How old were you when you really started programming. How old are you now?

Hello World =/= Programming.

If C++ were your first language, at what age did you understood functions, object oriented programming, memory management, templates, etc.

13 years old.

I started programming when I was 12(C++ was my first language and I still use it). I've done quite a lot since then but I wouldn't say I've mastered all the aspects of the language. It's probably going to take me more than 1 year in order to become advanced in the ways of C++ :P

I started at 11 with "The Games Factory", which was event-grid programming. I got the basics of logic from it and then a few years later learned C++ so I could write extensions for the software, I think when I was 14 or 15.

I started at 18 with Java in college. I'm 20 now with knowledge of html, java, c and c++...some knowledge of each language that is.

At age 12, I learnt python and then at age roughly 15/16 I started learning C++ and I understood functions, OOP, memory management and templates within about 3 months. And was able to use them in a useful program after about another 6 months.

28 -_-

I started around 14, maybe 15.

I started at 16/17. I started with Lua, then moved onto Python, then moved onto C followed by C++ and x86 assembly. I'm 21 now, going on 22.

_Wazzak

What ever happened to Albatross? I'd love to hear her story.

I started at 13 with C++ as a first language (and still the only language I can do anything useful with). After playing with C++ other things like Java just don't look so appealing.

L B wrote:
What ever happened to Albatross?

She disappeared some time ago. Maybe if we all collectively will Albatross to the forums she'll appear. :b

ive noticed you guys miss albatross before

Thumper wrote:
After playing with C++ other things like Java just don't look so appealing.

Java is a very convenient language because there are so many goodies in the standard library that you would otherwise have to hassle with C/C++ libraries to use.

L B wrote:
Java is a very convenient language

I don't doubt that. And I'll almost definitely pick it up sometime in the future out of necessity. Java's such a harassing, messy run-time, though.

I started when I was 27/28. I am now 30.

Good Luck reading this:

I started programming at 8 and now I am 17.

When I started at 8 it took me 4 months approx. to learn all the basics including Memory Management. Then from 8 I programmed Logical Programs such as Palindrome , Prime , String Reverse and such which helped me understand programming in logic much much clearly and better. Then from 9 - 10 I was learning about Theory. Then from 11 - 12 I stopped programming in console and moved on to GUI which took me quite a bit to be good at. Then from 13-14 learnt Networking/Network Security. Finally from 15 on wards I am learning about:

[+] Hooking [+] Anti-Debug \ Anti-Hack
[+] Injection [+] Exploit Finding
[+] PE

Till now I only covered\ covering:

[+] Hooking (50% Complete)
[+] Injection (50% Complete)
[+] Exploit Finding - Did this Excellently

But I still need to cover:

[+] PE [+]Anti-Debug \ Anti-Hack


Of course these personally are more harder area of Programming you must admit!

After this I am most likely going to learn C# & Objective-C

I am picking these as C# is very much used in Real Software Development Offices and it is very similar to C\C++ so I can easily grasp it then

Objective-C is a Alienated C if you want to know but it is useful in the Real-World mostly in developing Apple Mac - Iphone Applications.

Of course I will learn Java in few years or in 6 years time.

To be honest I am the person who wants to perfect any thing I concentrate on, so as a result I spend almost 6 hours programming daily. My time table:

[*] Wake up - 7:00
[*] Brush my Teeth - 7:10 - I like my teeth so I take time
[*] Eat Breakfast - 7:40
[*] Get Dressed for School - 7:50 TO 7:55

[*] Go and Wait for Bus to go school - 8:20
[*] Get on the Bus and go school - 8:40
[*] Talk to my friends before school lessons start - 9:25
[*] Lessons - 15:15

[*] Take Bus Home - 15:40
[*] Get Changed - 15:50 - 15:55
[*] Program - 20:00
[*] Eat Dinner - 20:30
[*] Program - 21:30

[*] Sleep


I know this sounds crazy but to be honest I am addicted and enjoy programming so you see.
But on some days I simply enjoy and go out for social gathering and such with my friends.
Thanks

All of these child prodigies... I started this January after the world ended. So exactly four or five months have passed in my C++ tenure. When I was a freshman in high school, I started off with HTML, mistaking it as a serious, lower-level language, and dabbled a little bit in javascript.

It's interesting to see how the new generations learn.

I started programming in high school. I don't exactly remember how I found the time to learn all that, but in under two years I had a decent grip on the PDP-11 and 8088 assembly languages, in addition to the BASIC that was taught in class, and even wrote a demo for school that they used later on, which combined math-inspired designs and "special effects" produced by writing things into the OS memory. The demo scene of the late 80s was a very big inspiration.

9-10 years old with Ruby. I started learning C++ at late 10 to early 11 years old. Now at 12 I hope to learn C# or Java. (Most likely Java)

I think we may concord most of us actually began programming (As: Programming something useful) about one year or two after the "Hello World".

16ish. Sophomore year in high school took a game dev class that used Dark BASIC. Got me hooked.