Ask HN: Did anyone here program for the first time in college?

6 points by ggr2342 2 years ago | 9 comments

How many of you had no idea about programming or computer science before college?

What made you take a CS101 or programming class in college? What language did you learn? Was it a functional or an imperative language?

Did the first encounter make you love or hate programming?

mattbgates 2 years ago |

I had taught myself programming when I was 12 years old which was just visual basic 3. I'd stuck with all the VBs throughout their lifetime. In college, I decided to quit programming. I wanted to not stare at a computer screen all day. So my degree is in psychology, not anything related to computers. So... the other reason for going that route was that I hated math and anything related to computer science required a significant amount of math.

I was able to make it through Algebra II but my science degree required another math course. I would've done anything to get out of it and I did just that. I took a programming course called Introduction to Python over the summer, a 5-week course, and I aced it. I loved Python. So that was my fourth programming languagage (VB, Javascript, VB.NET) and it helped me grasp the understanding of my 5th language: PHP.

I love programming but feel that a Logical class in Philosophy teaches you more about programming than mathematics. But I'm sure calculus is important somewhere in programming.

sralbert 2 years ago |

Yes, I was always interested in computers and video games but never thought to try programming until looking at a list of careers and deciding to study CS.

The first language I learned was Java. It’s one of my least favorite languages now but I think it was good enough to learn the fundamentals.

shrimp_emoji 2 years ago | |

Same! Java was the first language we were taught. I was like, "Wow!" Then we learned C, whereupon I got hooked on that and renounced Java and OOP forever as cringe for reasons I can't fully articulate (apart from the obvious bloat).

_dave 2 years ago |

I got my start in programming from Lua in 2007 because I got into Roblox back in middle school. I'm surprised it's still kicking in 2023.

I first had to take a "CS101"-style course back in 2011 in college because it was necessary. We were stuck in flowchart templates from our textbook for that. Next class we got to use Java so borderline imperative at the time. No wonder people are still confused at what classes and object-oriented programming is with as awful as these were. It was a while before Java 8 hit the streets.

In the end, I both loved and hated it. Hated it half because I still didn't know what I wanted to do or how to do it and half because making computers do my bidding felt more of my calling.

geophph 2 years ago |

My first real exposure to programming was scientific programming in Matlab and basic C++ in an electrical engineering course. (Went to college 06-10). Interestingly I hated them both so much I switched majors out of Computer and Electrical engineering track to Biomedical Engineering.

Fast forward to today and I’m now a Data Engineer with a good bit of software experience under my belt writing code every day (mainly Python and JavaScript). Wouldn’t want to be doing anything else.

Not sure why my first exposure turned me off so much, certainly think back to that time and wish I had stuck it out but then again I am plenty happy where I am now.

schwartzworld 2 years ago |

I took some classes as a kid, but never got past level 101 in BASIC, C++ and Visual Basic.

In my 30s I picked up ruby and then transitioned to JavaScript. Now I am a principal engineer.

p1esk 2 years ago |

You should probably specify the age group you're interested in. The experience was significantly different in the 80s, 90s, 00s, or later. And it's dramatically changing today with GPT-4.

wizofaus 2 years ago | |

I wonder how long before university-level courses will in fact expect students to use and be familiar with LLMs to generate code.

pjacotg 2 years ago |

Yes, I was in first year in 1998 and only learnt to program then. My career has involved working as a programmer or in roles that required me to do significant amounts of programming.