> You kind of just bang your head against the keyboard until it starts to compile, and run, and stay running I'm glad I learned to program when computer time w

> You kind of just bang your head against the keyboard until it starts to compile, and run, and stay running I'm glad I learned to program when computer time was costly (at least, for me, in terms of access time not in terms of money). I actually had to think about what I wanted my programs to do, design, consider. Not bash my head against a keyboard and pray like you did. This forced me to develop a model of the computer, language, and operating system that was fairly accurate (to the level of detail I needed at the time).