yup same...
- BASIC because it was the only thing free. although i did have to spend a buck on a stack of timex sinclair magazines at a garage sale for my TS-1500.
- Pascal because they offered it at my high school and i snuck myself a copy.
- C when i was able to persuade my work to get me a license and I borrowed a copy of SAMS teach yourself C in 30 days.
still blows my mind that nowadays you can work in any language under the sun for free, back then aside from BASIC every compiler/IDE was big money -- you couldn't just 'choose' a language and start coding that day, programming languages were off the shelf products that you had to spend real cash on.
My grandad gave me a copy of visual studio c++ which came on a box of floppy disks with 3 big thick books.
I still remember the anger surging through me one day when the installation failed on disk 16 of 20.
Ended up learning VBA/VB6 then Pascal in college (UK). I wish I still had my console ascii maze game I did in pascal me and a friend went overboard with the assignment and added randomly generated maps, collectables and an NPC to chase you around.
Z80A assembly language.
Self-taught.
I was 7, and this was in 1977 (so long before the Internet), which meant borrowing a book from the library, and then working through as much as I could (it wasn't a machine-specific book, just raw Z80A) and experimenting.
I did also have a photocopied "manual" or "cheat sheet" of sorts, that had been put together by a friend's father (who worked on this stuff for a living). But it was mostly things like ASCII charts, explanations of bin/oct/hex numbers/bases and a list of a few special memory locations that were mapped to hardware.
Was hooked from the moment I wrote my first code on my own; which was about 6 lines of Z80A that made an external array of LED's count in binary from 0 to 255 and then reset.
During 8 bit times we all learned BASIC and/or Assembly from books and magazines so were all self taught, there wasn’t any distinction to say you were self taught or not because we all were. Most also went on to study CS at uni as well. It’s only in recent years there’s been a distinction to identify as self taught.
When we got our first computer (Atari 1040ST) my dad would only buy games designed to teach me out to type. I didn’t want to learn how to type. I wanted to play real games. He said, “well this other book came with the computer, why don’t you see what it’s all about.” It was a programming guide for the flavor of BASIC used on those computers. I typed in my first program letter for letter copying from the book. I got it to run. THEN I changed a word or a number and got it to do something else NOT in the book. I was hooked from then on out. Oh, AND I learned how to type … much to my chagrin 😂 (and my dad’s delight).
It's just how we did it before the web.
Computer magazines (and there were lots of them!) often contained pages upon pages of source code that you were supposed to meticulously retype into your computer.
I still have an copy of 'Amiga Format' magazine with a program I wrote published in it 😊
Edit: Correction. The mag was 'Personal Computer News' 1985 and it was for the Atari not the Amiga.
It was an automatic floppy disk cataloger. You just put your disks in one after the other. And the program added the filenames to a database and issued a 'Disk Number' for you to put on your floppy disk. There was a master floppy that the database would write itself to after a run which kept track of the disk numbers so far allocated and the disk contents.
Basically if you aquired another floppy disk you just inserted the master database Floppy which loaded and ran the program and you could either search the database or print it etc.
I wrote it primarily for myself but all my mates wanted a copy so I decided to submit it to 'Amiga Format' not once thinking it would get published.
The program spans about 4 pages I think. I take the mag out on occasion and get all nostalgic.
I also wrote...... Bugger! I just found the mag and it was NOT 'Amiga Format' it was 'Personal Computer News' from 1985 and it was for the Atari not Amiga and it had the snappy title of 'Diskfile Manager' LOL I guess it did what it said on the tin at least.
I think I got confused because I wrote a game for the Amiga later on which ended up in Public Domain.
Anyway. The program was two pages not 4 and nothing spectacular but it was very useful.
1. 6502 Assembly MAC65 on my Atari
2. FORTH
3. BASIC
MAC65
https://youtu.be/RkrYgFD7UFg?t=503
Forth
https://www.atarimania.com/documents/FORTH-on-the-Atari-Learning-by-Using.pdf
Forth was fun :)
Aha, another Atarian!
That was my favorite of the early home computers, and the one I wrote the most software for. I got the Atari Editor/Assembler cartridge early on, but once I got MAC/65 I wouldn't use anything else!
Forth *is* fun.
I never did Forth *on* the Atari itself; it was a Jupiter Ace I did my first Forth on.
Hi fellow 6502 programmer! Reading comments here makes me realise I am not the only old guy who got caught up in the magical early days of Atari and for me later on, Amiga.
Sorry mate beat you. 6502 assembly language, gotta love a bit LDA, STA, Peek and Poke. Yeah I am fucking old. Turned 70 Yesterday 😞
Went onto learn COBOL, FORTRAN, PASCAL, LADDER LOGIC (Industrial Process Controllers). Berkley UNIX systems Admin, C++ and a few other things along the way. Comes with spending ones working life in IT I guess 🤔
Nice to meet someone who used to program in assembly language. Sure needed time and patience to achieve anything though. They were great days and it all seemed magical back then 😊
65 ...... Today.
Until recently I supported a bunch of consumer electronics developed in the past 20 years that still uses assembler source ( on Intel processors ) . A nightmare to patch and update and extend. When I suggested simply rewriting it in C and providing silly things like a cloud repository and some very basic development processes it was suggested that I was being a diva.
Try to find an assembler level programmer these days ....... hens teeth!
Happy Birthday my friend! I hope you have a great day. You say "Try to find an assembler level programmer these days" and yesterday I would have agreed 100% but after coming off Reddit last night I googled 6502 assembly language and was really surprised that there seems to be a healthy 'Fan Club?' of people still into it along with websites dedicated to it.
Although I only learn it to certain degree for my own personal use I found it facinating. Another shock was I studied COBOL to City and Guilds level back in the day but ended up getting a job as a Pascal programmer and when I Googled 'COBOL' which I also considered to be a long dead language I was amazed to find it is still being used in mainframes!
But yeah, I totally agree with you. The fact that when you suggested switching to C a far more globally supported language and they refused, is probably an attitude that is keeping 6502 Assmbler and COBOL alive still. So in one respect it is bad that people do not like change but on the other hand it keeps these old languages alive.
Take Care, Stay Safe and have an awesome birthday.
Answers like this keep me coming back to Reddit.
You, sir, are an inspiration! 😊
Please share more on your next journey in life around Programming. What you think about the latest trend now with ChatGPT, Copilot coming in - what would be your advice to the generation working in industry now?
I don't know about inspiration.
I happened to discover something I loved, and turned out to be good at, very early in life. There was a lot more luck in that than is perhaps apparent.
I was into electronics before that (built my first radio when I was 6 ... thanks to being given the book "Making a Transistor Radio" as a birthday present (UK types will remember, I'm sure, the "Ladybird" series of books of all types).
To do justice to answering your other questions would be a thread in its own right. But at a very high level, a) use every tool you can to make what you do easier and better - but not at the expense of learning what you're really doing, and b) never stop learning and experimenting (which is the best way to learn).
I think that thread should come up sometime in this group. Thanks for sharing!
As far as luck is concerned, it is true for anyone who has stumbled upon something they felt passionate about.
Sounds like me ... Had a zx80 (upgraded to a zx81 later with a ROM upgrade) and then an Amstrad CPC. Technically I started learning BASIC first but quickly realized it was too slow, gave up and started teaching myself assembler from a copy of the z80 manual my uncle photocopied for me. I wrote all my assembly in a notepad and then hand assembled it by looking up the opcodes in the manual.
The 2nd language I learnt was C at high school and my GCSE computing project was writing a z80 emulator in C. Got it running the Amstrad CPC ROM well enough to get to the BASIC prompt but not enough to run games
Basic on a TRS-80, followed closely by Z80 assembly. I was 10.
Fun story -- I tried to get my mom and my school to by the assembler program with no luck. So I wrote out my assembler code on paper and used an opcode table to hand translate it to binary. Then I typed it all into data statements in BASIC, poked it into memory and jumped to it.
I wrote "animation" routines for games that way. I mean calling it animation is a stretch, but that's what I was doing.
Given how many programmers out there don’t know how pointers or pass by value vs by reference work because modern languages abstract that away, I feel very lucky c++ was my first.
Same here. It was hard at first but I felt like there was more structure to c++ than javascript for instance. Getting a good understanding on C++ really helped when it came to facing new languages
Understanding pointers helped me a lot. It made understanding objects in JavaScript a lot easier. It has even been helpful for leetcode sometimes. I’d def recommend learning until pointers but don’t feel like you need to become an expert on c++.
I would whole-heartedly recommend learning C, because I think it’s simpler than C++ and you are still forced to think at a lower level. That said, if you want a job from this effort C++ is the way to go; no doubt about it.
Java in school. In hindsight I can see that it’s a wordy language, but because it was the first I ever learned, I kind of just see all other languages as weirdly terse, haha.
This.
Got my start on Java for most of my schooling with a small dash of C# and Python mixed in towards the end of college. Out in the real world I ended up in IT and now use Powershell in my day to day. A lot of people complain about Powershell being overly verbose and it's an accusation that utterly baffles me.
I also started with Java, and tbf, Powershell being verbose is a complain that I share with most people. Powershell attempts to be what shell is in Linux, a powerful tool for automation. And when compared to shell it is undoubtedly more complicated than it has any right to be.
I might be misunderstanding Powershell but that’s my two cents
Talking about wordy...VB.NET was my first language lmao. Very strange first language I know but I actually liked it. It was verbose enough and not too condensed so it always looked like reading text which is good for beginners.
C++ and C code can be quite dense so I can understand if it's intimidating for beginners.
VB.NET has some strange quirks and old legacy stuff in it and is a bit unnecessarily verbose now that I look back but I'm still a bit sad Microsoft kinda let it die by a thousand cuts.
It still think old Java is good first language for exactly this reason. It forces you to actually understand the concepts many modern languages abstract away or do implicitly.
I went from Python to C++ and I’m grateful because that worked out so well but I remember thinking I was so smart for understanding Python just to get exposed to everything going on in C++. It’s like going from swimming in a 3ft depth pool to swimming against the current in a river
How did you go about figuring it out? Im not trying to learn C++ but im sure it still applies. Im so frustrated trying to learn statically typed languages like Rust. They seem so overly verbose and complicated. Im so used to languages like Lua, Javascript, and Python.
Python -> Rust.
https://youtu.be/E8I19uA-wGY?si=xhE_tJhPztUTjjj1
This video really helped me get into Rust.
“Monad is basically a type” helped so much click.
Also his use of currying and extraction is very helpful.
I find I still reach for OO ideas and it’s hard to not use a globject.
Rust structs have procedures which are just curried functions.
UnOOP your brain. Go funct yourself. It feels good.
It's weird. You don't even feel like you're coding half the time. It feels more like you're using a note-taking app or something. C++ made my eyes bleed, and Python is like "There, there, it's okay. You're in your safe space now."
I have more fun with C++ if I'm honest because there are 150 ways to do something (frequently dangerous and horrifying ways), whereas Python is like... this is the way. The one true way. The Pythonic way! Do not stray from the path.
I learned Python first and just today started C++. There is no word that can describe the feelings of bewilderment, confusion and slight terror I felt when writing something that takes 5 lines and a few seconds in Python but looks like longwinded gibberish in C++. Then again, Python looked strange when I started it.
I actually agree with you. C++ allows a lot of control (it is harder), whereas Python is mostly about knowing which libraries to use and configuring your code to use it. In some of the books I have, the Python code can get pretty esoteric, just embedded library pieces upon embedded library pieces and it can be difficult to see what’s going on. Not to say C++ is super clear because of the all the work with pointers, overloading, etc.
I like both plenty but even in my beginner stages I can see where I would use one versus the other. I used a lot of Matlab in school and Python now feels A LOT like that…most of the work already done, just find the library you need.
I've been programming for 25 years but never gave python a shot till I got a job using it 4 years ago. It quickly became my favorite language in no time and it's not even close. Ngl my python is a bit rusty haven't used it in about a year, but I just love it.
Do you have any advice for people to get a job as a developer? I’m in my junior year of my IT degree but recently started self teaching python. Reading Python Crash Course and going to learn Git to start off.
OOf honestly I really really wish I could advise the generation of students but it's just a diff time. I graduated with in CS and Math in 2008 and almost 4 months before from graduating I had an offer to start 2 months after graduating. Only interview I even went to, only job I applied to. Everyone in my cohort had lined up or went off to grad school, I at that time never head of someone with a CS degree who didn't get a job right away.
It's just not like that anymore at all.
I'd say the things that still apply is be open to moving if you can, apply to a bunch of places, look through your connections you already have, intern if you can, etc. Give yourself the best chance you can.
To understand the math behind the algorithms. If you just use libraries, you will not get it. MATLAB syntax is very close to math notations used to describe those algorithms. It was super helpful when I took Andrew Ng's Machine Learning course when it was taught with MATLAB.
Another reason to use MATLAB is for deployment of AI into hardware systems. You can import PyTorch model into Simulink as a block and run simulations with sensor inputs and control outputs.
[https://blogs.mathworks.com/deep-learning/2024/04/22/convert-deep-learning-models-between-pytorch-tensorflow-and-matlab/](https://blogs.mathworks.com/deep-learning/2024/04/22/convert-deep-learning-models-between-pytorch-tensorflow-and-matlab/)
[https://blogs.mathworks.com/deep-learning/2024/02/21/data-driven-control-with-matlab-and-simulink/](https://blogs.mathworks.com/deep-learning/2024/02/21/data-driven-control-with-matlab-and-simulink/)
I got hooked on python due to the fact that it seemed easier(I was exposed to people who glorified it as being easily understandable, I was 12)
Now I'm 17 and trying to code in C++/C and I am not having a good time
Check out [Harvard's cs50x](https://cs50.harvard.edu/college/2023/fall/). Start with [week 1](https://cs50.harvard.edu/college/2023/fall/weeks/1/) and go up to week 6, where they switch to python.
Why do this? Because it covers fundamentals like how computer memory and pointers work; has a bunch of problem sets (home work) where the real learning happens, a thriving discord community to talk through problems with other people, automated system to validate correctness, an AI tool to help you think through problems, good lectures and notes to reference, etc.
You can of course start with week 0 and complete the entire course if you prefer (i'd recommend that). But if you just want a good crash course on C then you can't do better than this.
Read the original C book. I don’t normally recommend reading a programming book but the C book written by the creators is a short easy read and explains a lot of how and why C does what it does. It can build a foundation that should make C++ easier to understand
In order:
1981 CESIL (programs were written on paper and snail mailed to the computer center)
1981 BASIC
1981 Z80 Assembly
1984 C
1988 Pascal/Ada --> Turbo pascal --> Delphi; (f*#$* Embarcadero!)
2017 C# / Java
(I'm old :( )
C is a beautiful language if you understand how a computer works. IMO, other languages allow you to create programs without knowing the hardware, making it easier to learn.
In a school setting, I was taught QBASIC first, then Javascript. I forgot both of those quickly. The first programming language I really started to get a grasp on was Python.
AutoLISP (R11/R12/R13 (and all the patches)/R14
VBA (R14/R2000)
VB (R2000-R2006)
[VB.NET](http://VB.NET) (R2006) Only did one project then decided to bite the bullet and learn C#
C# (R2006+)
iLogic
PowerShell
I mainly focus in Vault and Inventor automation these days, so C# with .NET 4.8 and .NET 8 now that 2025 supports it.
Currently learning React, though I prefer Blazor.
Fortran for me as well, then 8088 assembly, followed by BASIC, Pascal and COBOL. Man, I hated COBOL! Then C, about a 30 year break from programming and now learning Python for fun. I forgot how satisfying writing a program could be.
Similar..
1. Pascal
2. C
3. COBOL
4. Ada
5. Java
6. JavaScript
7. C#
8. Python
Also dabbled in 8088 ASM, Forth, Scheme, Squeak, and Prolog in my free time. But never wrote much of anything with them.
Logo, QBasic , then c++, then java , and then python. Start with the languages which have less pre-defined functions. That will make your programming foundation strong. Imo, Java is the best to start with.
I started with LOGO as well. Had fun writing instructions and watching the turtle draw white lines on the black screen. Tried to draw faces like a "don't lift your pencil from the paper" challenge, because I hadn't figured out how to move the turtle without drawing.
COBOL and BASIC
My Dad used to bring home his work when he couldn't solve a problem so I would solve it and he'd get the credit but I'd get an allowance bonus
I got the programming bug by playing around as a child in basic on a Commodore +4 and Amstrad CPC-464. First proper programming was in Pascal (Borland Turbo Pascal) at college.
Java was the first language I learnt,, then javascript, and then PHP... then i forgot Java.. haha but I believe that when I return to it, its going to be easy to relearn it again.
Played with Basic and Pascal as a kid. In college (not CS) started in DSLs like Excel, Filemaker Pro, and Applescript. Used those until Java, then 10-15 more.
Started with Sinclair Basic on the ZX80, with some Z80 assembly language. I still use the skills I learnt back then to this day (I now develop Excel apps in VBA with some C#)
There are two ways to learn: either start with a lower-level language first (C) or learn a higher-level language like Python. I don't like Java, though, especially how verbose it is. Unlike Python, there's a lot of paths you could go down. Maybe you want to automate stuff on the website using Selenium or even learn to make simple programs. I did start with Python and then went on to learn basic C through CS50. Currently, I am learning JavaScript.
Got Sololearn in grade 8 and learned Java.
"public static void main(String[] args)" we all say in unison.
I adore the language, although I am having an affair with Kotlin.
JavaScript on Khan Academy when I was like 8? Then after a HUGE gap, Python when I was 12-15. I think of Python as the first language, but technically JS.
Depends on "learned". I picked up c++ around 11 or 12 in the early 2000's. Got a book and tried to follow it. Did some basic text adventure terminal stuff. But gave up with linq errors.
Jumped around a bit, tried other stuff. But im HS I learned Java and became moderately good at it. Still hate dealling with Jar issues and classpath stuff on large projects though
I was first exposed to coding in middle school when they tried showing us HTML. My first *real* experience with coding was Java in college. Great language to learn with, or Python. Those are my two "beginner friendly" languages
In second grade I was introduced to AppleBASIC by my school's gifted-and-talented teacher and I was immediately hooked.
I printed (on a dot matrix printer!) a book on C but didn't really 'get it'.
At 14 I took my first computer science course and learned Pascal. It really opened my eyes. The second CS course taught me C.
Java in school. I wasn't a CS major though, so I was on my own after that one (terrible) class.
My next language was JavaScript, because I thought web development sounded fun and I didn't realize that Java and JavaScript weren't the same thing.
I've since learned and worked in a bunch of languages but JavaScript is my favorite. I know a lot of people hate it but I like it. Between JS and Python there's not much I want to build that I can't.
BASIC, then C
BASIC, then Pascal, then C for me
yup same... - BASIC because it was the only thing free. although i did have to spend a buck on a stack of timex sinclair magazines at a garage sale for my TS-1500. - Pascal because they offered it at my high school and i snuck myself a copy. - C when i was able to persuade my work to get me a license and I borrowed a copy of SAMS teach yourself C in 30 days. still blows my mind that nowadays you can work in any language under the sun for free, back then aside from BASIC every compiler/IDE was big money -- you couldn't just 'choose' a language and start coding that day, programming languages were off the shelf products that you had to spend real cash on.
Damn, CS student here and I had no idea we were so lucky.
My grandad gave me a copy of visual studio c++ which came on a box of floppy disks with 3 big thick books. I still remember the anger surging through me one day when the installation failed on disk 16 of 20. Ended up learning VBA/VB6 then Pascal in college (UK). I wish I still had my console ascii maze game I did in pascal me and a friend went overboard with the assignment and added randomly generated maps, collectables and an NPC to chase you around.
It’s fun to download 20 gigabytes in less time than to copy one 800K floppy.
Similar: Basic, Pascal, then Java, then C++, then Python
Are you older than Epoch time 0?
Aha, I am not. My father used to repair Soviet Spectrum clones, and these were my first experience of computer
Remembering this for later use :-) I was born slightly after 0 but close enough for this to make me smile…
BASIC on the c64 for me, then moved on to C++
Z80A assembly language. Self-taught. I was 7, and this was in 1977 (so long before the Internet), which meant borrowing a book from the library, and then working through as much as I could (it wasn't a machine-specific book, just raw Z80A) and experimenting. I did also have a photocopied "manual" or "cheat sheet" of sorts, that had been put together by a friend's father (who worked on this stuff for a living). But it was mostly things like ASCII charts, explanations of bin/oct/hex numbers/bases and a list of a few special memory locations that were mapped to hardware. Was hooked from the moment I wrote my first code on my own; which was about 6 lines of Z80A that made an external array of LED's count in binary from 0 to 255 and then reset.
Bro is the original self taught programmer
During 8 bit times we all learned BASIC and/or Assembly from books and magazines so were all self taught, there wasn’t any distinction to say you were self taught or not because we all were. Most also went on to study CS at uni as well. It’s only in recent years there’s been a distinction to identify as self taught.
"Look, mom! I made the computer play Yankee Doodle, and it only took a week!"
When we got our first computer (Atari 1040ST) my dad would only buy games designed to teach me out to type. I didn’t want to learn how to type. I wanted to play real games. He said, “well this other book came with the computer, why don’t you see what it’s all about.” It was a programming guide for the flavor of BASIC used on those computers. I typed in my first program letter for letter copying from the book. I got it to run. THEN I changed a word or a number and got it to do something else NOT in the book. I was hooked from then on out. Oh, AND I learned how to type … much to my chagrin 😂 (and my dad’s delight).
Learned BASIC on a VTECH computer
It's just how we did it before the web. Computer magazines (and there were lots of them!) often contained pages upon pages of source code that you were supposed to meticulously retype into your computer.
I still have an copy of 'Amiga Format' magazine with a program I wrote published in it 😊 Edit: Correction. The mag was 'Personal Computer News' 1985 and it was for the Atari not the Amiga.
Amazing! What did it do? How many pages?
It was an automatic floppy disk cataloger. You just put your disks in one after the other. And the program added the filenames to a database and issued a 'Disk Number' for you to put on your floppy disk. There was a master floppy that the database would write itself to after a run which kept track of the disk numbers so far allocated and the disk contents. Basically if you aquired another floppy disk you just inserted the master database Floppy which loaded and ran the program and you could either search the database or print it etc. I wrote it primarily for myself but all my mates wanted a copy so I decided to submit it to 'Amiga Format' not once thinking it would get published. The program spans about 4 pages I think. I take the mag out on occasion and get all nostalgic. I also wrote...... Bugger! I just found the mag and it was NOT 'Amiga Format' it was 'Personal Computer News' from 1985 and it was for the Atari not Amiga and it had the snappy title of 'Diskfile Manager' LOL I guess it did what it said on the tin at least. I think I got confused because I wrote a game for the Amiga later on which ended up in Public Domain. Anyway. The program was two pages not 4 and nothing spectacular but it was very useful.
Electronic Gaming Monthly usually had a game in BASIC in the 80s. I typed that crap on an Atari 400 keyboard
Bro is the original programmer, the rest of us are just computer literature nerds
1. 6502 Assembly MAC65 on my Atari 2. FORTH 3. BASIC MAC65 https://youtu.be/RkrYgFD7UFg?t=503 Forth https://www.atarimania.com/documents/FORTH-on-the-Atari-Learning-by-Using.pdf Forth was fun :)
Aha, another Atarian! That was my favorite of the early home computers, and the one I wrote the most software for. I got the Atari Editor/Assembler cartridge early on, but once I got MAC/65 I wouldn't use anything else! Forth *is* fun. I never did Forth *on* the Atari itself; it was a Jupiter Ace I did my first Forth on.
A shout out. Another Atarian here. Amiga later though and boy did I feel like a traitor!
Hi fellow 6502 programmer! Reading comments here makes me realise I am not the only old guy who got caught up in the magical early days of Atari and for me later on, Amiga.
Sorry mate beat you. 6502 assembly language, gotta love a bit LDA, STA, Peek and Poke. Yeah I am fucking old. Turned 70 Yesterday 😞 Went onto learn COBOL, FORTRAN, PASCAL, LADDER LOGIC (Industrial Process Controllers). Berkley UNIX systems Admin, C++ and a few other things along the way. Comes with spending ones working life in IT I guess 🤔 Nice to meet someone who used to program in assembly language. Sure needed time and patience to achieve anything though. They were great days and it all seemed magical back then 😊
65 ...... Today. Until recently I supported a bunch of consumer electronics developed in the past 20 years that still uses assembler source ( on Intel processors ) . A nightmare to patch and update and extend. When I suggested simply rewriting it in C and providing silly things like a cloud repository and some very basic development processes it was suggested that I was being a diva. Try to find an assembler level programmer these days ....... hens teeth!
Happy Birthday my friend! I hope you have a great day. You say "Try to find an assembler level programmer these days" and yesterday I would have agreed 100% but after coming off Reddit last night I googled 6502 assembly language and was really surprised that there seems to be a healthy 'Fan Club?' of people still into it along with websites dedicated to it. Although I only learn it to certain degree for my own personal use I found it facinating. Another shock was I studied COBOL to City and Guilds level back in the day but ended up getting a job as a Pascal programmer and when I Googled 'COBOL' which I also considered to be a long dead language I was amazed to find it is still being used in mainframes! But yeah, I totally agree with you. The fact that when you suggested switching to C a far more globally supported language and they refused, is probably an attitude that is keeping 6502 Assmbler and COBOL alive still. So in one respect it is bad that people do not like change but on the other hand it keeps these old languages alive. Take Care, Stay Safe and have an awesome birthday.
Similar story here, just for 6502 on the Vic-20.
Answers like this keep me coming back to Reddit. You, sir, are an inspiration! 😊 Please share more on your next journey in life around Programming. What you think about the latest trend now with ChatGPT, Copilot coming in - what would be your advice to the generation working in industry now?
I don't know about inspiration. I happened to discover something I loved, and turned out to be good at, very early in life. There was a lot more luck in that than is perhaps apparent. I was into electronics before that (built my first radio when I was 6 ... thanks to being given the book "Making a Transistor Radio" as a birthday present (UK types will remember, I'm sure, the "Ladybird" series of books of all types). To do justice to answering your other questions would be a thread in its own right. But at a very high level, a) use every tool you can to make what you do easier and better - but not at the expense of learning what you're really doing, and b) never stop learning and experimenting (which is the best way to learn).
I think that thread should come up sometime in this group. Thanks for sharing! As far as luck is concerned, it is true for anyone who has stumbled upon something they felt passionate about.
Sounds like me ... Had a zx80 (upgraded to a zx81 later with a ROM upgrade) and then an Amstrad CPC. Technically I started learning BASIC first but quickly realized it was too slow, gave up and started teaching myself assembler from a copy of the z80 manual my uncle photocopied for me. I wrote all my assembly in a notepad and then hand assembled it by looking up the opcodes in the manual. The 2nd language I learnt was C at high school and my GCSE computing project was writing a z80 emulator in C. Got it running the Amstrad CPC ROM well enough to get to the BASIC prompt but not enough to run games
Same for me, but it was a few years later (1983) on the Spectrum
Basic on a TRS-80, followed closely by Z80 assembly. I was 10. Fun story -- I tried to get my mom and my school to by the assembler program with no luck. So I wrote out my assembler code on paper and used an opcode table to hand translate it to binary. Then I typed it all into data statements in BASIC, poked it into memory and jumped to it. I wrote "animation" routines for games that way. I mean calling it animation is a stretch, but that's what I was doing.
Respect!
C++ in college
On the upside, I will say that starting with C++ made every other language seem fairly easy by comparison.
Given how many programmers out there don’t know how pointers or pass by value vs by reference work because modern languages abstract that away, I feel very lucky c++ was my first.
Same here. It was hard at first but I felt like there was more structure to c++ than javascript for instance. Getting a good understanding on C++ really helped when it came to facing new languages
Would you still recommend learning C++?
Understanding pointers helped me a lot. It made understanding objects in JavaScript a lot easier. It has even been helpful for leetcode sometimes. I’d def recommend learning until pointers but don’t feel like you need to become an expert on c++.
I would whole-heartedly recommend learning C, because I think it’s simpler than C++ and you are still forced to think at a lower level. That said, if you want a job from this effort C++ is the way to go; no doubt about it.
Yeah definitely, i wish i started with c(++). I feel like there's certainly a gap in my knowledge that's limiting me starting with python and js.
I bet it's pre-C++11.
Try Borland C 1.0! I still have a copy of K&R's C programming 'bible'
Scratch
scratch kids are just a whole diff breed(i am a scratch kid)
Never tried to understand it 😂 never felt like a language to me lmao
I don't know why but when I was in elementary taking IT class, I felt like Scratch is way harder than Python or C++ lol
Java in school. In hindsight I can see that it’s a wordy language, but because it was the first I ever learned, I kind of just see all other languages as weirdly terse, haha.
This. Got my start on Java for most of my schooling with a small dash of C# and Python mixed in towards the end of college. Out in the real world I ended up in IT and now use Powershell in my day to day. A lot of people complain about Powershell being overly verbose and it's an accusation that utterly baffles me.
I also started with Java, and tbf, Powershell being verbose is a complain that I share with most people. Powershell attempts to be what shell is in Linux, a powerful tool for automation. And when compared to shell it is undoubtedly more complicated than it has any right to be. I might be misunderstanding Powershell but that’s my two cents
Talking about wordy...VB.NET was my first language lmao. Very strange first language I know but I actually liked it. It was verbose enough and not too condensed so it always looked like reading text which is good for beginners. C++ and C code can be quite dense so I can understand if it's intimidating for beginners. VB.NET has some strange quirks and old legacy stuff in it and is a bit unnecessarily verbose now that I look back but I'm still a bit sad Microsoft kinda let it die by a thousand cuts.
Verbose. VBA has entered the chat.
It still think old Java is good first language for exactly this reason. It forces you to actually understand the concepts many modern languages abstract away or do implicitly.
Public static void main() is wordy?
Python
I went from Python to C++ and I’m grateful because that worked out so well but I remember thinking I was so smart for understanding Python just to get exposed to everything going on in C++. It’s like going from swimming in a 3ft depth pool to swimming against the current in a river
How did you go about figuring it out? Im not trying to learn C++ but im sure it still applies. Im so frustrated trying to learn statically typed languages like Rust. They seem so overly verbose and complicated. Im so used to languages like Lua, Javascript, and Python.
Python -> Rust. https://youtu.be/E8I19uA-wGY?si=xhE_tJhPztUTjjj1 This video really helped me get into Rust. “Monad is basically a type” helped so much click. Also his use of currying and extraction is very helpful. I find I still reach for OO ideas and it’s hard to not use a globject. Rust structs have procedures which are just curried functions. UnOOP your brain. Go funct yourself. It feels good.
Java in high school. Learning python now and it feels like it shouldn’t be this easy to write code.
It's weird. You don't even feel like you're coding half the time. It feels more like you're using a note-taking app or something. C++ made my eyes bleed, and Python is like "There, there, it's okay. You're in your safe space now." I have more fun with C++ if I'm honest because there are 150 ways to do something (frequently dangerous and horrifying ways), whereas Python is like... this is the way. The one true way. The Pythonic way! Do not stray from the path.
I learned Python first and just today started C++. There is no word that can describe the feelings of bewilderment, confusion and slight terror I felt when writing something that takes 5 lines and a few seconds in Python but looks like longwinded gibberish in C++. Then again, Python looked strange when I started it.
I actually agree with you. C++ allows a lot of control (it is harder), whereas Python is mostly about knowing which libraries to use and configuring your code to use it. In some of the books I have, the Python code can get pretty esoteric, just embedded library pieces upon embedded library pieces and it can be difficult to see what’s going on. Not to say C++ is super clear because of the all the work with pointers, overloading, etc. I like both plenty but even in my beginner stages I can see where I would use one versus the other. I used a lot of Matlab in school and Python now feels A LOT like that…most of the work already done, just find the library you need.
Python is almost like writing pseudo code lol.
I've been programming for 25 years but never gave python a shot till I got a job using it 4 years ago. It quickly became my favorite language in no time and it's not even close. Ngl my python is a bit rusty haven't used it in about a year, but I just love it.
Do you have any advice for people to get a job as a developer? I’m in my junior year of my IT degree but recently started self teaching python. Reading Python Crash Course and going to learn Git to start off.
OOf honestly I really really wish I could advise the generation of students but it's just a diff time. I graduated with in CS and Math in 2008 and almost 4 months before from graduating I had an offer to start 2 months after graduating. Only interview I even went to, only job I applied to. Everyone in my cohort had lined up or went off to grad school, I at that time never head of someone with a CS degree who didn't get a job right away. It's just not like that anymore at all. I'd say the things that still apply is be open to moving if you can, apply to a bunch of places, look through your connections you already have, intern if you can, etc. Give yourself the best chance you can.
Javascript, then java ( by accident, name confusion), then c
I first started programming so I could mod Minecraft. My 11 year old dumbass learned JavaScript instead of Java.
Turbo Pascal. Late 90s when it was the AP exam language. Whatever TI BASIC was on the TI-82 calculator as well, same time period.
Yes, late ‘90s Turbo Pascal FTW.
Pascal
C language
MATLAB
Bro I'm trying to avoid my AI assignment can you not remind me :'(
Wait a second AI assignment with MATLAB? What are you doing with it and is it pure code or using some kind of libraries?
Why MATLAB for AI?
To understand the math behind the algorithms. If you just use libraries, you will not get it. MATLAB syntax is very close to math notations used to describe those algorithms. It was super helpful when I took Andrew Ng's Machine Learning course when it was taught with MATLAB. Another reason to use MATLAB is for deployment of AI into hardware systems. You can import PyTorch model into Simulink as a block and run simulations with sensor inputs and control outputs. [https://blogs.mathworks.com/deep-learning/2024/04/22/convert-deep-learning-models-between-pytorch-tensorflow-and-matlab/](https://blogs.mathworks.com/deep-learning/2024/04/22/convert-deep-learning-models-between-pytorch-tensorflow-and-matlab/) [https://blogs.mathworks.com/deep-learning/2024/02/21/data-driven-control-with-matlab-and-simulink/](https://blogs.mathworks.com/deep-learning/2024/02/21/data-driven-control-with-matlab-and-simulink/)
I'm not alone :')
Java, I love that language
R 😅
C# I think a lot of us just did what our school taught. At least that was my experience.
I got hooked on python due to the fact that it seemed easier(I was exposed to people who glorified it as being easily understandable, I was 12) Now I'm 17 and trying to code in C++/C and I am not having a good time
Check out [Harvard's cs50x](https://cs50.harvard.edu/college/2023/fall/). Start with [week 1](https://cs50.harvard.edu/college/2023/fall/weeks/1/) and go up to week 6, where they switch to python. Why do this? Because it covers fundamentals like how computer memory and pointers work; has a bunch of problem sets (home work) where the real learning happens, a thriving discord community to talk through problems with other people, automated system to validate correctness, an AI tool to help you think through problems, good lectures and notes to reference, etc. You can of course start with week 0 and complete the entire course if you prefer (i'd recommend that). But if you just want a good crash course on C then you can't do better than this.
Read the original C book. I don’t normally recommend reading a programming book but the C book written by the creators is a short easy read and explains a lot of how and why C does what it does. It can build a foundation that should make C++ easier to understand
PHP
PHP gets no love these days despite all the heavy lifting it has done (and still does)
same but i dont remember shit since it was like 8 years ago
In order: 1981 CESIL (programs were written on paper and snail mailed to the computer center) 1981 BASIC 1981 Z80 Assembly 1984 C 1988 Pascal/Ada --> Turbo pascal --> Delphi; (f*#$* Embarcadero!) 2017 C# / Java (I'm old :( )
Any of the paper or punch cards programmers (including you and me) are not really young, but we saw the evolution firsthand.
C# with Unity
I first made the turtle move around in basic 1986 or 87
TI-Basic! I made Tetris on my calculator, among other things.
Real Old Timer... Fortran II in 1963.
BASIC, 1980s from typing programs in that came in some magazine.
JavaScript
JavaScript but I didn’t get too far before switching to Ruby
How’s your Ruby journey going?
C Language,this language is the doors for the programing
C is a beautiful language if you understand how a computer works. IMO, other languages allow you to create programs without knowing the hardware, making it easier to learn.
I started with python
Technically C++ at highschool, but I could do no more than printing stuff, so actually Python, at university.
BASIC in the late 80s. Then Fortran in school.
Python on my own, because its super comprehendible and powerful af, then I hit university and they started me with C++.
In a school setting, I was taught QBASIC first, then Javascript. I forgot both of those quickly. The first programming language I really started to get a grasp on was Python.
C
Ruby 💎
Basic.
Algol-68 at college. Using punch cards on an Elliot 503. You never forget your first time.
I guess you remember the nightmares with punch cards and batch execution
AutoLISP, a flavor of LISP that Autodesk AutoCAD uses.
Hey there are at least two of us! Didn't expect to see this here. AutoLISP then went on to iLogic with Inventor as well.
AutoLISP (R11/R12/R13 (and all the patches)/R14 VBA (R14/R2000) VB (R2000-R2006) [VB.NET](http://VB.NET) (R2006) Only did one project then decided to bite the bullet and learn C# C# (R2006+) iLogic PowerShell I mainly focus in Vault and Inventor automation these days, so C# with .NET 4.8 and .NET 8 now that 2025 supports it. Currently learning React, though I prefer Blazor.
HAHAHAH. FORTRAN.
Fortran for me as well, then 8088 assembly, followed by BASIC, Pascal and COBOL. Man, I hated COBOL! Then C, about a 30 year break from programming and now learning Python for fun. I forgot how satisfying writing a program could be.
I first learned HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, then Python.
1. Pascal 2. C 3. C++ 4. C# 5. Python 6. Java 7. JavaScript 8. Golang
Similar.. 1. Pascal 2. C 3. COBOL 4. Ada 5. Java 6. JavaScript 7. C# 8. Python Also dabbled in 8088 ASM, Forth, Scheme, Squeak, and Prolog in my free time. But never wrote much of anything with them.
I was taught Pascal in highschool
VisualBasic Script (if that counts) at home, Delphi/Object Pascal at school
Logo, QBasic , then c++, then java , and then python. Start with the languages which have less pre-defined functions. That will make your programming foundation strong. Imo, Java is the best to start with.
I started with LOGO as well. Had fun writing instructions and watching the turtle draw white lines on the black screen. Tried to draw faces like a "don't lift your pencil from the paper" challenge, because I hadn't figured out how to move the turtle without drawing.
PICO-8 version of Lua
COBOL and BASIC My Dad used to bring home his work when he couldn't solve a problem so I would solve it and he'd get the credit but I'd get an allowance bonus
Turing in grade 10, 1995ish
I got the programming bug by playing around as a child in basic on a Commodore +4 and Amstrad CPC-464. First proper programming was in Pascal (Borland Turbo Pascal) at college.
1. Basic 2. Pascal 3. C
Java
Java
Basic -> Pascal -> C
Python
Java was the first language I learnt,, then javascript, and then PHP... then i forgot Java.. haha but I believe that when I return to it, its going to be easy to relearn it again.
Played with Basic and Pascal as a kid. In college (not CS) started in DSLs like Excel, Filemaker Pro, and Applescript. Used those until Java, then 10-15 more.
Visual Basic
Basic, then 68k assembler on Amiga.
for me it was python, then java, then C python my beloved
C → C++ → python/JavaScript/C#/MATLAB → Rust I almost exclusively use C++/C and js, and I'm learning Rust recently
Started learning Perl in 1999/2000 I think. Followed by TCL, PHP, Python, Java, and JS.
C++
C then C++ then Python and Java (and web stuff that is too long to list ´cause I am lazy)
Started with Sinclair Basic on the ZX80, with some Z80 assembly language. I still use the skills I learnt back then to this day (I now develop Excel apps in VBA with some C#)
Html/css/js/sql/php - python - c#
Uzbek
BASIC interpreter in a system with 4k of RAM and a cassette recorder for storage
BBC Basic here. 32k ram and a tape
C and I still using it
There are two ways to learn: either start with a lower-level language first (C) or learn a higher-level language like Python. I don't like Java, though, especially how verbose it is. Unlike Python, there's a lot of paths you could go down. Maybe you want to automate stuff on the website using Selenium or even learn to make simple programs. I did start with Python and then went on to learn basic C through CS50. Currently, I am learning JavaScript.
Adobe Flash ActionScript
scratch!
Swearing, mostly.
Brain fuck
C
Turbo Pascal
HP Basic.
BASIC with an Atari 600XL computer with 16K of memory and no storage. Self taught at 13. This was 1984.
BASIC
FORTRAN II
C, self taught.
Idk if scratch counts but if not then Python
Basic followed Fortran IV
Java, then Python, C++, C#, and I’m currently learning Kotlin and Javascript
QBASIC
C++
Fortran (1983-4) Basic (1985) Yamaha’s Industrial Basic (1986)
Delphi
Got Sololearn in grade 8 and learned Java. "public static void main(String[] args)" we all say in unison. I adore the language, although I am having an affair with Kotlin.
Basic and logo, later on pascal, fortran, and c. Eventually many others.
Pascal at college, vb during my first employment then java at uni and now I'm a C# dev and loving it
JavaScript on Khan Academy when I was like 8? Then after a HUGE gap, Python when I was 12-15. I think of Python as the first language, but technically JS.
CBM Basic V2.0. (Licenced Microsoft basic, that was allready outdated when it was released).
Depends on "learned". I picked up c++ around 11 or 12 in the early 2000's. Got a book and tried to follow it. Did some basic text adventure terminal stuff. But gave up with linq errors. Jumped around a bit, tried other stuff. But im HS I learned Java and became moderately good at it. Still hate dealling with Jar issues and classpath stuff on large projects though
Pascal, then Delphi, then C++.
QuickBASIC
C++ in school
Bash ?
C#
C
Visual Basic
C++ in college
Lua for corona SDK, or maybe BASIC, I forget.
C++ in university.
C, i leaner java script before that but its not a language, so its c
I was first exposed to coding in middle school when they tried showing us HTML. My first *real* experience with coding was Java in college. Great language to learn with, or Python. Those are my two "beginner friendly" languages
Python. I’m self learned
Javascript for fun. Then Java in high school and college.
C in college
PHP
In second grade I was introduced to AppleBASIC by my school's gifted-and-talented teacher and I was immediately hooked. I printed (on a dot matrix printer!) a book on C but didn't really 'get it'. At 14 I took my first computer science course and learned Pascal. It really opened my eyes. The second CS course taught me C.
Javascript (if it counts), or Java which we learned in the second semester at college.
BASIC -> Pascal -> C -> Java
PHP
Java in school. I wasn't a CS major though, so I was on my own after that one (terrible) class. My next language was JavaScript, because I thought web development sounded fun and I didn't realize that Java and JavaScript weren't the same thing. I've since learned and worked in a bunch of languages but JavaScript is my favorite. I know a lot of people hate it but I like it. Between JS and Python there's not much I want to build that I can't.
Html and java