4 ms·
I suppose I can't really speak for everybody but as a 20-something the story a lot of my friends and I had in common was programming our TI calculators. The lan
by smalley 14y ago
I suppose I can't really speak for everybody but as a 20-something the story a lot of my friends and I had in common was programming our TI calculators. The language was simple (some might say...basic ba dum chh), it was easy to share programs with friends as text or via link and you had a built in packed audience of folks in classes that thought the things you figured out how to do were really cool. We started with simple school problem based programs then went on to more complicated things and then some went on to learn some c or assembly etc.
I think perhaps we might not be starting programming with computers directly all the time, but perhaps there will always be some object that younger folks will learn to program. Heck maybe the next kids will decide to program phones or connected home appliances or something.
- zampano 14y agoI can honestly say TI calculator programming was my first foray into programming as well (I'm 25 now). I remember meticulously typing in a BASIC clone of Pac-man and having it not work the first few times I typed it in (I think it would take me nearly an hour each try). I didn't really program much after I stopped using TI calculators a lot until someone showed me tryruby.org and I found it interesting. Now, two years later, I work full-time as a programmer and have decided this will be my career. Funny how those little side diversions when you were but a kid can come back in a big way.