My first taste of programming was in 1972 when I was 14. Our headmaster at school asked if anyone was interested in programming computers. A bit weird as there wasn’t a single computer at school, not even for admin.
We’d write Fortran programs, then we’d get taken a local university where they were compiled on cards (Do not fold, spindle or mutilate) and run. While that was happening we’d pick up the previous week’s output.
Lare on, I bought my own computer that came with Locomotive Basic. From that I tuaght myself QBasic, Pascal and little bit of ASM.
Later still I became a professional programmer playing with databases, so then learned C, something called PReS, FoxPro, SQL…
My first programming language was Processing, a Java-based programming language and framework for computer education and making interactive sketches. I learned it at summer camp; I made a dice roller and a half-finished space game. I didn’t get a formal introduction to real Java until I took an algorithms class in college, and I haven’t used it since then.
I was going to program all my Genuary 2024 prompts in Processing. However, I instead used p5.js, a Processing implementation in JavaScript, so that I could upload the results to my site.
Like Loren, I’m also a researcher, but in a different field – I use Python and its assorted scientific computing libraries for research and C/C++ for lower-level and embedded systems programming. I also get to use SystemVerilog and VHDL for hardware development, but those don’t really count because they’re hardware description languages and not programming languages.
I L-O-V-E Processing & p5js. I teach it to my High School students at the same time they’re learning Java (for this course). Learning 2 programming languages at once + a good chunk of computer graphics stuff on top, does make my classes a bit more of an uphill battle. But it’s worthwhile, in my opinion. Maybe too much to ask of a freshman educator though.
Java & Javascript are frequently a lot of my High Schoolers first formal programming language(s) (not counting visual, maybe block-based stuff, like Scratch, which they’re likely exposed to early-on nowadays).
But the more common 1st language that I teach Middle Schoolers is similar to Processing! It’s actually a graphics-based Python curriculum by Carnegie-Mellon University: CMU CS Academy. It’s awesome in the same way Processing is, but a lot easier to ask of freshman educators teaching programming for the first time. I really think graphics-based programming is the way to go for newbies. Fun, engaging, creative and educational!
First time coding was probably technically with javascript messing around with making a web page, but the first time I actually learned to code and understood it was after reading a Byte of Python and then diving balls deep into PyGame so I could try to clone this game Darkest Days.
I remember trying to code the bullets, and my initial approach being “so, I’ll move the bullet a bit more toward the mouse and then render and repeat until the bullet hits something” and then wondering how come I had to wait for the bullet’s while-loop-based movement to finish before I could interact with the game again :D
Felt nostalgic after this thread so here’s a video of what like half a year of learning and struggling was able to accomplish (loud arcade noise warning) 25MB:
I started with Python making visual novels in Ren’py. I almost forgot and said C# or JavaScript. The first public thing I ever made was a visual novel called Devil’s Food. It’s from high school so don’t judge it too harshly. I still love Ren’py, but I find myself using JavaScript more in my daily life due to the classes I’m taking and my web development focus.
in high school i signed up for programming 1 & 2, and it was a primer for java - or at least that’s what was advertised.
what actually went down was that we covered a few basic coding principles using java, wrote up “hello world” and maybe got through loops. then the teacher plopped down some Flash Animation textbooks and was like “alright, learn this, submit a current events news article ones a week, and you get an A.” so mostly i watched my friends play amnesia: the dark descent, lol.
college was also java, then python. i floated into javascript via p5.js on my own, then tinkered with freecodecamp and so on. now i’m here!
i don’t use java much anymore except if i’m working with processing, which i do now and again for physical computing projects. python has my heart, though.
The first language was Quick BASIC, I liked that you could immediately save your program in an exe. For me, DOS is a wonderful operating system, and I think that it is quite viable
JavaScript. I started to learn and use JavaScript after building my own website. My interest in programming has grown enough to the extent I started taking front-end development courses.
Technically, the first programming language I had dabbled in was NWScript, a scripting language based on C and used for the video games Neverwinter Nights and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, since I got into modding, including creating mods for KotOR before building my website, but I did not actually learn or understand programming concepts (such as variables, data types, etc.) until I started to learn JavaScript, so I don’t count NWScript as my first programming language.
I usually tend to forget that before really getting into coding when i first built my website, i used python when making visual novels on ren.py. I have since forgotten a most of it but im thinking on learning python again
My first experience with programming was when I was, IDK, 6 years old or something? My parents got a TRS-80 that plugged into the TV. We didn’t have a tape drive for it, so all two actual games we had were written on paper and mom had to type them in when sibling and I wanted to play. So, playing was often as not the same thing as programming. At 6-ish years old,
10 print hello
20 goto 10
was the height of humor… LOL
But I did dig into my mom’s textbook and learn to do more than that. She was taking a course at the college to learn how to program in BASIC.
Then another computer that had gwbasic, and I can’t remember anymore which computer upgrade lost the BASIC interface.
TurboPascal in high school, C++ in first year university, then Perl on my own, starting in 2000. I did a lot with Perl over the years. We will not talk about Visual Basic.
Now I’m poking at javascript and seeing what I can learn.
The first compiled language I learned was Liberty BASIC. I found a book for it at my local bookstore and was hooked. I was probably around 11 and had only dabbled with basic scripting languages and markup before, namely HTML and Javascript.
My first language in terms of programming was actually JavaScript. I guess I didn’t think I wanted to try it so much as I just wanted to get into learning to program stuff. Probably the most typical answer for a newcomer.
This was prior to starting the college classes for technology so I was stuck with using mobile apps. First one had been Grasshopper. Then I tried some others but didn’t do a good job of remaining active there. Projects I’ve not gotten around to because… I really haven’t done much with it to consider replying to this post.
10 PRINT “Hello World!”
not the second line. i was instructed not to waste resources.
I had this I thought it was an IBM but I can’t find a picture of it. It was a laptop built into a plastic box that looked like a briefcase, but it’s not the briefcase one I found on search.
I almost failed out of college in 1997 because I got so into programming websites with HTML on eMacs and other ways. I had a Geocities that I still can’t find. Anyone remember go.com when it was part of ABC and offered hosting?
Learned C++ in one school and passed. Learned Java at another school and passed. Learned Python at IUB and was getting a minor in programming majoring in Informatics. INFO-I101 I helped some kids with their websites because I blew right through that part. Lifelong learner.
Haven’t been on a computer very much since then, especially not for programming. Mostly games and downloading graphics/trying to archive but HostGator.com dumped me and all of my data because I forgot to pay them one month. Did get into CSS when that got popular.
Excited to learn all of this crazy stuff y’all are talking about on here and try to help keep the small web going in some small way.
My first real memory of coding was learning it off KhanAcademy. I think then it would technically be JS as my first language, since that was the first category.
Actual first language: LOGO in elementary school. Yep, the turtle.
Almost first “real” language: Level 1 BASIC on the TRS-80. My dad had one at work and I didn’t get much time to play with it.
First “real” language: C++ in High School for AP Computer Science.
First “web” language: Not counting HTML, even though it’s a language, PHP. I still remember spending a day at Barnes & Noble just sifting through a book until I had enough to get going. I eventually circled back to Perl, but that was never driven by utility—I just have a lot of love and appreciation for regular expressions.
I put “other” because my first programming language was Liberty Basic. My dad had that on his computer when I was a kid (in the 2000’s) and I remember him showing me how to make super basic text games with print and input and if/then statements.
After that, though, I got more into Scratch and Python!
