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Anita Olsen
Anita Olsen

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When did you Really get the Hang of Programming?

I do not know when or if I have ever gotten a true hang of programming, but I truly felt like I got a hang on something when I made my games from the Game Development courses on CodeCombat:
 

My games made on CodeCombat
Game Grove created by AnitaOlsen (to the left) and Game Dev 2 Final Project created by AnitaOlsen (to the right).
 

..and even more recently, I truly felt like I got a hang on something when I made my first ever visual novel with Sublime and Ren'Py!

My very first visual novel post on X
"My very fist visual novel - it is awkward, it is too short, but it is made by me!"
 

But I think I can say one thing though, I know that I have come far and as you all know, practice makes perfect!

When did you really get the hang of programming?

Top comments (15)

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Ben Halpern

I think I “got the hang” of it when I discovered server-side web development.

Helped me see the whole thing come together. It’s when I could produce something that seemed fundamentally useful all by myself. That helped a lot.

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Martin Baun • Edited

I remember mine was an ‘Adventure Game’ in Python, never released it. I do other kinds of projects now but I've stayed very interested in game developers and their processes :)

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Ben Halpern

Do you think you'll ever release something along these lines?

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Martin Baun

Honestly, can't really say if I will. Currently so busy with other projects, so maybe in the far future :)

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Pandita

Teacher asked us to do the inverse of a matrix in python, we (the class) had almost found all the steps except one regarding columns and I somehow.... invented it? something clicked in my brain and from there on out thinking new stuff to program hasn't been really hard, but before that? I didn't even understand functions hahaha

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Samuel Boczek

I think I got hang of it when I learned how processors work and learned how to write stuff in assembly, I then started to build on top of that, slowly moving to higher level programming languages which allowed me to make more complex software instead of focusing on fundamentals.

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Willy Vaessen

To me, the moment in which it became clear to me that user support was an ending story, with the outsourcing at my work, was the moment I decided to go for software development.

Still a (long) way to go, but with some ideas in my mind, I think there is lots of fun stuff to learn and more to come.

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Anita Olsen • Edited

Thank you for sharing your experience with us.

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Prasad Saya

I think I got an idea of programming when I had to draw a flowchart and then convert it into a computer program - as I was learning. More hang of it as I had to work at a client site as a freelance programmer and modify their existing programs with new requirements. More and more of it when I had to study an existing system and re-engineer it in given time period. The thing is you get to know more and more as you are still interested in programming.

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mlr

The first time I really enjoyed programming was when I tried to make puzzle-like game in Python with PyGame.

The first time I really understood what was going on in a programming language was when I took my first C++ course. I made a short turn-based text RPG that had a grid of tiles for a map the player could explore. I added in items you could collect to unlock a secret area and boss battle, if you found them all and figured out how to use the items. I learned a lot just from making that one game.

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Cris Crawford

It took me four years to get the hang of programming. Year 1: I typed "hello world" in C into the mainframe computer at my boyfriend's workplace. I decided then and there that I didn't want to do programming at all. Four years later I realized the only thing standing between a bachelor of science degree and a bachelor of arts degree was an intro programming class (I had all the qualifications for a double major in math and physics). So I signed up for intro FORTRAN. The only problem was I was out on my back for the first three weeks of class. So I got a programmable calculator and started doing the intro assignments at home, on a programmable postfix notation calculator. I would say that's when I got the hang of programming. I was way ahead of the course when I got back, but I had to program everything all over again in FORTRAN. So I did, easily, and then went on to take a slew of programming courses, got my first job in software before I graduated and the rest is history, except I'm not done yet.

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Ski

20 years in. Haven't yet.

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Anita Olsen

Oh man, that is a long time! 😲

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Sanjay Bora

You stop learning when you start thinking you've got hang of it

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Anita Olsen

Really? I thought you would never stop learning.