I was chatting with NewGuy™ at work and he asked me how i got started programming. That got me thinking about the first program i ever wrote. I think my first experience with a computer program was with 3-2-1 Contact magazine. I probably got the subscription from some fundraiser at school, but it was a publication based on the children's television show of the same name. It was filled with science related articles. Occasionally they would list a good-ole line-numbered BASIC program that you could retype and run. I would spend hours entering these into my Tandy 1000 RLX. I learned the basic syntax by copying and adjusting that code. I think the first program of my own design was some sort of mad-lib generator. At some point i dumped the line-numbers and moved to QBASIC. I made some really pathetic games with that tool but at least they had graphics. I wish i could see those old programs (and magazines) again.
Posted by Matthew at August 31, 2004 06:24 PM