Ask HN: How did you learn to code?

I learned over the past 6 months. Basically just read up on w3 schools, php.net and other online sources. Started hacking away at already built apps to extend them and eventually was facile enough to build my own from scratch. I still suck but I can definitely put together enough to get a reasonable MVP out. Will it scale? Who knows.

The toughest part for me coming from a completely non quant/non-cs/non-programming background was learning how to think like a computer. Basically, how to break problems into smaller subsets and solve them. The second toughest part was learning the rules and conventions (i.e. what CAN and CANT you do with the language youre using in the frame of the problem you're solving and eventually what IS and ISNT completely foolish in terms of memory usage/speed).

Good luck if you're on that path! I started out as a "business founder with an idea" and realized how hard it was to get anywhere with that so I learned to build my own ideas out.

I began learning how to program sometime in middle school. I had a TI-82 calculator, which was programmable via TI BASIC. It did not, however, have a data port, so all the programs had to be written on the calculator itself.

My friends all had TI-83 calculators, with data ports. They had all kinds of cool games that they shared back and forth.

I thought one of the games, SNAKEGAME, was really cool, so I figured out how to copy it to my calculator. I opened up the BASIC source code on my friend's TI-83, and manually copied the whole thing, character by character, into my TI-82.

Of course, along the way I made a few typos, and so when I first tried to run SNAKEGAME it blew up with a vague error. I went back through the program, line by line, looking for differences between my version and the original. When I finally got the game running, things were... odd. I hunted down the remaining typos, and in doing so I discovered a few things. I found out that I could just change a number in the source, and the snake would be longer. Or faster. Or he'd do crazy things.

This was basically my enlightenment. I started changing one thing after another to see what it would do, and eventually I became fairly familiar with TI BASIC. I looked at the source for other games, and eventually started making my own. At first, they were ridiculously simple, but eventually I made a couple that were slightly entertaining.

After that, in high school a friend lent me a book about C++, and I struggled through it. I wrote lots and lots of half-assed, totally crappy, unplayable games, and eventually started learning other languages and getting better.

As seems to be common, I had my first exposure to programming through BASIC, looking at programs I got from my older sister's friends or copied out of old magazines. My 7-year-old mind didn't quite grok the difference between psuedo-code and real code, though (for which I blame the BASIC language). Then LEGO started selling the RCX; finding LEGO's graphical programming environment overly constricting, I learned NQC, which lead to real C and a little bit of FORTH to program robots. That path eventually exposed to the basics of neural networks and some other basic ML systems. Then I got frustrated with not being able to make my parents' Windows desktop do cool things like my robots could, so I discovered Webmonkey (rest in peace) and taught myself JavaScript and Perl over a couple of weekends, and started writing all kinds of silly DHTML games and scientific command line calculators and file compressors / encrypters. A couple of years after that, I got on my middle school robotics team, and continued writing C code for microprocessors. Then I tested out of introductory CS in high school, passed the AP test without taking the class, and went on to Computer Architecture, Intro to AI, and Computational Physics, and serving as an assistant student administrator in the high school CS lab.

And that's probably far enough past getting started to make a good ending point.

i always loved RPGs so i tried rpg maker, than i fell in love with a small app to make RPGs for the Nokia 6630, than i started using vb to contribuite to an open source project to make MMORPGs, from that to now, when i wanted to do something i looked to online resources and i studied by myself.

1)want to do something

2)search online tutorial/examples/similar apps

3)TRY TRY TRY TRY TRY TRY TRY TRY

4)back to 1

Being a web programmer, I actually started by using the WYSIWYG editor in the old Netscape Navigator (v2.0 I think). I simply created a simple HTML page, then viewed the source code to see what it was doing. This was my freshmen year in High School.

During my junior year our math teacher decided to start a Visual Basic programming class, which I quickly jumped into that class. Then progressed to reading lotsa books, online tutorials, etc.

100% of the knowledge I use today was all self taught, but those first bits of <HTML> is all it took to get me hooked.

I also did some basic BASIC programing on my TI-82, so I could put all the random math formulas into it so I just needed to enter X and Y and it would tell me what Z was. Being that we were allowed to use the calculators on the tests :)

Being biased towards the web side of things, I think HTML5/CSS3/Javascript is a great (instant gratification) way to start learning programming.

I "started" in middle school when I discovered a little BASIC interpreter on my 68k Macintosh Performa called Chipmunk BASIC: http://www.nicholson.com/rhn/basic/

In 7th grade or so I started tinkering with Java on the same 68k mac. I believe I understood and realized the importance of OOP in 8th grade or so, which for me was the "aha" moment when I decided that this was what I wanted to do for the rest of my life.

I type this, now, as an intern at a software company, configuring Team Foundation Build for my little internal project that will go out to the devs on Tuesday. I love my job.

Stupidity. I didn't RTFM. I wanted to copy a game from one disk to another. So I printed it out (it was in AppleSoft BASIC), then started typing it back into a new file on a new disk. Around page 5 zillion (often even having my parents read the code out loud while I typed it in), I realized that all I needed to do was LOAD the program, swap disks, and SAVE it. As it turns out, reading that much BASIC was enough to give me an understanding of it. Then came Apple ][ assembly language, COBOL, and my first game (a Choplifter clone, but with a fighter jet instead) around age 12. Since then, and like many others, I've self-taught whatever I needed to know.

4 steps:

  - I learned how to draw a line
  - I learned how to turn
  - I asked the teacher how to "do things over and over" (loop)
  - I taught myself to draw a circle

That was day camp, when I was 7, learning LOGO. After that, it was learning how to load things into high memory writing elaborate menu'd boot batch scripts. Then BASIC, middle school classes with Pascal, taught myself C & C++ from books, and then classes on C++ in college.

All self-taught after that - I don't think a single employer I've had has ever paid for a proper training class of any kind.

I learned how to code when I was 12. I first learnt how to pick apart html code in the early days of the web, then grew interested in making code that would dynamically generate content. Tore through php2 and the rest is what I am.

No language after that truly felt different, besides the differences in syntax and quirks. I picked up the concept of OOP from C++ and thats the end of my story. I've never read a programming book in my life.

I started in middle school with TI-BASIC apps on my TI-85 calculator to help me in math and physics classes. Then I moved on to VB .NET a few years later when I got to university. Pretty much I did it all with scratch-my-own-itch problems as they cropped up.

It progressed as such for me (mainly due to course progression at school): TI-BASIC >> VB .Net >> C >> PHP >> C# >> Python >> Ruby

Back in the late 80's I won a free pass to a 1 semester programming course in Gw-basic, from there I thought it was super interesting and studied Computer Science at the University where I learned how to program in Pascal and some Java. After that I just bought books and learned by myself some PHP, CSS, AS3, etc.

In middle school, with library books; first something about text adventures in basic on an XT clone (wish I could find the actual title, it was in the kids' section), moving on to Turbo Pascal on a 386sx/33, probably high-school time frame at that point.

I wanted to build a text-based RPG in high school. Ended up falling in love with coding and been doing it ever since. Whenever I want to learn a new language I usually buy a book about it, get half way through, and then just do my own thing from there.

First learned in middle school (never stopped learning). Trial and error. Never taken a coding class. Tried tutorials some times but I lose interest learning that way, I prefer to learn through a project.

when i was about 8 years there was a german magazine called "ASM" (aktueller software markt) there were games and software reviews (and an awesome letter column) and ... lots and lots of basic code for simple c64 games. as i had no money for games (hey i was 8 years old) i started typing..... after i got the basic principles it was only a small step to my own programms. ( mostly games and drawing programms at that time)

i kinda miss dead tree magazines with actual working code ... maybe we should start a github magazine?

On an Apple II+, I programmed a simple game in Apple Basic when I was maybe 10 or 12 years old.