

Nobody told me it’s impossible, so I did it - jv2222
http://blog.traysoft.com/2009/12/nobody-told-me-its-impossible-so-i-did-it/

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nzmsv
Here's a demotivational post :) No one says it's not possible to learn
programming this way. In fact, I'm sure almost everyone here has a similar
story (mine even includes the paper programming). What I wish I found out
earlier than I did is that no one finds this impressive.

~~~
palish
Compared to what most of the kids his age were probably doing? I'm impressed.

~~~
camccann
I'd actually go so far as to say that anyone _not_ impressed either doesn't
understand what he did, or has a badly miscalibrated scale of what counts as
impressive.

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totalmrak
Guys, I didn't write that story to show off. Sorry if it comes out this way.
Of course tons of people here did much more impressive things. I see a lot of
people who want to do something like start a business or change career and
they get discouraged by everyone saying it's hard and not worth doing. I just
wanted to motivate them and tell them that it doesn't matter what others are
saying.

And I had a girlfriend at 14 who by the end of high school messed me so much
that I spent first 2 years in college avoiding girls completely. But that's
not a Hacker News story ;)

~~~
kellishaver
I don't think it sounded like you were showing off at all. It was a cool
story. I think a lot of people are just inferring that you were implying that
your story was unique (that's a lot of assuming going on there) and it's not,
so they were balking at it because they've had similar experiences or what
have you. Sure, it may be BTDT to a lot of folks (brought back fond memories
for me), but when you're 14 and doing it and discovering for the first time
it, it's awesome and that _is_ inspiring. I think we sometimes forget how
exciting learning and just putting ourselves out there can be.

------
mattmcknight
"It was great! I could put GOTO on an empty line and write additional code on
a separate piece of paper. I know all programmers are laughing reading this,
but I was happy that I didn't have to squeeze several lines of code into one
line in the notepad anymore!"

That reminds me of line numbers, counting by 10s, and then using line 15 if
you needed to put something in between 10 and 20. I am just glad I discovered
gosub before goto.

~~~
tome
BBC BASIC had "RENUMBER" which would renumber your lines for you if things
started getting tight!

~~~
agazso
If I recall correctly, RENUMBER only renumbered lines, but not the GOTO and
GOSUB labels, so it was pretty useless after all :)

The best thing you could do was to stick to the practice of labeling by
multiples of ten, and if you needed to hack something, you could still do it
in one or two lines.

But basically programming in BASIC was hacking :)

~~~
RiderOfGiraffes

      > If I recall correctly, RENUMBER only renumbered
      > lines, but not the GOTO and GOSUB labels, so it
      > was pretty useless after all :)
    

You remember incorrectly. I've just gone and confirmed that the labels and
references are all changed.

FWIW, we've had BBC BASIC programs running commercially in the field in a
semi-embedded context for over ten years and they are still running perfectly.
It's perfectly possible to do structured progamming in BBC BASIC.

------
drunkpotato
The smileys are distracting. I am not against them in principle, I think they
can add a layer of emotion above that conveyed purely by the words (I think of
it as an internet form of prosody); however, in this case they are over-used
and distract from the overall quality of the post.

~~~
Calamitous
Ironically, I was distracted by what I initially assumed was your use of a
"frowny-winky" after "prosody."

~~~
camccann
You must have a tough time reading C code.

------
andreyf
Well, it certainly isn't impossible. As a matter of fact, I'd argue the
opposite - that it's impossible to really learn anything without being
inspired and motivated. I know the only times I've _really_ learned things is
during bouts of excitement, and the smartest people I know just get excited
very easily :)

Sure, some people go through learning motivated by impressing their peers or
satisfying their parents/teachers/bosses. But they're not really learning in
the true way, now are they?

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maney
If batch programming had not existed long before, he would have reinvented it.
:-)

Heck, my first exposure to programming was by way of a textbook that used a
nonexistant decimal machine's assembler; presumably I could have submitted my
code to a simulator had I been attending the right college, but I was only in
seventh grade at the time.

Show of hands: who _hasn't_ ever played computer with their code?

------
msie
I stopped reading when he mentioned that he had a girlfriend when he was 14.
Was there anything else he did that was remarkable? ;)

------
zandorg
I started in BASIC on a Sharp MZ-700 (a horrible machine) but in 1988 I got a
Commodore 64 as a gift, along with a book (Programming the 6502) and got to
grips with assembly after a christmas present: a freezer cartridge and a
floppy disk drive. It was the best christmas present ever.

Further on, my C64 interest became an obsession and I dropped out of school -
though passing some exams - and even led to me hacking PBX's and blue boxing
across the USA (I live in the UK). But again - I don't regret any of it!

