.

However, there are really genius teen programmers, believe me, and I had
recently read his tutorial on file system design.
Yes he is still a kid, and definitely he got good operating system
engineering knowledge than me (where I'm 26years old). that's why
I'm reading his tutorials.
http://averstak.tripod.com/fatdox/00dindex.htm

he is a 18 year old student. Yes true professional means who truly have the
hand on experience, degrees and certificates are just like bus tickets !

I have seen the skills of the true professionals in all around the opensource
world but I'm not a one.

when you developing something big, you'll first see it as a mess.But the truth is
when you pay the concentration that needed to it, you'll see step by step
you can design any complex thing. Just knowing the Core C++ language syntax or
programming concepts (OOP) won't make you a good programmer. It need to grow the
skills like patient and concentration inside yourself.

Wow,
Thanks for that great advice NicAx64. I'll be sure to keep it in mind.

- WolfShield

I'm a little past my teens as well (about 30 years past), but I started programming assembly on a Motorola Odyssey when I was 16 back in the 19mmffmmmms. It was before the days of PC's, so that was all I had.

To all you teen programmers, I just say this: unless you are REALLY lucky, most "professional" programming jobs have to do with creating reports, displaying lists or moving dollars from one bucket to another one. You can earn a good living doing it, but innovative they are usually not.

Enjoy your hobby projects, they are what makes it all worthwhile. Be creative, push the boundaries, have fun. After all, I think that's why many of us started doing this in the first place...it's kind of magical when you look at your computer screen and can say "Wow! I made it do THAT!"

So here I am, grizzled old veteran programmer type, 17 programming languages under my belt, playing with new languages, trying out new features, revisiting old code, passing on advice...and my actual daytime job is a manager to a bunch of DBAs! Bleah! But I still love to program. I love the feeling of "getting it right", then going back to do it even better...faster...tighter...sharing my code and experiences with others, getting pointers in return...it keeps me feeling young. Nothing keeps you more humble than being treated like a n00b when you're trying something new.

Keep at it! When you start to lose that feeling of wonder, then it's time to learn a new language or technology.

Sorry for the rambling. I truly hope you all have long productive careers. Good luck!

Hmmmmm,
Quite thought provoking. I can really relate to what you are talking about.
The feeling of finally, after searching and typing for hours, getting it right
and being able to say "Yes! It worked!".

I also know what you are talking about as far as most jobs. A friend of mine's
dad is a programmer. When he talks about his job I hear just what you are
telling me about. DBs and property files.

I really do enjoy programming and I would really like to have it as a job
eventually. And I know that as long as I at least have my programming hobbies
I will be having fun with it. But it is still good to keep everything in
perspective, thank you for sharing your experience with us!

It is really nice to have these people who have experience in the programming
field letting us in on advice and tips. It keeps us inspired and helps us with
our coding projects.

So, thank you all for all of the contributed information!

- WolfShield

all of you are great.. i hope i can be like you.

i start studying programming when i'm 16 y.o now i'm 19 and i want to learn more :)

i really don't know that the course i take is about programming so i decided to shift after the first semester, but when i learn the basic programming, i tell to myself "i want to be a programmer"

..

I am 13 years old right now and I started programming when I was 12. I guess my first programming language was HTML (if you count it as programming language) and then JavaScript. Then I got bored of the high-level stuff so then I learned C++ and now trying to assembly. I want to make my own Operating System. Right now I am still far away from it but I think in about 2-3 years I will be able to do that :)

Man, I just passed by teen years. I'm 20 currently. Times flies by so fast. I started like 2-3 years ago. It became an obsession initially, then started to die down a little, because I have way too much work to do,in and out of school. As an advice, I suggest you to not worry about learning many languages as some might, and first consider 'mastering' one language. Then focus on designing good solutions, which in part is creating good algorithms and good structures. One way you can do this, is to go into graphics programming. This is not only really interesting, but also very thought provoking and give you an excellent chance to practice. Recently, in my interview, the interviewer was very impressed that I did game programming ( because they knew how hard it is ). Good luck with your future.

Member Avatar for diafol

I'm just a hobbyist programmer, but I help teach pupils to program. I reckon our best programmers have been solid maths pupils, but our very best have had an artistic bent. They tend to think creatively / outside the box and come up with novel solutions. Unfortunately, our curriculum stifles creativity and exploring new languages. UK exam courses tend to insist on VB6/Access and producing some variation on a stock/login system. Yawn...

So, what's current? What's solid and supported? What's in active development? What's sexy?

If you get a language or two that tick those boxes (bare minimum), then you may enjoy yourself. Structures are pretty standard in most languages. OOP is sexy - although I'm too old and stupid to understand it properly.

What's sexy?

I think FORTRAN is really sexy. The punch cards ....uhhh. Just love them. I don't know why noone uses them anymore. :(

Just wait until you're carrying a box of 2000 cards...and trip. And then discover you forgot to put sequence numbers on the cards. Then you'll know why nobody likes to use them! :)

I will number then... I still love fortran no matter what you say :)

Haha,
Let's not get into the religious language wars huh? :)

I think there are a number of good reasons to love many languages.
Java is easy and beautiful, C and C++ is very powerful, Python is easy
and has some great web capabilities, JavaScript is easy to learn and portable,
Perl is highly practical for websites, C# is a nice mixture of language features,
etc.

And this brings me to another good question: How many languages do most programmers
know? I know that spoken languages it is said that you should not learn more than
three. But that does not seem to be the case for programming languages.
Also, how do you keep up on all of the languages learned? Do you have to use them
at lease once every week? More? Less is okay?

- WolfShield

I started programming when I was 4 years old. It's true. I wouldn't lie -__-

mwahahahaah

when i was a 4 years old..
i don't know that computer exist haha!

When i was 4 years old i spilled lemonade over my dad's mac classic. It was a mess.

Hmhm,
About three years ago all we had (as a family of 6), was one desktop computer.
About that time my dad bought a laptop for work. I soon took it over. :)

After a long time of me using it all of the time dad was like, "I have to get a new
work laptop now." So, he went out and bought a new Windows 7 Asus.

My sister has now taken over that computer for her books. :)

Poor dad.... But now his job gives him his work computer, so all's good. :)

- WolfShield

I am 18, still studying , learning in C++ and I already know C. I hate SQL, maybe becuase I just don't get why its so different from other languages. I decided to do programming in school because I could do IT without knowing material beforehand. I didn't have a good math backgriound so it was hard to get convince teachers to let me in the class. That was two years ago. Different school now, I only know those three languages with more to come

At the risk of sounding pedantic:
SQL was originally developed to allow treating data as sets rather than "record by record" as prior data access methods required. Think of it as a precursor to Object-Oriented techniques. There were even some acronyms coined: RAAT and SAAT (Row-At-A-Time vs. Set-At-A-Time) processing to describe what was happening. So, instead of having to read one record from your file; examine that row to decide if it's one you want; do something to it; and save it, you could now specify the characteristics of a group of data you wanted and specify what you wanted done to it without processing RBAR (another acronym..."Row-By-Agonizing-Row"). It caused a revolution in program design. So much code that surrounded this "batch" style processing could now be replaced by a single (relatively) simple statement.

In small applications without a lot of data, it may not seem like that much of an improvement. When you're dealing with terabytes and petabytes of data, millions and millions of rows, it's huge.

But since computers are much faster, memory is much cheaper and storage is a non-issue anymore, the very way in which computers are used is changing. Whereas long ago, the idea was to let people gather data during the day and then do a big-bang update overnight to prepare for the next day's business, nowadays applications try to compartmentalize each data gathering interaction (a.k.a. a Logical Unit of Work, LUW) and distribute this activity across many machines and servers, and make the updates immediately available to all others accessing the system.

I could go on and on, but you get the gist. Sorry for the "history lesson"...I'm sure you probably get enough of that in school. :) But SQL really has turned into the "lingua franca" of data access, and it's important that you understand it if you want to program professionally.

Haha,
Let's not get into the religious language wars huh?

I think there are a number of good reasons to love many languages.
Java is easy and beautiful, C and C++ is very powerful, Python is easy
and has some great web capabilities, JavaScript is easy to learn and portable,
Perl is highly practical for websites, C# is a nice mixture of language features,
etc.

And this brings me to another good question: How many languages do most programmers
know? I know that spoken languages it is said that you should not learn more than
three. But that does not seem to be the case for programming languages.
Also, how do you keep up on all of the languages learned? Do you have to use them
at lease once every week? More? Less is okay?

I don't all the high level languages like C# and Java. I Love assembler and C/C++.
I know about 3-5 languages. It depends what you count a language. Is HTML a programming language? Is JavaScript a programming language? Does the 80's program where you make the animals move on the screen by typing stuff I learned in the first grade count as programming language. Does AC Tools or AutoIt count as different languages? I can go on and on. If I count all that kind of stuff I guess I know about 15. But a good programmer doesn't have to know many languages. He just has to know 1 or 2 languages really good.

I first started programming in LOGO when I was about 7 yrs old.Then I myself had taken a small crash course in HTML the next year but I discontinued it.At about 9 yrs, I began learning QBASIC and then when I was 12, I resumed with HTML and then started with C and then C++.Now I am 14 yrs old.I had thought of changing from C/C++ to JAVA because in school we only have JAVA, but when I saw that C/C++ is far more powerful, I swithched back to it.

Right now I'm trying to improve in C++.I know about 6 different programming languages, counting QBASIC, LOGO(I don't remember it well, but still) and HTML, but I'm not an expert in any of them.

ilovec++ that's about the same course i took! I started logo when i was 8 years old or so, continued in qBasic, i can almost call myself C++ and VB.NET engineer now :)

i can almost call myself C++ and VB.NET engineer now :)

Cool!!!

commented: One day you'll be able to say the same ;) +0

Well.. I own a computer... just saying

monecs fortran in 1972 8 years old, punch cards + paper tape

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