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That's entirely my father's (http://notebook.kulchenko.com http://notebook.kulchenko.com) fault. His favorite language is Perl, and he got me started on it many

That's entirely my father's (http://notebook.kulchenko.com http://notebook.kulchenko.com) fault. His favorite language is Perl, and he got me started on it many years ago (2000-2001?). I've recently moved on to Ruby, but Perl was my go-to for a long time.

positr0n 15y ago
Did you really start programming at the age of 4? That is incredible.
- dkulchenko 15y ago
  5-6, yes. Started out with 90s-era web development (Perl/CGI and some basic HTML).
  - outworlder 15y ago
    That's awesome. I usually raise eyebrows, even from colleagues, when I mention that I started programming at the age of 8. Of course, times were different back then. You had a computer that booted straight into Basic. You didn't need to install anything, register anything or even open up an editor. The prompt was your editor. All I knew back then was that there was this prompt and this manual. You typed commands, and the computer would reply with something (at first, just 'Syntax Error'). Then I discovered conditionals (and called my parents to show off). And got an assignment from my father - he wanted me to draw a grid that he could use to calibrate TV sets (TV was the standard display device for personal computers). I did it, after working for most of an afternoon. Some time later, I discovered the 'for' loop (or rather, finally understood what it was for) and rewrote all of it in 5 minutes and 4 lines. And the rest is history. EDIT: Even more impressive is that the author managed to keep himself focused and finished the job. At 15, I had already started the trend that would lead to a huge string of corpses of unfinished projects.
    - saryant 15y ago
      If/when I have kids (hopefully a long ways off) I'm going to find a way to get some sort of BASIC machine in my house. That's where I started (at about the same age as you) and I still remember a long drive from Cheyenne to San Francisco, sitting in the back seat of our van with a toy VTech computer and a book on BASIC I found in our school library. That feeling was awesome.
      - DivisibleByZero 15y ago
        Today's equivalent would be a TI calculator. I had a similar experience coding in BASIC on a TI-89 during a road trips with the TI-BASIC manual. There is indeed a very awesome feeling about coding on a simple device with a physical manual.
      - seclorum 15y ago
        My kids have my old Oric-1/Atmos machines (I got a couple spare, heh heh..) and they love 'em. Nothing better than giving the kids a 'safe' computer to use (no Internet!) and coming back to some wild creation a few hours later ..
    - guacamole2 15y ago
      How did you remedy leaving unfinished projects? I yet have to truly finish a project I have begun and I just can't seem to keep at it.
  - Tichy 15y ago
    Very cool. Any advice on how to get a kid started so soon (also learning how to read, which I suppose is a prerequisite)?
- seclorum 15y ago
  My 4-year old is currently programming on my old Oric-1/Atmos machine. Simple loops, sound effects, chars on the screen - its amazing what he can do when given a little encouragement and things are explained to him ..

positr0n 15y ago

Did you really start programming at the age of 4? That is incredible.

dkulchenko 15y ago
5-6, yes. Started out with 90s-era web development (Perl/CGI and some basic HTML).
- outworlder 15y ago
  That's awesome. I usually raise eyebrows, even from colleagues, when I mention that I started programming at the age of 8. Of course, times were different back then. You had a computer that booted straight into Basic. You didn't need to install anything, register anything or even open up an editor. The prompt was your editor. All I knew back then was that there was this prompt and this manual. You typed commands, and the computer would reply with something (at first, just 'Syntax Error'). Then I discovered conditionals (and called my parents to show off). And got an assignment from my father - he wanted me to draw a grid that he could use to calibrate TV sets (TV was the standard display device for personal computers). I did it, after working for most of an afternoon. Some time later, I discovered the 'for' loop (or rather, finally understood what it was for) and rewrote all of it in 5 minutes and 4 lines. And the rest is history. EDIT: Even more impressive is that the author managed to keep himself focused and finished the job. At 15, I had already started the trend that would lead to a huge string of corpses of unfinished projects.
  - saryant 15y ago
    If/when I have kids (hopefully a long ways off) I'm going to find a way to get some sort of BASIC machine in my house. That's where I started (at about the same age as you) and I still remember a long drive from Cheyenne to San Francisco, sitting in the back seat of our van with a toy VTech computer and a book on BASIC I found in our school library. That feeling was awesome.
    - DivisibleByZero 15y ago
      Today's equivalent would be a TI calculator. I had a similar experience coding in BASIC on a TI-89 during a road trips with the TI-BASIC manual. There is indeed a very awesome feeling about coding on a simple device with a physical manual.
    - seclorum 15y ago
      My kids have my old Oric-1/Atmos machines (I got a couple spare, heh heh..) and they love 'em. Nothing better than giving the kids a 'safe' computer to use (no Internet!) and coming back to some wild creation a few hours later ..
  - guacamole2 15y ago
    How did you remedy leaving unfinished projects? I yet have to truly finish a project I have begun and I just can't seem to keep at it.
- Tichy 15y ago
  Very cool. Any advice on how to get a kid started so soon (also learning how to read, which I suppose is a prerequisite)?
seclorum 15y ago
My 4-year old is currently programming on my old Oric-1/Atmos machine. Simple loops, sound effects, chars on the screen - its amazing what he can do when given a little encouragement and things are explained to him ..