Re: Python programming

References	<b2db52b0-d7f7-43dd-9ddf-86feb109ebc8@googlegroups.com> <CACwCsY5jdmbp-atiL7jjHLUkUmtG6uOrJ1Bj2mWRG+7s-KdN-w@mail.gmail.com>
Date	2014-02-13 08:02 +1100
Subject	Re: Python programming
From	Tim Delaney <timothy.c.delaney@gmail.com>
Newsgroups	comp.lang.python
Message-ID	<mailman.6783.1392238971.18130.python-list@python.org> (permalink)

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On 13 February 2014 00:55, Larry Martell <larry.martell@gmail.com> wrote:

> On Tue, Feb 11, 2014 at 7:21 PM, ngangsia akumbo <ngangsia@gmail.com>
> wrote:
> > Please i have a silly question to ask.
> >
> > How long did it take you to learn how to write programs?
>
> My entire life.
>
> I started in 1975 when I was 16 - taught myself BASIC and wrote a very
> crude downhill skiing game.

OK - it's degenerated into one of these threads - I'm going to participate.

I received a copy of "The Beginners Computer Handbook: Understanding &
programming the micro" (Judy Tatchell and Bill Bennet, edited by Lisa Watts
- ISBN 0860206947) for Christmas of 1985 (I think - I would have been 11
years old). As you may be able to tell from that detail, I have it sitting
in front of me right now - other books have come and gone, but I've kept
that one with me. It appears to have been published elsewhere under a
slightly different name with a very different (and much more boring) cover
- I can't find any links to my edition.

My school had a couple of Apple IIe and IIc machines, so I started by
entering the programs in the book. Then I started modifying them. Then I
started writing my own programs from scratch.

A couple of years later my dad had been asked to teach a programming class
and was trying to teach himself Pascal. We had a Mac 512K he was using.
He'd been struggling with it for a few months and getting nowhere. One
weekend I picked up his Pascal manual + a 68K assembler Mac ROM guide,
combined the two and by the end of the weekend had a semi-working graphical
paint program.

A few years after that I went to university (comp sci); blitzed my
computer-related classes; scraped by in my non-computer-related classes;
did some programming work along the way; was recommended to a job by a
lecturer half-way through my third year of uni; spent the next 4 years
working while (slowly) finishing my degree; eventually found my way into an
organisation which treated software development as a discipline and a
craft, stayed there for 10 years learning how to be more than just a
programmer; came out the other end a senior developer/technical lead and
effective communicator.

And that's how I learned to program.

Tim Delaney

Thread

Python programming ngangsia akumbo <ngangsia@gmail.com> - 2014-02-11 16:21 -0800
  Re: Python programming Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2014-02-12 12:17 +1100
  Re: Python programming Dennis Lee Bieber <wlfraed@ix.netcom.com> - 2014-02-11 21:06 -0500
  Re: Python programming Rustom Mody <rustompmody@gmail.com> - 2014-02-11 18:46 -0800
  Re: Python programming Roy Smith <roy@panix.com> - 2014-02-11 22:02 -0500
    Re: Python programming Gene Heskett <gheskett@wdtv.com> - 2014-02-11 23:14 -0500
    Re: Python programming Mark Lawrence <breamoreboy@yahoo.co.uk> - 2014-02-12 13:41 +0000
    Re: Python programming Dennis Lee Bieber <wlfraed@ix.netcom.com> - 2014-02-12 21:00 -0500
      Re: Python programming Grant Edwards <invalid@invalid.invalid> - 2014-02-13 02:57 +0000
        Re: Python programming Roy Smith <roy@panix.com> - 2014-02-12 22:04 -0500
          Re: Python programming Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2014-02-13 14:13 +1100
            Re: Python programming Grant Edwards <invalid@invalid.invalid> - 2014-02-13 15:13 +0000
          Re: Python programming William Ray Wing <wrw@mac.com> - 2014-02-12 22:56 -0500
            Re: Python programming Dan Sommers <dan@tombstonezero.net> - 2014-02-13 05:18 +0000
          Re: Python programming Larry Martell <larry.martell@gmail.com> - 2014-02-13 03:30 -0500
  Re: Python programming Asdrúbal Iván Suárez <asdrubalivan.listas@gmail.com> - 2014-02-11 20:01 -0430
  Re: Python programming Ben Finney <ben+python@benfinney.id.au> - 2014-02-12 15:09 +1100
  Re: Python programming Larry Martell <larry.martell@gmail.com> - 2014-02-12 08:55 -0500
    Re: Python programming Roy Smith <roy@panix.com> - 2014-02-12 09:13 -0500
      Re: Python programming Larry Martell <larry.martell@gmail.com> - 2014-02-12 11:43 -0500
      Re: Python programming Dennis Lee Bieber <wlfraed@ix.netcom.com> - 2014-02-12 21:13 -0500
  Re: Python programming Tim Delaney <timothy.c.delaney@gmail.com> - 2014-02-13 08:02 +1100
  Re: Python programming Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2014-02-13 08:34 +1100
  Re: Python programming Tim Delaney <timothy.c.delaney@gmail.com> - 2014-02-13 09:57 +1100
  Re: Python programming Neil Cerutti <neilc@norwich.edu> - 2014-02-13 15:30 +0000
    Re: Python programming ngangsia akumbo <ngangsia@gmail.com> - 2014-02-14 12:29 -0800

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