How Did You Learn How To Program?

[Ether]

So how did you learn?

FORTRAN, on key-punch cards. Edit/run cycle: 24 hours.

We've come a long way, baby.

~

[darkangel]

Java: I took AP Computer Science this year at my school. It's fairly straight-forward. And fun.

LabVIEW: "We need something that does this." "How about this?" "Nope, try this one." "Now the robot doesn't work." "Wait, the VI just doesn't do what I want it to do. I'm going to change it." *Windows dies*

I really wish I was kidding... This is pretty much what happened last year. Sure, LabVIEW's good because it has a drag-and-drop item for some things that would take 30 lines of code, but I find it easier to work in Java. I managed to use LabVIEW without a complete understanding of how programming actually works, so I spent a good amount of Computer Science going "Ohhh..."

[timothyb89]

I started tinkering with HTML and the like in about 4th grade and went from there. By 5th grade I had started toying with PHP and by seventh I taught myself Java. I'm pretty sure I went that direction due to the lack of C/C++ books at the local bookstore . No complaints though, I think it's a ton easier to experiment with Java than C, especially on Windows due to the number of easily-usable tools.

Around this time I had also discovered Linux. Once you get basic system usage down its not too long before you figure out how to hack bash/perl/python/ruby/etc code if thats the route you want to go down.

This year I formally took a C class which helped a bit (my C skills were a bit rusty, and still are)- it was a ton of fun, and myself and some friends ended up spending our free time inventing new ways to deliver Rickrolls to people . By the end we made sure the entire class knew about them (including the teacher!)

But I think the biggest drive towards learning was books (I've managed to collect quite a few!), and most importantly, boredom. Lots and lots of it. Where else would you find time to experiment with all of this?

[kamocat]

I started learning LabVIEW almost two years ago, in the summer of 2008.
Actually, my introduction to dataflow languages was with LOGO!soft, for the Siemen's LOGO! PLC.
It was quite simple: You had inputs, outputs, and shift registers. (as well as a real-time clock) Almost everything was boolean, except for the two analog inputs. There were no loops or if statements; the code simply repeated about 100 times a second.
I happened to be using it to create a half-size driving version of an FRC robot. (I still have that robot, rebuilt and improved several times. It now has a full FRC control system on it, and we're planning on converting it to a mecanum drive.)

Anyways, going from LOGO!soft, LabVIEW was still difficult. To help learn it, the first thing I did was take my programs in LOGO!soft and convert them to LabVIEW. To do this, I also had to create some of the LOGO! functions that didn't already exist in the LabVIEW 8.5 Student edition (it came in the 2008 KOP). They were the latching relay, flip-flop, on-delay, off-delay, and rising/falling edge.
I then had to figure out what was something USEFUL that I could create with LabVIEW. I started working on a robot simulator, of sorts. Given the speeds of the left and right drivetrains (in pixels per iteration), it would map the robot's path (or rather, the path of both drivetrains) on a picture indicator.
It was pretty neat, and I spent some months working on that.
I think I also played with navigation algorithms, working directly off a map of a field. (In this case, "field" means an image with obstacles drawn on it.)

Before I started using LabVIEW, I was certainly a novice programmer, but I had been learning Java in 8th grade. (I got a bit sick of all the compiler problems I was having, though, and had primarily lost intrest.)

In December of 2008, we got the early control system shipment, and I learned the FRC Framework. I had the robot in my room for a couple of weeks, so that I could work on it throughout christmas break. (I had the control system bench tests done by the end of three days.) We were the only team at our kickoff who had a robot running with the new control system. (I was with 2557 at that time, but I've since started another team.)

By kickoff, you could say I knew LabVIEW and the control system, and I started transitioning into teaching people.

EDIT:
Once major resource that has helped me is LabVIEW for Everyone
I started learning purely from the LabVIEW help, and then used some other resources like LabVIEW for Dummies (which appears to be defunct now).
If I had known about all the resources available (say, if I had looked on NI.com), then I probably would have had an easier start.

[gvarndell]

I first learned 'programming' using a Texas Instruments TI-58 programmable calculator. I guess that was late 70s or early 80s.
Next step was an Atari 400 (6502 CPU, 16K RAM, membrane keyboard).
I bought the BASIC and Assembler cartridges for it as well as every manual Atari printed.
Even though Atari sold (and regrettably, I bought) a tape storage device, both these machines effectively lacked any useful storage for programs, which was frustrating.
After 2 years exploring and mastering the guts of the Atari using 6502 assembly language, I was proficient enough to land a job at Muse Software, the company that produced the original Castle Wolfenstein games on Apple, Atari, and Commodore computers.
Muse management had the foresight to predict that PCs and C programming were the future, which profoundly benefited my career.