[zem107]

Now I know this question has been posted many times, but I still want to see more answers.

My question are:

1. Why do you program?

2. What language do you use?

and

3. How did you get into it?



My answers to these questions are:

1. I program becuase I find it fun, it gives me a new challenge, and believe it or not, 3 girls have asked me out becuase of it(They were ugly, but they were still girls.)

2. I am still very much a beginner, but I use Python and C#.

3. When I got my first laptop, I wanted to make my own website where people could buy and sell books. I started learning HTML, then left it off for many years. Looking through all my old file(many, many years later), I found the HTML, CSS, and PHP files for that. I continued working on it, and decided I could go farther, so I ended up here.

This post has been edited by zem107: 07 June 2011 - 06:51 PM

[no2pencil]

zem107, on 07 June 2011 - 09:51 PM, said:

1. Why do you program?

Computers do as they are told & hold no prodigious. Computers > Humans

zem107, on 07 June 2011 - 09:51 PM, said:

2. What language do you use?

For fun, C & assembly, for profit PHP & MySql

zem107, on 07 June 2011 - 09:51 PM, said:

3. How did you get into it?

When I got into Linux you had to know a thing or two about code, because you had to compile software, you had to compile the kernel, you had to write dialup scripts in order to get online... it came with the territory. Before Linux I had a fascination with creating software. After getting evolved in Linux it was a requirement.

zem107, on 07 June 2011 - 09:51 PM, said:

3 girls have asked me out becuase of it(They were ugly, but they were still girls.)

The ugly girls try harder & will love you unconditionally. Your friends will try to steal the pretty ones.

[ishkabible]

1. Because i enjoy it, it fuels my need to think, it's an addiction
2. C++ and Lua mostly, i like trying new language too but i tend to forget large parts of what i learn. right now im trying to learn Lisp and Haskell sense functional programing is such a different way of thinking. lower level stuff intrigues me as well i love messing with x86
3. I thought i was going to make a full fledged video game and after deciding that my ass had been handed to me i tried to learn to program C++

This post has been edited by ishkabible: 07 June 2011 - 07:00 PM

[Raynes]

• Because I love it, I'm passionate about it, and I couldn't think of a single thing I'd rather do in life.
  
• Mostly Clojure. I also write Clojure for my job.
  
• I started with experimentation in several languages and eventually learned Haskell. Life goes on.

This post has been edited by Raynes: 07 June 2011 - 11:44 PM

[DivideByZero]

Raynes, on 07 June 2011 - 10:09 PM, said:

• Because I love it, I'm passionate about it, and I couldn't think of a single thing I'd rather do in life.
  
• Mostly Clojure. I also write Clojure for my job.
  
• I started with experimentation in several languages and eventually learned Haskell. Life goes on.

I don't know much about functional programming other than it being more state drive.
But I'm curious, what sort of software do you make in Closure?

[xclite]

Wait, that's not right. Functional programming is LESS state driven. Object Oriented programming is all about state.

[Kilorn]

1. I program because I enjoy the feeling I get when I finally finish a project and get to look at fully functioning piece of software and realize that I created it. I've always enjoyed creating things, and programming offers me the most freedom when it comes to creation. There are only so many things one can build with tools and material, when it comes to software, there is no limit except your own imagination and abilities.

2. C#. XNA framework mostly. For both fun and (hopefully)profit very soon.

3. I was once a member of a group of people wanting to work on a MUD, or text-based rpg a long time and at the time, we didn't have any programmers on the team. I decided to take a look at the codebase that we had chosen, and I found that I really enjoyed looking through code and writing it.

[Aphex19]

Quote

1. Why do you program?

It's great fun and I get alot of satisfaction from it, but only because it's so challenging.

Quote

2. What language do you use?

Mostly C and C++, but much of the things I do are low level and often require assembly coding too.

Quote

3. How did you get into it?

I came across Ruby, which was my first language.

[Raynes]

DivideByZero, on 08 June 2011 - 08:19 AM, said:

Raynes, on 07 June 2011 - 10:09 PM, said:

• Because I love it, I'm passionate about it, and I couldn't think of a single thing I'd rather do in life.
  
• Mostly Clojure. I also write Clojure for my job.
  
• I started with experimentation in several languages and eventually learned Haskell. Life goes on.

I don't know much about functional programming other than it being more state drive.
But I'm curious, what sort of software do you make in Closure?

Yeah, it definitely isn't more state driven. Just the opposite. The idea is to isolate and eliminate state as much as possible to make code simpler and easier to understand.

Clojure is a general purpose language. It's being used in every domain imaginable. In my case, we're using it at http://geni.com for the backend. One major component is the graph database that the tree is stored in: http://github.com/ninjudd/jiraph a graph database written in Clojure.

[ishkabible]

im trying to learn functional programing, it's just so different from procedural it becomes very challenging to learn. i picked up Haskell just yesterday, i like it a lot more than Common Lisp so far. some of the concepts make my procedural mind cring...returning lists ... man that get's me.

how i think when coding (using C)

Spoiler

c code with arrays

int sum(int* array, int size) {
   int total=0;
   for(int i=0;i<size;++i) {
      total += array[i];
   }
   return total;
}

how functional programing works

int sum(ConsCell* list) {
   return (list != NULL) ? (list->value + sum(list->next)) : (0);
}

ok performance wise that's damb near the same...here is the next thing that lingers in the back of my mind.

arrays

int* newArray(size_t size) {
   return (int*)malloc(sizeof(int)*size);
}

lists

const ConsCell* newList(size_t size) {
   ConsCell* cc = (ConsCell*)malloc(sizeof(ConsCell) * size);
   cc->next = newList(size - 1);
   return cc; 
}

that just makes me cringe...

how ever that's why you need to learn to program "functionally". 1 to 1 translations between function programing an procedural programing are few and far between. i was able to pick up Python in almost no time becuase i understand procedural programing, Lisp and Haskell are taking me longer to pick up.

This post has been edited by ishkabible: 08 June 2011 - 03:02 PM

[smohd]

Quote

1. Why do you program?

I like the fun, so I can understand what the computer is really doing and it can understand me. But not because of this

Quote

2. What language do you use?

Java + VB.NET + continueWithOtherLAnguage

Quote

3. How did you get into it?

When I started my first semester of Computer Science, among many fields of CS a see my self in programming

[griffinfujioka]

I program because it challenges me and I don't get bored with it. Also, I like that it's not something that everyone else in the world knows how to do so I guess it gives me a sick sense of superiority.

I'm in school still so over last the last few years I've gone in depth with C++, with a glimpse of C#, Unix/Linux, SQL, and too much MIPS.

I got into it after my first CS class in college. I chose between CptS and Civil Engineering, but my heart was always in computers. After I realized in the unlimited potential of software development I was fascinated by programming and havne't looked back since.

[Curtis Rutland]

@no2pencil, you code in assembly for fun?

---

• Because it's a new puzzle every day. I like the fact that I'm rarely doing exactly the same thing.
  
• C#. With Silverlight, WPF, WCF, and ASP.NET (MVC).
  
• Started with a few CS classes in High School, a few college courses, etc. Went nowhere, got some manual labor jobs. Friend of the family offered me an "internship", where within a few weeks I carved a niche out for myself and got hired full time. Been doing .NET programming ever since.

This post has been edited by Curtis Rutland: 09 June 2011 - 09:29 AM

[Shane Hudson]

1. Why do you program?
I used to keep myself to myself, very secluded etc, and found it interesting how computers work and how to make them do what I tell them. Now, I am fairly good at what I do and still find it enjoyable to do it. I learn every day. I like learning new things.

2. What language do you use?
My most fluent languages are C#, Java and web dev (HTML, CSS, JS, PHP). I am also learning Python and Haskell. I have experience with C, C++ and Assembly, though I am not particularly fluent. My first language was VB6 and for years I thought it was the best language ever, I even refused to learn Java, but now I wish I had started with Java or even C++.

3. How did you get into it?
I was very young when I got my first computer (about 5), which had DOS Shell on it with Windows 3.1 in a folder (which took me months to find haha). I played about with it, broke it and fixed it etc. My mum and Windows 95 on her computer, which I occasionally used, and so my Uncle gave me a VB6 book (which I still have today). The book was dreadfully boring, but the CD in the back had Visual Basic on... so I installed it on Mum's (and eventually on mine once I got Windows 98) and taught myself.

This post has been edited by Shane Hudson: 09 June 2011 - 09:36 AM

[JackOfAllTrades]

A company for which I used to work (and still do some consulting for) uses Clojure in their backend. They're doing pretty well. Don't know a thing about it, which is part of the reason my unemployment hasn't led me back there.

As to the questions:

1. I need to code to make money. I got into it because I loved it, but as so often happens, when you've been writing code for a long time, the passion tends to sort of fade.

2. I use whatever language best fits the task at hand, be it C, C++, C#, Python, PHP, whatever.

3. I ran a BBS way back when, and wanted to add some functionality to the system so I wrote and released a few freeware/shareware programs for it (it was written in Pascal). When I got a chance to get into the field (thanks to yet another stint on unemployment), I got a certificate that got me in the door as a tech support person and worked my way up from there.