I'm going off to college real soon to get a double major in CIS/Biology. I've tried to learn C++ a couple times from a couple of books, but never got far. I didn't take any computer classes in HS.
I've always had this stereotype of a 15-17 year old nerd who can program in more languages than I've heard of, although I've never met him. Do you all learn at college or what? Also, what are your ages and abilities?

Also, I've got 50 posts. Golfish City, here I come!

Awe shnap, look out for the goldfish. I learned to program b/c I'm an idiot. I was signing up for another class in college and accidently signed up for CS112 Introduction to Computer Programming (into C++), I wanted to sign up for CS100 Introduction to Computing. I hadn't used a computer in over 3-5 years other then MS Word....I barely used the internet or email at the time. Anyways I didn't realize my mistake until the first day of class when the professor is talking about what we'll learn and stuff. Well, it turns out I had a few friends in the class so I decided not to drop it b/c it seemed cool, in the end I loved it and changed my major to CS. I'd say you should learn what language is stressed at the school you will be attending (mine stressed C++), find a good book in it, and try to learn it before starting there. This will help you get a good understanding of what you will be learning and it'll make it easier for you b/c that'll be one less class you'll have to worry about and you can focus more on your other classes....or you can go out and party more, freshman girls put out easy

There are 15 yo that can program in like 8 languages, but you have to realize they do little else but sit at a computer. Also, usually none of those languages is c++, and the things they are doing are generally very simple things. If it is c++ then they are probably programming in only a minute subset of the language usually using it like c with pass by reference. C++ is not the hardest language to master, but there is a ton to keep track of, and using C++ objects is pretty difficult to do correctly and without memory leaks and a myriad of other problems. In both C and C++ implicit type conversion can be a real killer.

I personally learned to program doing assembly language in debug when I was a teenager. It was good because it forced me to really keep track of everything, and understand what was going on at the machine level.

I program for a living, but in Java not C++ and have been for a couple of years. I went to school for 7 years for CS, and I am not a great C++ programmer compared to people who use it a lot so don't feel bad if you are having trouble with it. You really don't get good with any language until you use it day in and day out, then go back to read the books that made little sense when you didn't have the experience.

On the subject of 15 year olds - I am 14 right now, and know a lot of other people my age that are into programming. I know my way around HTML, VB, CSS, Javascript and learning Perl. These are by no means very advanced languages, and some don't refer to a lot of them as languages. In terms of other programmers my age, they all know just a few languages, but none of them very well. I tell people that I can write some basic scripts and can read a lot of scripts, but advanced programming in any language - not for another few years.

Another thing about young programmers my age (this does not apply to all) is that some consider themselves programmmers because they can copy code and make it work. This is infact how I started programming.

~Milkman

I'm 18 and am in college for CS (NIU in IL).

My programming started when I was 13 with this weird computer device that you hooked up to the TV. It had a BASIC interpreter and that is how I was taught what computer programming was in general.

I didn't start to solidify my skills until about a year ago when I took a Pascal class in High School and then I read "The C Programming Language" by Kernighan and Ritchie which basically taught me everything I know now. It's probably one of the best books written on C and general programming.

I don't know C++ and the only reason I will is b/c my major requires it. My next tackles will be Java and ASM (to be used inline with C).

good luck

I'm 14 and know little more than BASIC, but know my way around computers very well. This sterotype you are speaking of is almost nonexistant. If you meet a freshman that claims to know C++ most likely they're a liar. Anyone who claims to know more than a few languages before college, and obviously isn't a child prodigy, you can dismiss as a script kiddie.

quote:Originally posted by zackbass:
I'm 14 and know little more than BASIC, but know my way around computers very well. This sterotype you are speaking of is almost nonexistant. If you meet a freshman that claims to know C++ most likely they're a liar. Anyone who claims to know more than a few languages before college, and obviously isn't a child prodigy, you can dismiss as a script kiddie.

I'd have to agree. College seems to be the actual time when ppl start learning some heavy shit. bryce777, know of any real good sites on assembly language? I have to program in that this semester. I look forward to it greatly and could use any guides or pointers or whatnot. I'm real impressed by the compactness of the code in assembly from the grc.com programs.

Sorry, but there wan't too much of an internet at the time and no www yet.

Assembly is good to learn though, and since good books are so expensive for students to pay for I am sure there are at least a few good sites out there.

quote:Originally posted by Pestilence:
I'd have to agree. College seems to be the actual time when ppl start learning some heavy shit. bryce777, know of any real good sites on assembly language? I have to program in that this semester. I look forward to it greatly and could use any guides or pointers or whatnot. I'm real impressed by the compactness of the code in assembly from the grc.com programs.

Actually, how young people learn to program depends on their natural talent for it. All of the very smart kids in my high school that were in AP math classes and whatnot could not program worth crap. One of them struggled with even simple assignments in AP CS, and I found out he changed his major to writing once he got to college. Another guy was a 15 year-old junior who was like the top of his class, and he couldn't make a Arkanoid-like game in AP cs, while I managed to do it in intro to comp. programming (they took place in the same class, and I decided to give it a shot when he couldn't). So I *did* know a good bit of programming when I was 15, but not as much as the people you are thinking of. However, I DO know someone that is like that. He was very proficient in C/ASM/C++ when he entered college at age 17 or 18.

Back to the original question, I learned to program a bit in computer camp when I was 8 and 9. They taught me BASIC, and I actually got quite good at it. I also learned Pascal in high school, and then got some books to teach myself C. I haven't really learned jack at college, and what I have has been mainly on my own. Could just be my school, but almost nothing they teach is very practical at all.

I try real hard to regret nothing, especially things that I can't control. That said, how much did they teach in AP CS? My HS offered some classes in computers, but I didn't see any programming, so I stuck with more traditional classes. I can't wait to learn some programming languages (esp. one that I can make money with) but for now I'll have to fond some distraction until school starts.

I took Fortran IV in college (way back when Hollerith cards were the only input) and then started dabbling with Basic on an IBM clone much later in 1984. I moved on to Turbo Pascal and then taught myself C and later C++ and Ada. Don't program much anymore but I liked C the best I think. It was far more flexible and dangerous than the OOP stuff. Most of my programming was instrument interface and data analysis and display stuff on Dos based computers. I used Visual basic for most of the display of data under Windows.

Cheers,

Bemax

My AP CS class pretty much did no work. A few simple assignments, and the rest was spent coding whatever we wanted to. I wrote Arkanoid with a map editor, an air hockey game, a shooter game, most of cool polygonal shooter, a 3d paint program thing, and some other junk. It was all done at 320x200 resolution with 3 colors, no double buffering, and only a line(x1, y1, x2, y2) function. Making it run with little or no flicker was the hard part.

BTW, do as much as possible before college. It sucks all of your ambition away. I've done absolutely NOTHING in the past 4 years. Never learned Direct X, how to write a 3d engine, etc. I'm a lazy bastard

At college you don't really learn the practical stuff as much as the theory. Both are very important, though, and it's important to go beyond what they teach in the classes.

I felt like most of the people I went to school with could barely program, and then when I started to do it for a living I realized I could barely program too, compared to how much there is to know.

quote:Originally posted by Zoma:
Actually, how young people learn to program depends on their natural talent for it. All of the very smart kids in my high school that were in AP math classes and whatnot could not program worth crap. One of them struggled with even simple assignments in AP CS, and I found out he changed his major to writing once he got to college. Another guy was a 15 year-old junior who was like the top of his class, and he couldn't make a Arkanoid-like game in AP cs, while I managed to do it in intro to comp. programming (they took place in the same class, and I decided to give it a shot when he couldn't). So I *did* know a good bit of programming when I was 15, but not as much as the people you are thinking of. However, I DO know someone that is like that. He was very proficient in C/ASM/C++ when he entered college at age 17 or 18.

Back to the original question, I learned to program a bit in computer camp when I was 8 and 9. They taught me BASIC, and I actually got quite good at it. I also learned Pascal in high school, and then got some books to teach myself C. I haven't really learned jack at college, and what I have has been mainly on my own. Could just be my school, but almost nothing they teach is very practical at all.

I just have to say I am pretty amazed at the comments about what is now being taught in schools. There used to be absolutely no computers in school, and only a few real geeky kids would have their own computer or know anything at all about them, let alone programming.

quote:Originally posted by Zoma:
My AP CS class pretty much did no work. A few simple assignments, and the rest was spent coding whatever we wanted to. I wrote Arkanoid with a map editor, an air hockey game, a shooter game, most of cool polygonal shooter, a 3d paint program thing, and some other junk. It was all done at 320x200 resolution with 3 colors, no double buffering, and only a line(x1, y1, x2, y2) function. Making it run with little or no flicker was the hard part.

quote:Originally posted by Zoma:
BTW, do as much as possible before college. It sucks all of your ambition away. I've done absolutely NOTHING in the past 4 years. Never learned Direct X, how to write a 3d engine, etc. I'm a lazy bastard

How's it suck away your youthful abmition? Bad profs, slow advancement, finding out what you don't know but have to learn, tedium, procrastination, seeing better and smarter kids or what?
BTW, I'm just dinging around in POV-Ray and have done little more than copy and understand a hello world program in C++. I'm totally ambitious about going to college and learning a real language, but your post scares me just a little .
BTW, I realize that the Shakespeare quote below applies about as much as anything else I've seen here.

Well, I'm 15, and I'm a programmer. I code for my job as well. Everything I learned how to do coding-wise was by teaching myself. I started out reading tutorials online (which I still do.) then reading books (which I still do) and also looking at other people's code for "ideas" (which yes, I still do :P )

So right now I can program with a lot of web languages like XHTML, CSS (do those count? maybe....) ColdFusion, and bits and pieces of PHP and JavaScript.

quote:Originally posted by Mr. Silver:
So right now I can program with a lot of web languages like XHTML, CSS (do those count? maybe....) ColdFusion, and bits and pieces of PHP and JavaScript.

But can you code in any [B]real[B] languages? F90? C/C++? Java?

Web languages have their uses, but nobody becomes a CS major to learn how to write JavaScript...

It seems like if you really want to learn how to program useful things in college, you need to be an Engineering major, not CS.

As an engineer, I had 1 semester of F77. Since then, I've had to get things done and have had to learn many other languages, but with a logical head and basic programming techniques under my belt, learning other languages is pretty straightforward. I can now claim functional knowledge in: F77, C, Java, Tcl, several 4GLs, sh scripts, HTML, and have just started to have to get around in JavaScript.

The best way to learn to program is to have a deadline and a real project that's going to earn you $$ when it's done.

Programming is one of the few professions/hobbies that you can actualy learn and work at home and still make a nice amount of money.
I could argue that php perl and python are *real* languages.
and C# wont flop *crossing fingers*
I would say each language is also designed for diffrent tasks XHTML/HTML for the web etc
err ignore my ranting
well there's my %2.