I started programming when I was 15 (I'm 17 now) and I'm quite happy about that I think. I'm happy partly because I've had the chance to explore the world of coding and tech so I can make a good choice about what I want to specialize in later.
Although I say this, I still feel there is so much more to learn and sometimes I wonder if starting out earlier would've helped. Although I should have enough time to learn all those things later in my life, I think starting out early would benefit me as you learn the most when you're young.
This got me wondering about at what age the developers in here started programming and when they wish they started programming.
Thanks for all the replies in advance!
Top comments (9)
I think everyone always wishes they started earlier to get ahead of the game, I indeed feel this even though I started from a young age.
(At 9 and 10 doing scratch, 11 web design, 12 Python and HTLML and CSS (I know I know, HTML isn't a programming language) and at 13 Lua.)
I started programming at quite a young age and am still stuck choosing what I want to specialise in at college.
This all said and done I am glad I started when I did as programming is a tough area to get into and my experience early on has certainly helped.
It indeed is a tough area to get into, I also think I am extremely lucky to have stumbled across programming as it is one of my favorite things to do. I do think I would've started earlier if I knew what programming was all about at a younger age.
So I hope programming will be promoted even more to younger people/kids in the future so they experience this world as well at a young age.
I can definitly see some positive influence from the government, at least where I live for getting kids into computer sciene at a younger age.
Though I do worry of the sudden light on programming and how it may effect jobs in the future and pay as more people flood in the market.
👍. Great to know I am not alone at this.
While i may not be quite at university yet and I went to a great upper school (high school) which really helped me progress as a developer I remember looking back at my computer science lessons at my previous school and me and my friend were the ones teaching the class as the teacher was way out of her depth and would ask us to help,
and thats in the few circumstances where we were even leaving anything of revelevence.
While govenment may be pushing education in the computer science industry, the question should be asked, are schools ready for it?
I started programming at 10. I think I was just the right age to start programming, for me. It was HP 2000A BASIC, on a Model 33 teletype, over a 110 baud acoustic coupler modem, to the TIES system (which was a HP mini computer).
I learned BASIC, then I learned 6502 assembly, then Pascal, FORTRAN, C, 68000 assembly, C++, C#. I also learned many other languages along the way, but only for fun, or experimenting, or strictly academically.
As I look to the future, I think FP languages (like OCaml, F#, Haskell, Elm) and custom DSL languages will become dominate (so tools like JetBrains MPS are way ahead of the curve).
But there will still be plenty of need for programmers who are knowledgable in the current popular languages (JavaScript, Java, C#, C, C++, et cetera) well into the future.
I like this question!!
I've started programming 3 years ago (I was 22 years old). I wish I started once I was born🙄.
I've discovered something called "coding" during my first year at Uni (2013), and it was really awful. I hated that class.
3 years later, I've started to enjoy coding because I was working on my own projects. I was passionate and motivated enough to learn more and more.
Now, I'm a telecom engineer at Ericsson (full time job). In my free time, I code, EVERY DAY. I've created and publish my own game and 2 websites.
Yes, I hate that I didn't know about coding till I was 19, enjoy it at the age of 22.
Time doesn't go back, that's why, I'm teaching all my relatives about coding and how exciting it is.
Telling their parents to teach them to code as early as possible.
My first contact with programming was at the age of 12-13 (can't remember exactly), when I inherited a Commodore 64 and started playing with Basic. But, my first serious contact with programming was studying at the age of 19.
I wish I hadn't stopped programming during those years, between 13 and 19.
I technically started programming at the age of 15 at high-school I think, though I didn't really know what I was doing until 16 when I moved on to a different CS course at college. I'm now at university and loving it, the previous programming experience has helped no end. I too look at people who started at 9 years old and wish that I had as well, but ultimately I don't think that matters, everyone has a different start and it's never too late to start learning.
In my case, I started programming in college but took the sales/customer path instead. So I wish I could've taken programming more seriously and wish I could've started early in tech.