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[makerhacks]

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Read the new version https://peakd.com/python/@makerhacks/my-programming-journey-20251003t094424z

Comments

[jordand89]

I got into programming as a kid too. My first real programming language was QBasic even though it was already mostly dead when I started learning it around 2001. I got an old 386 with Windows 3.1 so that I could program in my bedroom without using my family's primary computer. I remember making several DOS games with QBasic. I also learned HTML even before that.

[makerhacks]

I got into programming as a kid too. My first real programming language was QBasic

Oh man that makes me feel super old :D

You definitely should check out QB64 if you started out with QBasic :)

[jordand89]

I'll look into that! Most of the technology in this post is from before my time, but I wonder what it's like for today's kids that are growing up on touch screens and smart phones.

[makerhacks]

There was a big period where "computer" lessons at schools were around teaching word processing and slide presentations, but with things like Scratch, the Raspberry Pi and even Swift, I hope more kids are getting into making their computers/tablets/phones do stuff :)

A bunch of friends kids got into programming through Minecraft and Roblox too!

[jordand89]

Learning how to use Microsoft Office was basically the main topic of computer classes when I was in school in the 90s and 00s. Roblox crossed my mind too and I think you're right about the younger generation! The ones who are curious about how technology works have so many new ways to learn.

[steampunkkaja]

My programming journey started at age nine or ten, when I started making art on my graphing calculator. I still have the notebook - somewhere - with all the formulas, some Cartesian, some polar. I didn't get started with "proper" programming until age fifteen, when I learned industrial G-code. My first programs were all hand-written and then manually typed into CNC controllers. I still have all my old programs in yet another notebook, mostly lathe projects. I've always found it easier to program CNC lathes manually, even if the program is fairly complicated, but I'm hopeless at programming a CNC mill or wire EDM without CAM software.

I tried to teach a SCARA (Selective Compliance Articulated Robot Arm) to play draughts when I was in college. I managed to get the robot to reliably pick up and place the pieces, but I never got to the "actually play the game" part before I had to move on to another project, given the amount of time I spent fiddling with the various end effectors.

Speaking of college, I spent an entire semester beating my head against a brick wall trying to program PLCs, which are counter-intuitive as hell. I still did well in that class, but to this day, ladder "logic" escapes me, and I'd much rather use mechanical (including pneumatic and hydraulic) means of automation, rather than relying on electronics for everything. Maybe I'm just old-fashioned.

Everything from here on doesn't really count as programming, but it's still STEMgeek stuff that's relevant to what I do.

My sister helped me with my first custom-built PC right after I graduated, though I have to credit one of my classmates with helping me decide on all the components beforehand. At the time, I used it for gaming and to run my Makerbot Replicator. I don't know what Makerbot is doing now, but back in 2012, their software was Python-based, and easy to tinker with for anyone familiar with Python. Too bad that my problem was hardware, not software. That computer is still my main, but I've had to replace the power supply and I've gone through 3 hard drives (word to the wise: WD 1TB Caviar Black has a tendency to fry itself for no apparent reason). I've also upgraded the memory, since it has a big motherboard with six RAM slots instead of the usual four.

I learned PC-DMIS (or, as my boss called it, "PC-dumbass") at my first (and so far, only) industry job, in which I programmed and operated two coordinate measuring machines (CMM). I also learned two different types of ERP software, but every time I tried teaching my colleagues how to use new software, whether it was new to me (e.g. Minitab, Globalshop) or familiar as the back of my hand (e.g. Excel, Mastercam), well... the less said about it, the better.

These days, I use Adobe Flash CS3 for 2D art and measuring raster images of blueprints (long story), Autodesk Inventor for making 3D models, Blender for processing .stl files, and PreForm for running my new 3D printer (I donated the Replicator to NIH, specifically VPPL, for which I also designed the logo).

[makerhacks]

I have done very little manual gcode writing but I did study it so I could debug my automatically generated or supplier supplied gcode - it reminds me a lot of the turtle graphics/logo language, perhaps that is why I picked it up well versus some of my maker space friends!? :D

[astrizak]

I got a computer when I was 12 or 14. It was a clone of the spectrum, which had to be assembled manually. But I don't remember this period well, because at that time I was only interested in games, and the equipment often failed - the tape recorder from which the programs were recorded spontaneously turned off and had to start process from the beginning. So programming for commodore, spectrum or early pc passed me by.

In 96, I got a full-fledged PC. But of course I didn't program on it, but only played, until I was 19, when I got a job as a sysadmin in one company there I started learning linux on my own. I remember I had a Red Hat 6 distrib and that's how my path in programming began. I had to deal with bash scripts. A little later I started making my first program - it was a knowledge testing for electricans. It used an interface written in Delphi and the main code in Javascript. At that time I was trying to make a cross-platform project and invented my Xulrunner based on the Mozilla browser, while the first version appeared.

Then I got acquainted with Php, Sql. I did work on Foxpro for money, did a little digging with C (remade the game on SDL), worked with Progress ABL, 1C, VBA. did a couple of pet projects in Python

But now somehow it turned out that I work in a bunch of Php/Javascript/Sql/Bash. Recently I wanted to try golang, but I haven't figured out where to apply it for myself yet

[nicklewis]

It's funny because today I wrote a piece called "Once upon a website" which is a little bit of a biography on my first major website project. However that was 2002-2007, my journey started around the same time as yours, maybe a tad later, by 3 years. My first computer was the Commodore 64.

I did write an article on another blog a couple of years ago. I am going to lift it and push it on to the chain, scheduled for tomorrow - watch out for it.

I am these days a front-end developer working solely with JS, Vue and Nuxt

[makerhacks]

I will look forward to that!

[nathen007]

Brilliant! A real trip down memory lane that means we are probably of a very similar age. I did Vic-20, C64 and the programming I did was mainly debugging the programs I spent hours typing in from Your Computer and the like!

My interest in Databases came from a Database that was in the official Commodore magazine which was written for a PET but with only slight adaptation ran well on my C64 and I used for trainspotting and my magazine collection.

I also did COBOL at night school in Leeds at Leeds Polytechnic when I was an apprectice with BT. Two years of classes and I never used it in anger!

AT BT, I turned to Hardware and network design as in the 80's, everything was starting to turn digital with Kilostream and Megastream and private Wide area Networks. The only 'programming' I ever did again was setting up the multiplexors on the networks.

Then I got bored and walked from IT and BT in 95 and never looked back although I do read stuff here now that people like you and @themarkymark post and the other Devs post, and I do find it really interesting but it's like a century apart from me and I seriously doubt I'd ever have had the patience or intelligence to have continued through the incredible learning process that IT folks from my time must have had to go through. Back in the 80s, I was on some manufacturer's, or inhouse training course on an almost weekly basis.

Every respect to you sir! and happy to see see you're keeping the old ways going. I'd love to see you write an article on what, if anything, you learned back in the day that helped you, or still helps you in the IT business today.

Best wishes :-)

[oldsoulnewb]

Thanks for this wonderful trip down memory lane!

My interest started around age 7 or 8, drooling over television and magazine ads about the Amiga. I read all I could find, but didn't actually get to put my hands on a computer until I was 13, when my out-of-state uncle gave us his old Tandy 4P for Christmas. It came with a reference manual for BASIC (which I believe was the machine's 'native' environment), a disk that would boot some non-standard DOS environment, and nothing else, and I was unable to find any other software or reference manuals for it. I used that to get a pretty solid knowledge of BASIC, wrote a simple word processor and some text adventure games, and tried like hell to get my hands on an Apple II or anything else with color graphics. I never did have any luck with that, but it taught me a lot about ASCII art. I dabbled a bit in ASM assembly on early 8086 machines some years later, but never totally got my head around that.

I live in a rural area, and there wasn't a whole lot of need for programmers out here, but even out here in the woods the PC revolution was taking off, so there was always some work to be found setting up peripherals back in the day. When AOL was big, I could set up custom init strings for 12 different types of modems from memory. I learned HTML to help some people set up early web pages, but the work was sporadic and not particularly well paying, and I ended up moving into construction work to pay the bills.

Since then, I've just learned what I need to know to do what I want to do, mostly scripting and custom config files (on linux OS's for over 10 years), gcode for the 3d printer, lately getting into Verilog because FPGAs are very affordable, and I want to automate my gardens. It's been a bit of a struggle, since I actually never learned C or any of its children, but I think I'm getting my head wrapped around it well enough to start wrecking some chips :D

I'm starting to age out of the construction industry, been thinking of getting back into programming for retirement work. The languages have certainly come a long way since the late 80's!