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"Programming is the art of explaining things to a computer."
--Jeff, from overeducated-redneck.net
While reading Jeff's post, I started remembering how I got into programming.
It's funny how programming have always been a part of my ~relationship~ with computers. My first Pentium III machine and its glorious 32MB of RAM memory were the first witnesses of my early programming skills: mainly echo statements and some if-else clauses in a DOS BATCH script, which simulated a quiz show.
They also followed me when I started slacking on my programming studies. There were few sources of information. All I had was a worn-out little textbook which contained the main commands and statements of BATCH, and most of it I didn't even understand.
And then came the PC games. Computer became a game console on steroids. From Game Boy emulators to Duke Nukem 3D (Atomic Edition!), everything was a distraction from learning anything at all.
Luckly, dial-up internet was popular at this time, and my friends introduced me to IRC. We called it mIRC, which is the name of a famous Windows IRC client; a metonymy of our ignorance.
mIRC has a built-in scripting language, that can turn the boring vanilla program into an explosion of color, music and automated actions. I started venturing in this world by studying the language reference. I wrote several pieces of code, and even found ways of exploiting vulnerable users.
This scripting language allows building graphic dialogs, .DLL support and even sockets intercomm. There were massive released projects, with embedded music and video players, calendar scheduling and tons of customization options; they were comparable to today's bloated http browsers.
During those years, I really got into programming, but I lacked the malice of developing something interesting. Most of the time, I still didn't undestand how people managed to do a lot of amazing things with the same functions and statements that I studied for so long.
After some time I tried learning Python, but without much success. But starting october this year, I decided (and for good!) to stop slacking off on learning some *SERIOUS* programming skills.
In these last three months, I went mode full-Linux-tard:
That's it. There is no turning back now. I'm even considering joining the Church of Emacs, though I'd like to see how vim tastes like.
--Maimere
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