I Want to know about how you guys managed to code all by yourself.

I started when I was 8 years old, and now I am a totally normal person…

I started when I was 7 years old, and now I am a total weirdo.

Reading and experimenting on what I read.

It starts with reading it and typing it in. Don't just copy/paste, but try to understand it. Then modify it, play with it, make it do something more. You might start with a traditional first program that prints “Hello, world!”, the next step is to print other messages. Print multiple messages. Maybe print out a text-based Christmas tree, or whatever interests you. When you implement your first "guess the number" game, change it so you play more than once. Change the range of the number guesses, not just 1-9, but maybe any two digit number from 10-99. Maybe implement a cheat code that always wins. Experiment, be creative, try to make it do a little more or do things differently.

These days when it comes time to learn a new programming language (I try every couple years) I start with implementing several core data structures and algorithms. Implement a dynamic array, a linked list, a tree, a data dictionary / map, a heap, read/write the structures, etc. Sort an unsorted, provide different sorting functions to change the ordering, search, seek, iterators, and so on. It ends up exercising flow control, I/O, memory management, functions, error handling, simple debugging, and more. I find it is a convenient way to get familiar with a new language without needing to stress myself on logic or creativity.

Read books about programming, make simple games and grow with them.

You can start here:

• JavaScript for Kids: A Playful Introduction to Programming
• Interactive 3D Graphics Programming with WebGL (OpenGL)

Make it easy and fun. Good luck.

I took one class in HP Basic many years ago. The first assignment was to do crossing sin and cos waves on a paper terminal. The teacher laid out in class generally how to do it. But I picked up the HP manual and found I could do the same think in about 1/10th the lines of code by doing it a different way. The teacher gave me an F even though it worked perfectly. LOL!. But after that I was hooked.

Best way to learn is to do. IMO good books are the best source of information . Before the internet we had books store that only sold computing books. I spent a large chunk of my salary there. Now of course we have the internet but I still think much of the time books are better (Maybe I'm just old school).

I find it helps to pick a project you are really interested in to work on. It may even be over your head. But you will at least have the motivation to learn new things. I'm still learning stuff all the time.

Gnollrunner said:

I took one class in HP Basic many years ago. The first assignment was to do crossing sin and cos waves on a paper terminal. The teacher laid out in class generally how to do it. But I picked up the HP manual and found I could do the same think in about 1/10th the lines of code by doing it a different way. The teacher gave me an F even though it worked perfectly. LOL!. But after that I was hooked.

Best way to learn is to do. IMO good books are the best source of information . Before the internet we had books store that only sold computing books. I spent a large chunk of my salary there. Now of course we have the internet but I still think much of the time books are better (Maybe I'm just old school).

I find it helps to pick a project you are really interested in to work on. It may even be over your head. But you will at least have the motivation to learn new things. I'm still learning stuff all the time.

That's how school system works, do not innovate, just rephrase what I told you.

Programmer71 said:

and now I am a totally normal person…

I doubt this ?

Maxlaughter said:
how you guys managed to code all by yourself

Growing up when all of these gaming things was new and become public available in TV as well. Had a favor for games already but when I saw this and finally got access to my own computer, I never ever had anything else I wanted to do. Fortunately Starcraft was releasing soon and Wacraft 3 a few years later so it helped a lot to start making own maps using their Trigger System and a tutorial booklet included in a gaming magazine. Yes we had a lot of those magazines when I was young, the golden age of print media ?

I'm kind of person who needs someone to show this right once and then I understand how everything works and start experimenting. I can't learn well just from books but practice. Later then I bought some of the earliest game making solutions A3 Engine and started to also get into level design and 3D modelling. However, programming is more what my skills are made for instead of art.

Learned Java in apprenticeship and then C# when 2.0 was fresh on the market. C++ came a few years later. I'm a try and error kind of person, copying a working solution first, then starting to do some experiments and finally get behind what matters to start thinking about it. Then I often do some research if the solution don't fit in my opinion and think about how I'd solve this. It then most of the time comes to an acceptable solution.

Speaking in Star Trek phrases, my mind is like the Borg ?

The only way to get good at something is practice , today there are lots of ways to get into programming, start small, choose an easy language to start, phyton or java, code some basic data structures , arrays, linked lists, maps, try to create a simple game. After that i advice you to stick with c++ , c#, java for the most foreseeable future.

i have learned in school about the basics (for, while, else, if, etc). luckily i got a computer in my home, so i have tried all the commands until i figured out what they do (8086 computer with DOS and BASIC). however, it wasn't an easy task, because i didn't knew english, so i also had to learn that parallel on my own, mainly from the tv.