6 ms·
I remember using Delphi 2 when I was younger, that's how I learned programming. If you don't mind hearing my personal story, keep reading, otherwise move on to
by alex_duf 10y ago
I remember using Delphi 2 when I was younger, that's how I learned programming. If you don't mind hearing my personal story, keep reading, otherwise move on to another comment.
By an interesting coincidence I was given a CD with tons of software on it, including Delphi 2. I started playing with it and quickly realised I could create my own programs using that tool.
Later I went to the book store and found a book about it that I couldn't afford. So I came back every week to read as much as I could, then heading back home to try it on my illegal copy of Delphi. (I was 11)
Then I realised there was a help manual embedded in the distribution, so I learned as much English as I could so I could understand that manual.
Little by little I learned about conditions, loops, object programming and made a bunch of terribly crappy yet working games.
No amount of studies could have taught me as much as I learned through using that software. No manual work could have given me the fun I had when programming my very own games. Reading "Delphi" as a headline on hacker news made me feel nostalgic and I figured I'd share my story here.
So thanks Borland, the 11 year old me may not have paid to use that software, but it was enough of a revelation to make me the programmer I am today.
- mateuszf 10y agoHey, it sounds very similar to how I learned programming. That's how I started too, apart from the fact that I had a simple Turbo Pascal book from the beginning, but I also learned writing programs using an illegal Delphi 2 CD.
- pmarreck 10y agoNice! For me it was Microsoft BASIC on the early Macintosh and this magical book from 1985: https://smile.amazon.com/Macintosh-Midnight-Madness-Utilities-Diversions/dp/0914845306?sa-no-redirect=1 https://smile.amazon.com/Macintosh-Midnight-Madness-Utilitie... (Wow, I can't find the actual cover art anywhere! It was much cooler than what's shown there.)
- marcosdumay 10y ago> so I learned as much English as I could so I could understand that manual. :) I started learning English as a kid to understand what was happening on the MS BASIC programs I could get on my computer by the time.
- mseebach 10y agoI remember the penny dropping when I learned what "if" meant in English (I already knew what it did in BASIC).
- wirrbel 10y agoSame here
- irfanka 10y agoSame thing here! I never would've learned English if it wasn't for GW BASIC and Windows 98 - certainly not in the crappy schools of the post-war Bosnia!
- GFischer 10y agoI also got started on GW-BASIC (on DOS 3.3). Twenty years later, I'm still writing way too much Basic code (VB6 legacy apps and some VB.NET). I do appreciate a lot of things about the syntax and wish C# had picked them (no semicolons and no case sensitivity).
- schnable 10y agoThis is pretty much my story as well, I learned how to program for real on Delphi 2. Though I was able to get someone to buy me the book. Thanks for sharing.
- treve 10y agoFor me it was Turbo Pascal 5.5. It was amazing!
- neves 10y agoYears of boring english courses, but I really learned when I had to read the manual of my TRS-Color!
- alain_gilbert 10y agoSame story here ! For nostalgia's sake, may I ask what games/software you developed at the time ? On my end, I did: - Snake, and a Snake level editor, - Sokoban, and a Sokoban level editor, - an adventure game Zelda (NES) alike (but was not fun at all !) - Graphic calculator (to help me visualize the change of parameters quickly), - a software to visualize my grades compared to the rest of the group - I made a software to search and categorize html tags (during my high school years) What impressed me the most at the time, was that my binary file compiled on Windows ME would work directly on my other computer with Windows 3.1. This is something I still really enjoy today with Go(lang); the fact that I can just compile for other platforms and run it natively.
- RodericDay 10y agoThis is one thing I really really liked about Go, but unfortunately I don't really like the rest of Go very much. What are other languages that have this property? Building an ".exe" I can send to a Windows user is not a pleasant exercise in Python.
- Colex 10y agoFor windows, you can use .Net (which usually comes by default on windows distributions, so you should be able to send it and run without any issues). C# is a good language that uses it. So it's not really native (it runs on a VM), but it produces the .exe that can be easily shared.
- jug 10y agoOn the topic of Delphi, try FreePascal / Lazarus? Free, dependency free development even with GUI designer. FreePascal (non-GUI) supports an ungodly number of platforms! Otherwise, can't recall much else, discounting cheating with e.g py2exe.
- alex_duf 10y agoIt's really cool to see how many people shared the same experience! In random order, and off the top of my head: - pong - some various demo where I would simulate fireworks or traveling through star (in other words particles that are rendered by drawing dots and circles on screen) - a car racing game viewed from the top - an RPG engine but never actually made a level - a claw machine - and finally my own remake of space invader where you could play up to 4 in coop and upgrade your weapons. It had bosses and swarms of enemies. I learn then there was a limit of how many keys you can press on a keyboard before your computer starts beeping.
- amadeusw 10y agoDitto! I feel the same way. I learned both English and programming on Delphi 3. The first program I wrote showed and hid a picture on the screen. I wrote a few games, but didn't understand types and generics until years later.
- desireco42 10y agoThis is such an awesome story! Good for you and your initiative, going to bookstore every day to read the book. I came from Turbo Pascal, it was never the same but Delphi was such an awesome environment that I enjoyed making things with it.
- dfox 10y agoI started programming in basic (first on ZX spectrum clone, then QBasic) but really started writing meaningful programs in BP7 and then Delphi. On the other hand I'm pretty sure that I learned english by printing out the whole readme for Build engine that was on the Duke Nukem 3D CD and reading that.
- gerryk 10y agoThis sounds like me, except the year was 1986, and the software on the bunch of floppies was Borland Turbo Pascal. Included photocopied manuals too.