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Comment by mentos | Hacker News Reader

For me it was "Visual Basic Professional 3.0 Programming by Thomas W. Torgerson" from Barnes and Nobles in 1997. I had downloaded Visual Basic 3.0 from 100 different email attachments on AOL and wanted to learn how to make punters/progs.

I remember transcribing code from the book to attempt to play a sound file when my program opened. I remember being stunned when it actually worked!

What an honor it has been to make a career in software development since.

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Haha yes, similar for me. It was word scramblers as games in AOL chat rooms that lead me to my love of programming... and of course Visual Basic 3.0. What an amazing product back then.

Bro you and I had the same origin story. Remember Rampage Toolz!?? I ended up learning a lot from that author. Winsock.

For me my first programmed action was adding a button to a form, coloring it yellow, and having it exit program. I was absolutely shocked and geeked out.

Still just a hobby for me, but I have something in the works. I hope to share it with you all here soon.

Funny I was just searching youtube for any videos of VB 3.0 found this guy going through his old programs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKctfEqXVZ4

If you google image search for 'aol progz' there are pictures of FateX, AOHell, Revolution, Icy Hot, Rampage Toolz. Crazy trip down memory lane!

Apparently we're not alone: "Steve Case Confirms Zuckerberg as Former AOL Hacker": https://patorjk.com/blog/2014/04/27/steve-case-confirms-zuck...

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