It seems like there is a lot of: "Hey I''m only xx and I can program. Isn''t that great!" It gets a little tiresome. Here are some ideas of mine to chew on. First: A programming language is a language. I think that any language it''s easier to learn when you are young. Many studies show that as you age parts of your brain become harder to use if you don''t use them. This is especially true with language. Second: Learning the language is not the big deal. Doing something with it is. All of us seem to be able to write in English. Have any of us written a best selling novel? My point is: Learning C++ is no big deal. Doing something great with it is. You may know the language, but can you apply it in a new interesting way? If you''re 7 (when I learned my first computer language) and you''ve created a complex game with original gameplay and your own art, music and algorithms, I''m amazed. Otherwise let’s stop congratulating ourselves for being young and get to work doing something with our talents before we get old!

While I will agree to "SOME" extent to what was posted above don''t let it get your hopes down kids...I don''t mind those kind of posts and realize that kids, especially the really young ones up through there early teens usually are not as self motivated as adults need to be because there isn''t really a big push on it when you are that age. The posts that really get me on a board like this are "What does a for loop do" ANY book you pick up will have that in it no matter the language for the most part. anyway, enough of me taking up bandwidth on a worthless reply that doesn''t accomplish anything

Later
OME

I agree, it''s annoying.

Programming is not the most important part of making a game. It''s a necessary part, for sure. But the most important part is the program design and architecture, which requires knowledge of engineering principles and some general design acumen, not just programming knowledge.

The other hard part is project management. Any serious game development that goes on now is not a two guys in a garage kind of effort. You need to marshal people with often quite different backgrounds (artists, designers, programmers) and keep them seeing eye to eye over the length of a year or more. You need to be able to prioritize and schedule.

So someone can program. Big deal. Lots of people can program, it''s not that hard. In fact, I''d be surprised if a half way intelligent ten year old couldn''t learn how to use a programming language.

I''ve got say also though, that programming languages and natural languages (like English, French, Swahili...) are fundamentally different. The human brain is wired to learn natural languages, and that latent ability fades over time towards adulthood. The human brain is not wired to learn programming languages, the ability to pick them up is in no way related to the ability to pick up natural languages. The learning mechanisms are not that same.


--Julian

Sounds like you''re a little jealous, afterall, it''s a rather minor subject to warrant a post like this.
And then you go on to attack any young people who are getting along well with their programming.

I don''t know if I agree with your points either, when I was younger and learning programming, I never made as much progress as I do today. I''ve heard reports that learning in certain areas gets harder as you age, to what degree this takes I''m not sure, but I doubt it outweights the fact that your brain doesn''t finish developing ''till around 16-20, and before that age, a lot of things are much harder to comprehend.

Second: Sure, creativity is very important attribute, but who says any of these young people have any less creativity than you, Mr.Einstein.

My point is: These kids may still have a long way to go(anyone who says they know C++, doesn''t!), but they are off to a damn good start, and it doesn''t help when they have resentful grandpa putting them down.

Let''s avoid flame wars, shall we? *smile*

- fel, AKA "she who will delete this post if it continues on the flamewar path"

I agree with the content in the anonymous post, though not with the attitude it was delivered with! (btw, why dont you register? it''s free)

i knew virtually NOTHING about programming (a variable? whats that?) when i started in late 1997 at the age of 17. a little more than 2 years later i know TONS more than i would have if i had spent all my life programming from 0 years old to 17. i think that before a certain age (i would say 14 or 15 though this is just a guess), the most important concepts dont really sink in, and you have to re-learn them eventually down the road (if at all). myself having started fresh at 17, when i learned something new, i don''t forget it. i understand whats important and what''s trivial, i dont waste time on the trivial stuff.

i don''t feel "threatened" by 12 year olds that can program, for the reasons in the last paragraph. You shouldnt either, MaxPoly.

Thats just my $0.02 (I''m up to $0.04 today)

I definately have to agree with you, foo, and the anonymous guy who said it''s hard for some things to sink in until a certain age. I mean, why else would they teach calculus to high school seniors instead of to a five year old? It''s because they can''t understand that abstract stuff yet. However, if a kid is able to program, that''s great. The only reason they can is because they''ve made an attempt to learn how. The only thing it shows if they learn a programming language is that they spent the time to learn it. But that doesn''t mean that they will be able to make a really good program.

I''d have to disagree completely. Who are you to say what people can''t and can congradulate themselves on? If you don''t like reading us ''kids programming'', then keep your mouth shut and go play with Borland. It''s not up to you tell us that we should ''shut up'' because we''re proud of ourselves.

no but its good to tell people that theres nothing special in being able to program at a young age, as there is thousands of people doing it, such as myself...

I seriously dissagree that you can''t learn abstract concepts before a certain age. All people think differently and what might not come naturally to one person might come easy to another. I wrote my first game on my own at age 10. I''d been programming for only a year when I made a simple game where you were a ball on the right side of the screen, moved by the joystick. On the left there was another ball that would appear and dissapear in random locations. When you clicked fire, it would draw a line from your ball to the far left side. If it hit the other ball, you got a point. The game ended after you got so many points or hit spacebar. I''d say that''s abstract programming concepts. However, even today I have a hard time talking to people because my brain isn''t very articulate. It''s just the way I think, programming and math comes naturally to me and I''m sure a lot of other people.
Another example: Last year I figured out how to draw a tangent line between two circles using only simple math (your basic 4 functions) for a small project I''m doing at work. (I couldn''t find any documentation on how to do it using sin/cos/tan functions)

I''ve done a lot of baby sitting (3 sisters, 12 nefues/nieces, ages 2-17) and I''ve come to realize that you should never underestimate kids, they can understand a lot more then you might realize.

E:cb woof!