1) I started with HTML in '96 and, TI calculator programming aside, it wasn't until 2000 (college) that I got into programming. Mostly because I asked around an

1) I started with HTML in '96 and, TI calculator programming aside, it wasn't until 2000 (college) that I got into programming. Mostly because I asked around and nobody knew where to tell me to start (Java -> Python -> Javascript). If I were starting today and on a *nix environment, I'd start with javascript. Doing simple socket programming with node.js is dead simple and the browser provides an obvious gui progression path. I've also heard of a lot of people starting with Python and very recently with Obj-C/iphone development. 2) Started with a teach-yourself HTML 3.2 book. For learning JS today, I think eloquentjavascript.net is good if a bit dry and I like Manning's jQuery in Action if going the jQuery route. 3) I started out with the intent of making a WYSIWYG web editor that didn't suck...and I'm still planning on doing it at "some point". 4) No guidance for me, unfortunately. Aside from having a professor in my first Java class say "well don't worry about that, you don't need to understand it for a while", which annoyed me enough that I went and learned Java myself through Thinking in Java. Otherwise I'm entirely self taught. 5) Guidance on what to look at/what to understand would have been helpful. I'm very grateful to the mozilla project, since that's where I learned software engineering. Having someone point out version control earlier on would have been helpful.