How old were you when you started programming?

Somewhere around the age of 8 or earlier, computers were always just there - they'd been in my life since I can begin to remember.

How did you get started in programming? What was your first language?

My dad went to College for robotics when I was around 8 years old. His robotics program involved lots of programming and together we worked through a couple BASIC programming books. I continued to mess around with BASIC and wrote scripts so I could get at my favourite games. Later I was frequenting BBSs (The Fisherman's Scroll), and surfing the internet through lynx (a text based browser). I eventually became a Script kiddie - being a Script kiddie was what really turned me on to programming. My friends and I would write IRC war scripts, play MUDs, and try to figure out how Trumpet Winsock, networks, and HTML worked - those were the days of Netscape 1 (the version with the big glowing 'N'). Later we tried writing our own version of NetBus with the help of C / C++ programmers on IRC - the fragments of the C language these programmers exposed to me were magical, and sparked an genuine interest in computer programming. In addition to all this my dad kept a constant supply of old and new computer parts funneling into our house, my brothers and I would build computers from the parts - today my closest brother is a Linux fanatic, evidently all this sparked his interest too.

Programming has always been a part of my life, BASIC was my first language.

What was the first real program you wrote?

I followed a couple game tutorials from my BASIC books, but my first real program would have been Pacman programmed in Turing - in my final year of high school I enrolled in a computer course, where the instructor let us write any program we wanted for half a school year I chose to write a game.

What languages have you used since you started programming?

I've spent most my time in C, C++, C#, JavaScript, SQL, and the mark-up languages. I primarily program for the web or at least for the network, but have used many other languages like COBOL and so on...

While using multiple languages are great, I really believe that we you should completely understand the fundamentals of at least two languages (like say a static language and a dynamic language), because:

"Once a programmer realizes that programming principles transcend the syntax of any specific language, the doors swing open to knowledge that truly makes a difference in quality and productivity." - Steve McConnell, Code Complete 2nd Edition.

What was your first professional programming gig?

I would have been 18. It was my first year of College, I needed a part-time job in order to pay rent, I initially worked on an assembly line, but would occasionally help the office workers troubleshoot their IT issues. I soon found myself working as the company's network admin / computer gopher. I went on to develop their cataloging system and a website. At the time I was going to school for Electronic Engineering, but decided to switch to a Computer specific program. Previous to this, I had freelanced a couple websites for local businesses while in high school.

If you knew then what you know now, would you have started programming?

Absolutely! The industry continues to instill a sense of wonder in me. I can't imagine doing anything else.

If there is one thing you learned along the way that you would tell new developers, what would it be?

• Read! You'd be surprised how little progress has been made in the software industry over the past 30 years. By reading we can learn from the mistakes others have made.
• Don't be intimidated by code or frameworks handed down by large organizations, their code isn't any different than yours.
• Hard work always pays off, or as Thomas Edison said: "Success is 10 percent inspiration and 90 percent perspiration."

What's the most fun you've ever had ... programming?

Collaborative programming is always fun whether it be paired programming or working together on a project. It's hard to pinpoint the most fun I've "ever" had, because it's all fun. :)

This post was in response to Michael Eaton's initial post on: How did you get started in software development?

Now it's your turn to answer: How did you get started in software development?