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I began programming in 1996. The biggest difference, to me, is: #1 Google, which helps you quickly find answers from #2 #2 Online tutorials, communities such

I began programming in 1996. The biggest difference, to me, is: #1 Google, which helps you quickly find answers from #2 #2 Online tutorials, communities such as Stack Overflow and blogs As a self-learner, it's awesome now a days. It costs next to nothing to learn, to get involved with open source or a community, and most importantly, to create your own projects! In 1996, I had one friend I could call to ask a question. Maybe I could save up some money to buy some crap book on Visual Basic or C. Computers were still expensive back then, and a server - geez, forget about it.

redthrowaway 13y ago
Seriously, I first started programming in high school in 1999, and the resources were as follows: 1) Textbook 2) Teacher 3) Classmates I dicked around doing Philosophy and construction for half a decade outside of high school, and one of the things that amazed me when I went back to school was how easy programming had become. Have a compile error? Google it. Getting this weird "Segmentation Fault" thing? Google it, and see what causes it. I went from combing through the pages of the textbook to never cracking a book past second year, and in only a decade or so. I still sometimes marvel at how copying and pasting an obscure error into Google nets me the answer more often than not within 5 minutes.
- awor 13y ago
  Oh man, I totally know how you feel, I tried it in high school and it was far too structured and distracting for me to enjoy it. Now that I learn it on my own terms, it's a much more enjoyable hobby, and it makes more sense.
- ErikAugust 13y ago
  Heh - were we separated at birth?
ivanhoe 13y ago
yes, it's easier now, but it wasn't all that bad back then, I've learned a lot about programming using the net at the very same time. I was living in Serbia, which back then was in wars and under UN sanctions and the access to the new books was very limited, so we had to use the net. There was no googling and stackoverflow, but we had altavista, usenet (which was de facto StackOverflow of those times), even some tutorials on gopher :) One of the best tutorial sites was Webmonkey.com, I've made my first web steps thanks to them.
- mamcx 13y ago
  Also to note that programing is harder now, in the sense is everything more complex. I have learned foxpro, and could fit all of it in my mind (I read all the official documentation, and the sourcecode available in the tool). And that let you do a end-to-end app with just fox/visual foxpro. Now, I html+js+(angular/jquery/...)+css(less?sass?)+nosql,postgressql,obj-c,sqlite,functional, declarative, reactive, imperative, *nix, windows, osx, and that is just a small sample of what I'm doing now...

redthrowaway 13y ago

Seriously, I first started programming in high school in 1999, and the resources were as follows: 1) Textbook 2) Teacher 3) Classmates I dicked around doing Philosophy and construction for half a decade outside of high school, and one of the things that amazed me when I went back to school was how easy programming had become. Have a compile error? Google it. Getting this weird "Segmentation Fault" thing? Google it, and see what causes it. I went from combing through the pages of the textbook to never cracking a book past second year, and in only a decade or so. I still sometimes marvel at how copying and pasting an obscure error into Google nets me the answer more often than not within 5 minutes.

awor 13y ago
Oh man, I totally know how you feel, I tried it in high school and it was far too structured and distracting for me to enjoy it. Now that I learn it on my own terms, it's a much more enjoyable hobby, and it makes more sense.
ErikAugust 13y ago
Heh - were we separated at birth?

ivanhoe 13y ago

yes, it's easier now, but it wasn't all that bad back then, I've learned a lot about programming using the net at the very same time. I was living in Serbia, which back then was in wars and under UN sanctions and the access to the new books was very limited, so we had to use the net. There was no googling and stackoverflow, but we had altavista, usenet (which was de facto StackOverflow of those times), even some tutorials on gopher :) One of the best tutorial sites was Webmonkey.com, I've made my first web steps thanks to them.

mamcx 13y ago
Also to note that programing is harder now, in the sense is everything more complex. I have learned foxpro, and could fit all of it in my mind (I read all the official documentation, and the sourcecode available in the tool). And that let you do a end-to-end app with just fox/visual foxpro. Now, I html+js+(angular/jquery/...)+css(less?sass?)+nosql,postgressql,obj-c,sqlite,functional, declarative, reactive, imperative, *nix, windows, osx, and that is just a small sample of what I'm doing now...